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How Do We Worship a Jealous God?

How do you and I respond? As we reflect on the prior topics, all dealing with the jealousy of God, we need to react. We need to ask the question: How should we worship a jealous God? Knowing what we do about God, how do we worship him? We have seen how God reacted on Mount Sinai when his people constructed and worshiped the golden calf. Moses ordered the Levites to take their swords and kill as many as they could reach. That day “about three thousand men of the people fell” (Ex. 32:27–28, English Standard Version).

In a later article we listened as God the Father sent “the man in linen” to put a mark on the heads of his elect, while his military agents put to death those inhabitants of Jerusalem who did not “sigh and groan over all the abominations” (Ezek. 9:4). His prophet, Ezekiel, exposed the sin and corruption resident in Jerusalem after Nebuchadnezzar’s first incursion and conquest. Divine wrath was powerfully demonstrated. God will not tolerate stupid substitutes.

In the fourth article, we saw God inflicting death on tens of thousands of Egyptians for their refusal to let Israel go (Ex. 12:12). God had sent ample warnings to Pharaoh and the Egyptian people that he would protect and release his people. Not only were the Egyptians harsh taskmasters. They were also idolatrous persons, worshiping the sun as though it were God. They had seen the power of God displayed through multiple plagues, yet they refused to repent. Their punishment was severe and massive. God’s jealous character would not ignore idolatry among the pagans. God himself killed thousands of Egyptian children in one night. They received death because they refused life.

Your reaction to these biblical truths might have been typical: ignore them. We are often masterful at the art of ignoring. I know people who refuse to turn on the news because they expect to hear bad things. We do that with impunity. Focus only on the positive. I have had well-meaning friends criticize me for focusing too much on the Old Testament. Their advice is to ignore the negative; be more positive. Coupled with such advice is the notion that the Old Testament is too much law, too much anger, too much punishment. Just read and study the New Testament. There you will experience love.

The evangelical churches in America and the Western nations are deliberately ignoring the holiness of God and his wrath against sin. They want to preach love and inclusion. They find multiple ways to ignore sin. They deliberately fail to practice church discipline. They misinterpret discipline as punishment and fail to see it as instruction. When they focus exclusively on love, grace, and mercy, they are offering up a theological diet best labeled as “cheap grace.” We need to avoid cheap grace. We need to come to grips with the righteousness and holiness of God. We need to practice church discipline but remember that its primary meaning is teaching. We need to warn our people about the jealousy of God. We should not ignore it.

I suspect that a sermon series on the subject of divine jealousy would produce many negative reactions. Countless pew sitters still think of jealousy as an evil, a sin to be avoided. We have been conditioned by our culture to think that way. Even an astute theologian like J. I. Packer is confused on this subject. In his classic book, Knowing God, he concludes that “there are two kinds of jealousy among humans, and only one of them is a vice.”1 He erroneously concludes that covetousness and envy are defined as jealousy. We need to remember that wanting things that are not rightfully ours is envy. This attitude is appropriately labeled as sin and is covered by the tenth commandment. We dealt with that in the first article.

The typical evangelical church in America today is heavy on contemporary music and light on theology. The adopted format is to have a praise team accompanied by drums or guitars with lead singers belting out their latest tunes. It looks more like entertainment than worship, for the majority of the congregation either cannot sing along or refuses to attempt these new ditties. To appease the older members, a classic hymn or two will be inserted. “How Great Thou Art” is often chosen for such. To inject a serious sermon about a jealous God into such churches would not get positive reviews. My wife and I recently found ourselves in an evangelical megachurch on Sunday morning. We had hoped to worship there, but real worship was difficult. The most obvious objects for worship were the members of the praise band. Only a very small percentage of those in attendance could sing along, for the songs were new, strange, and musically difficult. Each performance was greeted with some faint applause. The only obvious object of worship was the praise band itself. At best, the pastor was assigned second place. His message was about an inch deep.

If you want to destroy an evangelical church by inches, establish a praise band. Praise bands militate against congregational worship. They most often replace congregational singing. That is not only stupid but sinful. Many psalms, some of which we use as calls to worship, command us to sing praises to God. Sing his praises is a common theme. Bless the Lord is a similar command. When we sit or stand and listen to a praise band, we are often violating those commands. God is not pleased.

If ignoring divine jealousy is not an option, what is the alternative? How do you and I in the pew worship? First, we need to develop more intensive and more comprehensive Bible study curricula. Regrettably, there is widespread ignorance of what the Bible teaches. We need to overcome that. The Bible is the primary means of grace. In it, God speaks directly to us. We need to listen carefully to him. If you scan the study materials at your Bible book store or your favorite catalog, you will note that there is a vast amount of material available. Sad to say, much of that is man-centered and not Bible-centered. Much of the current material is of the feel-good variety. Look at the study guides: “How do you feel?” “What is your reaction?” “How would you respond to such a situation?” The overriding objective seems to be the production of satisfactory feelings for the reader. It should be, “What is God doing? What is God saying in this passage?” How can I use that insight to bring praise and glory to his name? Is not the chief end of man “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever” (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q 1)?

At an elementary level, we need to come to grips with the awesome power of God. Starting in Genesis, we note that God spoke the whole creation into existence, out of nothing. With his voice, he created the sun, the moon, and the stars. With his voice he created animals, birds, and human beings. All in the space of six normal, twenty-four-hour days. Moving into Exodus, we read about his inflicting death on tens of thousands of Egyptian firstborn about midnight. Later, we see him parting the Red Sea so that his millions of former slaves could walk through on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides. Water does not stand on edge unless the awesome God commands it. Then, it stays on edge until foolish Pharaoh tries to catch God’s people. Later, he does the same kind of thing so that his people could ford the flooded Jordan. God’s Word is full of such demonstrations of awesome, mindblowing power. In response we need to sing “How Great Thou Art” with new awareness of its meaning. We stand in awe!

Another important response is the development of a holy fear. Some may quickly react: fear is not a wholesome response for believers. Does not the gospel drive out fear? Did not God say to Joshua, “Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:9)? What are you going to do with the 48 verses in the Old Testament that command you to “fear not”? If you are a Christian, there is no need for fear. That is a common argument, but that is not the sum of biblical teaching. If you use the Authorized or King James Version, you will find that there are 315 verses in the Old Testament with the word “fear” in them. If you peruse the New Testament, you will find another 80 verses using that word. If you concentrate on the Psalms, you will find 62 verses in that book alone, with numerous verses mentioning fear multiple times.

For some unexplained reasons, our society has lost the sense of fear. It has also confused the meaning of jealousy, seeing it as the green-eyed monster instead of the primary attribute of God. Consequently, there is precious little fear of God in the land. That also translates into little fear of the law, little fear of lawmakers, little fear of law enforcers. We see it on the highways, with almost no one obeying the speed limits. We see it in the demand for abortion rights, with no fear of being labeled a murderer. We see it in the number of mass shootings. We see it in the demand for illegal drugs. We see it in the escalating rates of suicide. We see it in our political campaigns. There is no fear of God in the land.

The word “fear” has multiple meanings and multiple forms. It can be used as a noun, as a verb, as an adjective, or as an adverb. In the Old Testament particularly, there is frequent use of “fear not” (48 times), informing us that there are some forces and some persons we should not fear. That is exemplified in God’s command to Joshua, telling him that he should not fear the enemies of God who are inhabiting the land of Canaan. In the New Testament, we are told to not fear those who can kill the body, but to fear those who can kill the soul (Matt. 10:28). By contrast, Jesus told his listeners, “Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). The object of fear is of eternal significance. Do not fear the enemies of God, but be sure to fear God.

We need to develop a wholesome, biblical fear of God. Knowing that God’s righteous character cannot tolerate sin, we need to be afraid of his righteous anger. He will punish sin, for all sin must be punished. Sin comes in multiple forms. One that is particularly evil in God’s sight is idolatry. When Ezekiel was transported through the temple in Jerusalem, he saw various forms of idolatry. In our society we could easily add to that list. Mother Nature is quite popular. Democracy is one that we all worship. Science has dominated our educational institutions. Wealth is the object of much effort. Sports takes priority in many homes, especially on Sundays. As Calvin said, the human heart is a factory for idols. We love many. Woe to the pastor who preaches against them.

Our pastors should not be working to win a popularity contest. They should not be avoiding the hard lessons from Scripture for fear of rejection. Proclaiming the righteousness and holiness of God should be high on their agenda. When that includes the subject of divine jealousy, they should expound with great clarity.

At that point in our thinking, we need to look at the cross. As Paul so clearly said, the cross is the heart of the gospel. It is the clearest pronouncement of God’s wrath against sin. He hates it so much that he sent his own Son to hang there. We need to understand the amazing grace of Christ paying for our sins on the cross. We need to respond in joy and gratitude for our sins being washed away, never to be charged against us again.

We can experience the joy of our salvation, but that is not the end of the matter. We need to realize that there are millions and even billions of people not covered by the blood. We need to be concerned about them as well. The vast majority of persons in this world are idol worshippers. They need to hear about divine jealousy, too. If we understand and accept it, we can be God’s messengers, sent to warn them. A solemn sermon about divine jealousy should be followed by practical messages from the Great Commission. If we truly love our neighbors, we will be courageous enough to warn them about the consequences of their sins. We should dare to introduce the subject of repentance.

1. J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2018), 170.

Norman De Jong is a semi-retired pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.