His Name is Jealous (Part 4 and final)

...well, maybe it will be the final! Ha! I just got in a Beth Moore CD teaching of this very topic, so if I learn something that I think will tickle your fancy, I may have to share! But for now, we will call it final...hee.

"For the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God." Exodus 34:14

Speaking of tickling your fancy, I am not sure this has been a topic that has hit my funny bone. Reminding myself of His holiness and jealousy over every part of my life doesn't seem to send me into a crying fit of laughter. Maybe a crying fit of woe at how unworthy I am of His grace...yep, that would be more like it.

Today I want to wrap this thing up with the fact that God is jealous over you, if you have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. The Lord is jealous over His own people. When we entered into that covenant relationship of grace, we entered into the ever watchful eye of our husband, since redemption puts us in a marital relationship with the Almighty. He is very concerned about the purity of His church...His Bride.

He is very jealous of our love. I can't say it better than this...so just soak it in.

"He cannot endure that you should think you are your own, or that you belong to this world, He loved you with such a love that he could not stop in heaven without you; he would sooner die than that you should perish; he stripped himself to nakedness that he might clothe you with beauty; he bowed his face to shame and spitting that he might lift you up to honor and glory, and he cannot endure that you should love the world, and the things of the world. His love is strong as death towards you, and therefore will be cruel as the grave. He will take away that husband; he will smite that child; he will bring you from riches to poverty, from health to sickness, even to the gates of the grave, because he loves you so much that he cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and him. Be careful Christians, you that are married to Christ; remember, you are married to a jealous husband." (C. H. Spurgeon)

Goodness, I read over that and realize that our gospel is so watered down in this country that it makes me ill. I often turn on the TV, only to hear Christian preachers talking about prosperity and that God wants us to have all good things because we are His. Spurgeon seems to say the opposite...if we value anything at all more than Him, He just might take it away. What if the taking away of that thing leads us back to Him and loving Him more than anything else? Would that not, indeed, be an act of mercy from God? We sure don't often hear things like that on the television. In fact, I bet it almost sounds like heresy, doesn't it?

Let's get to the part that will hopefully bring a smile to our faces. The jealousy of God over us should be a great comfort to us. His jealousy is rooted in pure, good, divine LOVE. I can remember one of my boys coming home one day and telling me that someone was downright mean to them. I can't even remember the details, but I will never forget the emotion that welled up in me. Some sort of holy rage came from a place that I didn't even know existed. I was totally taken back at the intensity of the emotion.

I think God works on a similar basis. Any bad word spoken against us, any evil deed done towards us, any threat of harm that comes our way...He is there and He takes vengeance on those adversaries.

Spurgeon says, "Our jealous Husband will never let His church be in danger, and if any smite her He will give them double for every blow. The gates of hell shall not prevail against His church, but she shall prevail against the gates of hell. Her jealous Husband shall roll away her shame; her reproach shall be forgotten; her glory shall be fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as any army with banners, for he that is jealous of himself is jealous for her..."

Piper says that "anyone who threatens the good of His faithful wife will be opposed with divine omnipotence."

That brings me comfort. Jesus has got my back. The evidence is in the deep and scarred crevices on His back.

How I want my heart to pray:
"Therefore I pray, whatever of Thyself Thou hast been pleased to disclose, help me to search out as treasure more precious than rubies or the merchandise of fine gold: for with Thee shall I live when the stars of the twilight are no more and the heavens have vanished and only Thou remainest." Tozer

Give us grace to see you as El Qanna, our jealous and good God.