God Who Is Jealous (Exodus 20:4-6)

God Who Is Jealous

 

Exodus 20:4-6

 

Today’s word is the second of the Ten Commandments that God gave to the Israelites. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” In this commandment, God called himself “a jealous God.” Even Exodus 34:14 says, “The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God,” calling God “Jealous” with capital letter J, which suggests that Jealous is God’s proper name. The Hebrew word for “jealous” is “kanna,” and this word is used only to God and appears in the Bible just six times (Exodus 20:5, 34:14 (twice), Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9, 6:15). There are several other words meaning “jealous” or “envied” in the Bible, but the word “kanna” is used only for God and it means “jealous.” Considering this, I think God’s jealousy may have some hidden meanings distinguished from human jealousy.

 

In Deuteronomy 4:24, the jealous God (El Kanna) is described as consuming fire. This fire is a wrath rising from deep inside when what God loves is threatened. Because of the wrath, the face turns red and then burns fiercely. The second commandment is dealing with the sensitive theme “love.” And the object of the love is jealous God who is consuming fire. Therefore, this commandment sounds very serious. I think this commandment is like the wedding ring. This is an oath. This is an occasion to confirm what is important and how that should be kept. This commandment is about love relationship and how to keep it perfect. While I was thinking about the sermon, Maria, my married daughter, called me and we had a talk on the phone. I asked her a teasing question. “Why do you love your husband?” She paused a moment for thinking, and answered, “It is because he is he.” I was happy to hear that. If she said, “Because he is a handsome man” or “Because he is a nice person” I would be a bit disappointed. It is because love goes far beyond any specific reason to love. It’s needless to say when the object of love is God. The love should be pure, completely free from any condition of love.

 

God says to Israelites, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” We are to love God, firstly for God not for myself. So we should remember, “You shall not make an image for yourself.” Kierkegaard explains love this way: A fish can survive only in water. Only when it is kept in water, the fish can remain as a living creature. Water is the element for a fish’s life. Then, what is the element of love? What keeps love alive? It is “infinite.” Kierkegaard says that the element of love is infinitude. I am not sure if I understand properly what he means by this, but I think he is talking about the form of love. When God mentions “image” or “form” he may be saying that this cannot be true love to God because God is infinite and love is infinite. My daughter didn’t say any reason that she loves her husband. I believe this is the true meaning of love. This is even more true for God. If we need to have a reason to love God or if we insist on any fixed form of love relationship with God, that may not be true love. The love that God wants is infinite love. Jesus said the first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27a). Any love short of this commandment may provoke God’s jealousy and his anger.

 

God said, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” People make idols because their eyes don’t look at the one they love but are looking at themselves. And the eyes are full of greed and fear. They keep looking for something in order to appease the greed and fear. They cannot notice God’s jealousy. It is because, to their blinded eyes, God is only one of the means to appease their greed and fear. They always have some reasons to love and they love only when the reasons are valid. I love him because he is a good man. I love him because he is nice to me. I love him because I am so proud of him...... And with these reasons, they bow down to the idol and serve it. This means that they became slaves to the idol. To those with greed and fear, idols are like additive drug, and they feel pains without idols. For the Israelites, idol worshipping was an evil habit like drug addiction that they couldn’t shake off all the time. It recurred again and again despite the best cautions and efforts. Even they missed Egypt where they had suffered miserable slavery. In Exodus 16:3, the people of Israel complained, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted.” In Numbers 11:4 as well, the Israelites cried, saying, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost - also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” In this way, they lived for themselves although they had God the most noble partner of love. Living for themselves, they became slaves to greed and fear. And they provoked God’s anger.

 

As taught in the Bible, God’s love is truly noble. It is so noble that there is nothing more valuable than this love. It has a value immeasurable, even more valuable than life. The cross that Jesus took was the cross of love. It was his obedience to God and sacrifice for God’s flock. Jesus said, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11). And he said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Jesus’ disciples were not happy with Jesus’ love as such. It was because they had their own form of love, which they expected from Jesus for themselves. They wanted that Jesus’ love would be only toward those who were following him, and the love would be expressed in the way that they planned. But Jesus’ love was far from their expectation. Jesus’ love was noble love. The disciples couldn’t understand Jesus’ life-giving love, infinite love. How could Jesus love so? It was because Jesus had God’s jealousy in his heart. In John 2:17, the disciples, seeing Jesus’ cleaning of the temple, remembered the Psalm word, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Jesus had God’s consuming fire in himself. With this fire, Jesus burned himself to love God and God’s flock. When the fire blazes, it destroys all the idols in me that I love more than God. Even the idols include my own life. Jesus loved infinite love as the first and greatest commandment says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.”

 

As shown by the Israelites, idol worshipping is sinners’ deep-rooted nature. We come back to this nature repeatedly. It is loving ourselves. Even many times when we say we are loving God, we love ourselves. God gave us “a form” that we can see and touch so that we may not be deceived by ourselves. It’s God’s commandments. In verse 6, God says, “those who love me and keep my commandments.” God didn’t say just “those who love me.” He said, “those who love me and keep my commandments.” God’s commandments are the ways of practicing God’s love. And those who love God keep the commandments. It is because they knew that God loves and delights in the commandments. When we love somebody, we love not only the person but also love what the person loves and love that as the person loves. The risen Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15). Peter had been confident of his own loyalty to Jesus, asserting, “I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37). Later, however, he found himself who loved his own life much more than he loved Jesus. Then, risen Jesus came to him and asked, “Do you love me more than these?” I believe here “these” include Peter’s own life. And Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” Although Jesus now ascends to heaven and disappears into the clouds, Peter has visible forms that he should love. They are Jesus’ lambs. They are Jesus’ beloved. From that time on, Peter loves Jesus by loving Jesus’ sheep. This is also the case for our love to God. Those who love God keep God’s commandments. It is because God loves and delights in his commandments. Jesus also said, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (John 14:21).

 

There is Aesop’s fable “The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs.” A farmer had a goose that laid a golden egg every day. This goose made the farmer rich. However, the farmer was not satisfied with a golden egg a day. He wanted to be rich much faster. He thought that the goose would have a lot of gold in its stomach. So he killed the goose and cut it open. But there was not gold at all. Even if the goose lays an ordinary goose egg, the lesson of the story is not much different. The farmer still gets good benefits from the goose every day. But his eyes were blinded by “gold” and he couldn’t tolerate God’s slow blessing. I believe this story is quite applicable to today’s world. We are all looking for a golden calf that we may cut open and extract by force right now. We don’t mind destroying the nature, destroying love relationship, destroying faith in God as long as we can cut it open and find gold. We are not patient enough to wait God’s blessing and to live with God in peace and joy, enjoying the love relationship with God. We love ourselves, and we love what we love. We don’t call them idols. God is Jealous, consuming fire. Instead of cutting the goose open, we need to cut our heart open and burn it with God’s jealousy, the consuming fire. God’s love is noble, and it’s amazing grace that he wants such a love relationship with us. May this love of God dictates our heart and may we also love God with this love of God, nothing but the love!!!