Exploring Biblical Jealousy Part 2
As believers we are in a covenant relationship with our Lord, Jesus Christ. This relationship is often explained through the lens of a marriage covenant because we understand the depth and intimacy involved and expected in a marriage. We study the characteristics of God and His faithfulness, holiness and love. In Exploring Biblical Jealousy Part 1, we looked at God’s side of the relationship in connection to His jealousy, but I’d like to turn the tables and study our role in this covenantal relationship. I’d like to zoom in and examine the depths of our faithfulness, holiness living, and love for Him. I’d like to examine our jealousy for Christ.
Jealous and zealous are words that can be studied together and apart. They work together in describing terms of this bond, but they can also stand alone. Having jealousy for Christ, and all things holy, portray our zeal for Him. They show we are passionate about God and His holiness. It will also look like we are separated from the world. We will see the world as it is, broken, and therefore increase our desire to have God glorified. The ways of this world should ignite a jealousy for God in our soul that spills over into zealously living for Him.
As we zoomed in on understanding God’s jealousy in part 1, we gained an even bigger understanding for our need for Jesus. As we live in this new covenant through Jesus, we cannot forget that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. However, the characteristic of jealousy is still active today. As believers under the new covenant, we should still understand that God desires our true devotion to Him. Much like the marriage bond, the devotion should be to one another only and not allowing another party to creep in or intertwine in the relationship. If you have true devotion to Him, then you can experience jealousy for Him.
Numbers 25 gives us a perfect example of this. Again, the Israelites begin intermarrying with people who worshiped other gods. This started leading His people away from Him and causing them to participate in idol worship. It was allowing the things of the world to be mixed into God’s camp. Phinehas, grandson to Aaron the priest (Moses’ brother) saw that a union between God’s people and the people of another god was taking place, so he went and killed the people involved, therefore stopping God’s wrath against His people. God describes it this way in verse 11-13, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them…he was jealous for his God.” Depending on your translation it may say “zealous with My zeal”. Either way, Phinehas understood the holiness of God.
Understanding the holiness of God means you are so committed to Him that, through the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, you desire Him. You want Him to receive the glory and honor. It means walking in this world with Him but apart from this world and its expectations and normal ways of doing things. A few years ago, I was involved in a lawsuit not of my own doing. I was included in it because of an association through a work connection. It was a fraudulent lawsuit and was dismissed before it ever made it to court. However, it still took over eight months before I personally was dismissed. My husband and I had hired an attorney to represent us because that’s what you do, that’s the normal way. In the meantime, we were praying for the Lord’s guidance and hand in resolving this situation. We reached a point where our attorneys were asking for more money and wanted to take some actions in a direction that we, as Christians, were not comfortable with. My husband introduced the idea of letting them go and me representing myself. After all, we had thought we had turned this over to the Lord, and were still praying for His help. As we were pretty sure that was what we were going to do, the attorney’s office reached out because they needed money added to the retainer to continue representing us. It was in that very moment where I had a true experience of jealousy for God. I remember thinking, “no, if I pay you more money and this gets resolved you will get the credit and not God.” So no, My God can do this and do it His way and then He will get the glory. So that is what we did, and this time wholly turned it over to Him. The Holy Spirit was teaching me in this moment, and months to follow, that I could depend on Him only and that He will resolve this. God became our Advocate and walked before us and removed me from that lawsuit, and therefore He got the true glory He deserved.
The feeling of being jealous for God has changed me. It changed my heart and helped me understand a bigger picture. There is a difference in making your plans and arrangements, living life, and asking God to help and bless you on that path, versus asking God to help you and then letting Him supply the plans and bring the help. See, in my lawsuit I began with the “normal” way. We hired an attorney and begin the process and asked the Lord to help this plan. However, when we completely took the normal way out, and let Him bring the plans, things changed. He brought us the help we needed and the final outcome came from that. Would the Lord have continued to help me if I stayed on the path that I created? I believe so, but not in the same way. I would have missed out on so much, and He would not have received near the credit He deserved. The lawyers would have received the credit in both their eyes, and probably mine, and I would not have grown in the love and understanding of the type of relationship and dependence we can have with the Lord and what He desires. He taught me a new level of depth in understanding that He will provide, comfort, and walk with me, and He did exactly that all the way through.
Through this lens of jealously and new zeal for Him, I realized that He can use things of this world to help us, but we should be so connected to Him, so dependent and in love with Him, that He is the leader every time. It’s about being wholly committed to Him, in all things and all ways. It’s loving Him more than the world and wholly trusting He is capable to handle all our needs. It’s a level of dependence with Him that the ways of the world, the “normal way” takes a backseat, and God’s leadership, becomes our new normal for us first and every time. Sometimes it looks radical to others, but that is the separation of the world and wholly trusting Him. It’s living with a jealously for His holiness and righteousness to be evident and for Him to receive the glory in all things.
The Bible is so faithful to give us examples of the Lord going before and fighting battles for His people. If we are wholly committed to Him then we recognize that we do not need to get ahead of the Lord but let Him carry us and go before us. One example is in Deuteronomy, Moses is recapping to the new generation of Israelites, that are about to enter into the promised land, what all took place between the former generation and their relationship with God. God had delivered them time and time again, but they fell into a pattern of worship then rebellion, praise then complain, and follow then go astray. Moses reminds them that God has “carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came into this place” (Deuteronomy 1:31). It is so descriptive to visualize a man carrying his son and that is what God wants to do for us. This is wholly following Him.
A little further in Deuteronomy 1, Moses continues to remind this new generation of the rebellion that took place. The Israelites were facing another possible battle. The Lord did not want them to engage in that war and warned them that they would be defeated. Moses says in verse 43, “you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and presumptuously went up.” They took matters into their own hands and were defeated. It is important for us to recognize that as soon as we start taking our battles into our own hands, we are no longer allowing Him to carry us.
This is the shift I made during my lawsuit. As soon as I let the attorneys go, I let the Lord carry me. He was just as the Bible said He would be. He went before me, fought my battle, provided me comfort and encouragement, and then I gave Him all the glory. It was in these moments that I learned a new zeal for Him, a full commitment to Him, that nothing was going to separate me from my holy God and I was ready to tear down any idol in my life that would compete for Him in my heart.
As He continues to carry me forward, life has not gotten easier by our world standards, but my confidence in Him remains steady. He will do exactly what He promises if you will let Him carry you.
-Rebecca
