“The Jealousy of God”
[Acts 12:20-25]
Acts 25, 2010 Second Reformed Church
What would you think if I said that one of the attributes of God is jealousy? What would you think if I said that one of the things that makes God Who He is, is His Jealousy for Himself and His people?
What would you think if I said that I was jealous of Carlos being married to Maria? What would you think if I said that I was jealous of Carlos and Maria having their own business? Would I be using the word “jealous” in the same way – with the same meaning – when I say that God is Jealous and when I say that I am jealous? No, I would not.
When we say that a mere human being is jealous, we are saying that such a person is “resentfully envious,” as one dictionary definition has it. When we say that a mere human being is jealous, we are saying that he is sinning – jealousy takes the sin of coveting – desiring that which belongs to someone else – and takes it up a notch – saying that one not only wants what someone else has, but believes that he is more deserving of having what someone else has.
With the examples I already mentioned – they could be restated thusly: I am jealous of Carlos being married to Maria, could be restated as, I desire Maria to be my wife and I am more deserving than Carlos to be married to her. I am jealous of Carlos and Maria having their own business, could be restated as, I desire to have my own business and I am more deserving than Carlos and Maria to have it.
It is a sin for a mere human being to be jealous because we are sinners, and thus deserving of nothing more than God’s Wrath, so, if it has pleased God to give something to someone else and not us, we haven’t a leg to stand on in demanding it be otherwise. Do we understand?
For God, on the other hand, it is a Holy Attribute for Him to be jealous, as God said, “You shall not bow down to [idols] or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:5-6, ESV).
God is jealous for the worship that humans offer to idols, but it is not a sin, because God is deserving of all worship and idols are deserving of nothing. For God to be “resentfully envious” of what He deserves, is not a sin, but a Righteous Attribute, because it cannot be wrong for God to desire and, in fact, demand, what He deserves. Does that make sense?
Human jealousy is over things we don’t deserve; God’s jealousy is over things He does deserve. This is how the one word can refer to both a sin and God’s Attribute. With this in mind, let us turn to this morning’s text:
King Herod, who had been leading a persecution of the Christians – having James, the brother of John, executed, and having failed to accomplish the same with Peter – turned his attention and his anger toward the people of Tyre and Sidon.
Now, Tyre and Sidon were major port cities in Syrio-Phonecia – which is modern-day Lebanon. However, due to neglect or conditions generally, they were not able to produce enough food for themselves off of the land, and they relied on trade with Herod. However, we are told at this time Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon and he had imposed sanctions against them – to the effect that he would not sell them food.
We are not told what the specific thing was that made Herod mad, but think about our modern trade embargos – we refuse to trade if we don’t like certain politicians, or political policies, or if there is too high a tax on importing and exporting, and so forth. It was likely something to do with the functioning of the ports that Herod was mad about, and until he got his way, he cut off their food supply.
So the people of Tyre and Sidon – as one man – came to Herod to make peace with him – one way or another. And they found a way: they made friends with his right-hand man, Blastus – perhaps through bribes – and Blastus convinced Herod to sell food to them again.
Apparently, the people stayed, and on the second day of the Roman games in Israel, honoring the birthday of Emperor Claudius Caesar, Herod got dressed in his royal robes, sat down upon his throne, and delivered an oration to the people.
The historian, Josephus, tells us that Herod was dressed in silver robes with silver ornaments, so when the light hit it, it reflected back on the people, shining in their eyes. Picture a disco ball hit with a spotlight – that’s what Herod looked like in his robes.
And as Herod spoke, the people cried out, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
Now, Herod thought of himself a good Jew, so he should have denounced the people’s cry. He should have told them that there is Only One God – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He should have told them to repent – to be ashamed of giving him the glory that only God deserves.
But he didn’t. He ate it up. It felt good to have these people groveling before him, kissing up to him, calling him a god among men. Yes, it felt good. But God is jealous of His Glory. He said, “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:11, ESV).
“Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory” – in mid-rapture, Herod fell to the ground – the historian, Josephus confirms the event. God was jealous of His Glory – the Glory that God deserves and no one else, and since Herod did not rebuke the people for giving it to him, God sent an angel to strike him down.
“And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.” Luke gives us the short version, because he has made his point. The historian, Josephus, records that Herod was taken back to his bed chamber, and over the next five days he suffered as his body filled with worms, and then he died – in agony.
God is very serious about His Glory. God is jealous for His Due. God is the Only Being Who has the right and can say, “This is Mine; I will share it with no other ”
Herod is not the only example of God’s Jealousy and Wrath:
“Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1-2, ESV).
God is worthy and jealous of His Worship, and Nadab and Abihu decided to worship God in a way that God had not authorized – they thought they had come up with a better way to worship God than the way God said He was to be worshiped – so God killed them.
King Uzziah also thought he knew better than God how God ought to be worshiped, and he thought he could usurp the role of the priest: “But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, ‘It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.’ Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out because the Lord had struck him. And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s household, governing the people of the land” (II Chronicles 26:16-21, ESV).
Uzziah thought that since he was king, he could do what he wanted, not matter what God said. He wanted to worship God, and he wanted to worship God as a priest, even though he was not a priest. The priests warned him, but he would not listen, so God, jealous of His Worship, struck him down – not killing him, but giving him leprosy, so he would have to live separately from his family and all other healthy people, and he was forbidden to enter the temple.
God will not let us worship Him in ways other than what He has commanded, because the way God has told us to worship is the right way to honor God and give Him the glory He deserves.
When the Psalmist describes the sin of Israel in the wilderness, he writes, “For they provoked [God] to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols” (Psalm 78:58, ESV). One of the major ways in which Israel sinned was in thinking she could worship God and idols. They complained that they worshipped God and gave Him His Due, they were just worshiping the other gods as well. But God is deserving of all worship and all glory – He will not share it with the false gods – so God sent Israel into captivity again and again to punish her and cause her to repent.
Let us not hear these texts and think that God is only jealous for Himself against His people – God is jealous against anyone who tries to take what is rightfully His. Even those whom God sent to punish Israel aroused God’s anger and jealousy for choosing to attack Israel, so God said, “Surely I have spoken in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, that they might make its pasture lands a prey. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and valleys. Thus says the Lord God: Behold I have spoken in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations. Therefore thus says the Lord God: I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer reproach” (Ezekiel 36: 5b-7, ESV).
Israel sinned against God, so God allowed the Edomites and others to conquer Israel. But God was jealous for His people, Israel, for the Edomites and the other nations sinned against her, so God promised to make the nations suffer that had made Israel suffer.
Continuing the idea of God being jealous for His people, Israel, we read, “So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and against choose Jerusalem’” (Zechariah 1:14-17, ESV).
God was jealous for His people, Israel, and though He sent them away to punish them, God had chosen a people for Himself, whom He would not lose – they were chosen by Him for eternity – and no nation would utterly destroy them. So, God promised in His Jealous Love, to bring Israel back to Jerusalem and Zion – to restore all that had been lost.
Now, some of you may be thinking, “Well, that doesn’t sound like the God I know. All the Scriptures you have referenced are from the Old Testament.”
Don’t be confused – our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow:
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians – to the Church in Corinth – Paul warns the Christians to stop committing idolatry and engaging in sexual immorality. He says that to do so is to partake of the table of demons, and God will not stand for it: “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” (I Corinthians 10:21-22, ESV).
The Corinthians Christians were acting just like Israel in the wilderness and in the days before the exile, and Paul warns them that God is jealous for His Glory, for His Worship, for His people – and He will not stand for it. In fact, it was such sin that God responded to in righteous anger, and Paul recorded, “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (I Corinthians 11:30, ESV).
So, just as with Herod, and Israel, and the Corinthian Church, God may, in Holy Jealousy, make people sick, or even kill them, that He would not be dishonored – that His Due would not be taken away from Him.
How shall we respond to the Jealousy of God?
First, let us understand that God’s Jealousy is not sin, because God is deserving of those things which He is jealous of. Jealousy in only a sin when we mere humans resentfully desire something that someone else has.
Second, let us understand that God is jealous of the way He is worshiped, so we ought to know how God ought to be worshiped and do that and that alone. Throughout the Scripture we have an outline of the way God calls us to worship Him. There is room for some differences from church to church. Yet there are things that God has commanded be done and things God has commanded not be done, and we ought to heed them.
Third, let us understand that God is jealous for us – God loves His people — all those who come to faith in Jesus Alone for their salvation – and God will never, never allow one of His chosen to be eternally lost. We are safe in the hands of God Who will never let us go.
C. S. Lewis got it right when he had one of the characters in his book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, respond that Aslan – who is symbolic of Jesus – is not a tame lion, but he is very good. That is what we need to know about our God and Savior from this text: He is not tame – Jesus has not been domesticated – He is the Almighty God – worthy of all glory and honor and power and wisdom – but He is Good. He is the God Who came to save His people. What more could He do?
Let us pray:
Almighty God, You have revealed Yourself as All-Holy, All-Glorious, All-Powerful – and rightly jealous of being worshiped as You ought to be worshiped. Lord, help us to balance the truths that You are our Friend, our Bridegroom, our Savior, with the truths that You are the Holy, Holy, Holy God, the Creator and Judge of All. Help us to worship rightly, knowing that it is You Who speak to us in Your Word. Assure us by the Passionate and Unfailing Love You have for us that we are forever Yours. And may we rejoice and give You all the Glory. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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