Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

It was prom night, my junior year. I had my tux on, and I was looking good. I was also driving good. I was driving my newly washed and waxed truck, on my way to pick up my date. My date’s name was Kim. Kim and I had been friends for a long time. We went to a nice dinner at DeShea’s, a restaurant in Maysville, KY. Then, we drove to our school for the dance. All in all, it had been a fun evening up to that point. It was about to get a little less fun, though.

Once we arrived at the dance, I saw my future wife, Nicki, with her date…a guy named Grant. You’ve got to understand that Nicki and I were dating by this point. We were a couple now, but we had separate prom dates. See, Nicki and I didn’t start dating until after her friend Grant had asked her to the prom. So I knew ahead of time that Nicki had a different date. And I’d like to say that it didn’t bother me. I’d like to say that I was cool with the whole thing. That’s what I’d like to say. That’s not what I’m going to say.

When I saw them, I felt this jealousy rising in me. I knew that Grant and Nicki were just friends, but that didn’t stop those emotions. Obviously Nicki and I kept dating, got engaged, got married, had a baby. And we now have another baby on the way. Nicki is pregnant again, due in December. So it all obviously worked out and Nicki and I are well on our way to happily ever after. But on that one night at a high school prom, I learned a little bit about jealousy.

Today we’re continuing our series called, What’s God Really Like? In each session, we’re exploring different characteristics that are part of God’s nature.

This week we learn that God is a jealous God.

Immediately we have a problem here, don’t we? The word “jealous” immediately conjures up negative images in our mind. Jealousy is almost never perceived as a good character trait. When somebody is jealous, we think of a person who is suspicious, selfish, resentful, and hostile. Kind of like this classic cartoon clip.

Daffy has become so jealous of the crowd’s love for Bugs Bunny that he decided to just do away with the rabbit. However, as is always the case with selfish jealousy, it ended up backfiring and hurting him instead.

Shakespeare described jealousy as “the green-eyed monster.” That line of thinking is still the prevailing understanding of jealousy today. It is hurtful, damaging, and dangerous.

So how can a God who is perfect possess this horrible, hated character trait? That just doesn’t jive, does it?

What we have to understand is that God’s jealousy and our jealousy are different in their makeup. Our jealousy largely springs out of our selfishness and sinfulness.

If you read my blog, you know that I’ve been struggling with contentment lately. I’ve had a hard time being satisfied with what I have. I am so blessed to have a godly wife, because a couple of weeks ago, I was just going on and on about what other people have, and why can’t we have that. On and on and on. And finally, Nicki looked at me and just said one word. She said, “Contentment.”

Immediately I was convicted of my sinful attitude. I had allowed this jealousy to rise up and put a stranglehold on me. That jealousy sprung out of selfishness. I was seeing what other people had and selfishly wanting it myself.

It’s a universal human struggle. Our natural tendency is to compare what we don’t have to what other people do have. She’s thinner than me. He’s richer than me. She’s more talented than me. He’s more popular than me. They have a bigger house than us. They get to go on better vacations than us. And on and on and on. We compare what we don’t have to what other people do have. We resent them for what they have. We’re jealous of them, believing that we should have what they have.

But God’s jealousy comes from a completely different angle. We are often jealous because of what we don’t have. We’re jealous of what doesn’t belong to us. God is jealous for what is rightfully his. There is nothing that he doesn’t have. There is no hint of selfishness in his character. Instead, he is jealous of what is rightfully his.

Jealousy can be a good, positive thing. Think about it in the context of a marriage. In a godly marriage, there is always jealousy. Not the suspicious, always-looking-over-their-shoulder kind of jealousy. But a godly jealousy. If I see another man talking to my wife, I have no need to be jealous. But, if I see another man flirting with my wife, if I see another man trying to make time with my wife, then jealousy is a right and godly response. That guy is messing with something that is rightfully mine. And I will take care of business. The end result is that I’ll probably get the chance to start a prison ministry from the inside, but I will take care of business.

My wife’s body is mine alone. My body is hers alone. And nobody else gets to mess with that. It is part of the exclusiveness of a godly marriage. There should be this godly jealousy in our marriages.

In that sense, we can see how God’s jealousy and God’s perfection can coexist. God isn’t selfishly jealous for what he doesn’t have. God is righteously jealous for what is rightfully his.

There’s a story found in the Old Testament book of Exodus that graphically paints this picture for us. Let me catch you up on what’s happening.

Moses was the leader of God’s people, the Israelites. Moses had climbed a mountain called Mt. Sinai where God would speak directly to him. While Moses was up on the mountain talking with God, the Israelites decided that they needed to worship something that they could see. So they asked a guy named Aaron to make a god for them. Stop and consider the stupidity of that statement. “Aaron, make a god for us.” It’s a completely idiotic proposition, but for whatever reason, Aaron agrees. He took their gold jewelry, melted it, and shaped the molten gold into the shape of a calf.

And after the statue was complete, “All the people said to one another, ‘This is the god who brought us out of Egypt!’” (Exodus 32:4, CEV)

Yep. This golden calf that Aaron just created is the god that brought all the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt. This whole thing is just ludicrous, isn’t it?

So the Israelites are worshipping this statue of a calf that Aaron had made. All the while, Moses was on top of the mountain talking with God!

It seems like the Israelites had already forgotten one of the Ten Commandments that God had given them just a few chapters earlier. “You shall not make for yourself an idol 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…” (Exodus 20:4-5a, NIV)

Just like last week’s session on God’s wrath, today we’re talking about a characteristic of God that isn’t discussed very often. How often do you hear of the jealousy of God? It doesn’t get a lot of press. But stories like this remind us that God, in fact, is a jealous God. It’s part of the makeup of his character.

Now, fast-forward a little bit in our story. Moses is back up on Mt. Sinai again. God has already dished out punishment on the Israelites, and more would come later. But God is also already in the process of renewing His relationship with His people. During this restoration process, God reiterates His jealousy to Moses.

“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. Do not worship any other god, for the LORD , whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

"Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.

And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.” (Exodus 34:12-16, NIV)

Let’s unpack this a little bit. God tells us in Exodus 34 that His name is Jealous. God has a lot of different names in the Bible. One of the names of God is actually Jealous!

Richard L. Strauss noted that, “God’s name is the epitome of who and what He is, and He says His name is Jealous. Jealousy is not merely a passing mood with God. It is the essence of His person. He cannot be [anything] other than jealous.”

God said in the book of Ezekiel, “I will be jealous for my holy name” (Ezekiel 39:25, ESV)

God’s name is the very core of who he is, and his name is Jealous. He is jealous over what is rightfully his, meaning our worship and devotion.

He tells us in Isaiah, “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” (Isaiah 42:8, NIV)

Here is where the Israelites made their fatal error. They misunderstood the jealousy of God. They didn’t see a problem with worshipping God, and at the same time worshipping a golden calf. But God is jealous of our worship. He is jealous of our devotion. He is jealous because our worship and devotion are rightfully his. When they are given to something or someone else, God’s jealousy comes out. He does not allow his people to worship an idol.

Anything that takes His place is an idol, and we’re not talking about Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood. For the Israelites, it was a golden calf. But anything that takes God’s place in our lives is called an idol. And idolatry, or worshipping an idol, is forbidden by God.

What is the golden calf in your life? What is the idol that has your devotion and your worship? For most of us, there are things that have pushed God aside and taken first priority in our lives. Idols come in every form and shape imaginable: from grades to getting high, from sports to sex, idols are everywhere.

I’ve met some parents who have made their children into an idol. Their kids receive all their attention, all their time, all their devotion. We all know that God has commanded us to love our kids, but not more than we love him. If our kids are our entire lives, then we may very well have a problem.

I’ve met dating couples who have made their boyfriend/girlfriend their idol. All their time and money and energy are spent on this one person. Nothing else matters. They are consumed by this person. Obviously most of us have experienced infatuation. We’ve gone through courtship and dating and we know all the beautiful emotions that go with it. But if this person has become the be all and end all in your life, you’ve got a problem.

Maybe the most subtle and insidious form of idolatry is religion. People become so tied to religious traditions that these traditions become the object of worship in and of themselves. How many churches have split over issues with a church building, or worship styles, or the order of service, or the style of dress, or some other religious tradition? They’re not splitting up over something that God has commanded in the Bible. They’re divided over matters of opinion. But sometimes our style of worship becomes the object of our worship. Sometimes we try to say that our opinion is also God’s opinion. That’s when we find ourselves on idolatrous ground. Everything we do in the church is designed to connect us to God, but we can’t worship the connection itself. Anything less than God worship is idol worship.

It doesn’t matter what the golden calf is in your life. No matter what it is, if it has taken God’s place in your life, then it’s an idol. And God has some very direct things to say about these idols.

The first thing we see in the Bible is that God says that idolatry is “cheating.” God says that worshipping an idol is like committing adultery, or “cheating” on your husband or wife.

God told Moses that when people are involved in idol worship, “…they prostitute themselves to their gods…” (Exodus 34:15b, NIV)

We talked earlier about a godly jealousy in our marriages. The Bible compares our relationship to God to a marriage. The church is called the Bride of Christ. And when we have an idol in our lives, God says that’s like a married man sleeping with a prostitute.

Wives, let me ask you a profoundly stupid question. How many of you wouldn’t care if your husband was sleeping with a prostitute? How many of you would say, “Oh, it’s really no big deal. I’m ok with it. I know that a man can never be satisfied with just one woman. It’s fine.”

Of course you wouldn’t say that! That’s insane! You would never share your husband with a whore. And you would be red-faced, fighting mad if you found out that this was happening. Your jealousy would boil over.

The root idea in the Old Testament word jealous is to become intensely red. It refers to the changing color of the face or the rising heat of the emotions. God gets red-faced when his jealousy is aroused.

Wives would never share their husbands with a prostitute. And with that same fire and passion, God will never share His place in your life with anything or anyone else.

My brother, Jeff, used to be a private investigator. His business was primarily involved in adultery cases. A husband or wife would come to him and say that they suspected that their spouse was having an affair. Then, Jeff or one of his investigators would follow the spouse. They would take still shots and video footage of the cheating spouse with the other man or other woman. Basically, once they were finished with the investigation, there was no way the spouse could deny the affair. There was a mountain of evidence in the pictures and the video that the investigators capture.

One day Jeff and I were talking about his PI business. He was telling me some of the things he had learned. One of them was really interesting. He said, “I’ve learned that the cheating spouse almost never cheats up.”

I asked what he meant, and he said, “For example, a man is having an affair. When you look at his wife and then look at his mistress, it’s always a move down. The wife is almost always more attractive, has a better personality, etc. People almost always trade down in an affair.”

The same is true when it comes to idols. There’s only one way to go, and that’s down. No matter what your idol is, it’s a step down compared to a relationship with God. But a lot of times we’re willing to have the affair anyway. We’re willing to trade down. But we have to understand that idolatry is adultery. It’s cheating, and it’s always a move down.

A second thing we learn from Scripture is that idolatry is contagious. This is why God warned his people to be on their guard. They were going to come into contact with people who were worshipping false gods, who had idols. And God knows that this kind of idolatry is contagious.

That’s why he told them, “If you make peace with them, they will invite you to go with them to worship their gods, and you are likely to do it.” (Exodus 34:15, NLT)

God was warning them to be careful because idolatry is contagious. It was true then and it’s true now.

I talked a little earlier about my junior prom. Let me tell you a little bit about the Monday after prom. I was sitting with Nicki at our lunch table at school. A lot of students from our church were sitting at the table with us. And everyone started talking about what they did after prom…and it seems as if the activity of choice after prom was sex.

I sat there listening to my classmates, some of which were members of the student ministry at our church, talk about how far they went with their boyfriends or girlfriends that night. Several had oral sex, several had sexual intercourse. Some people in this discussion had been part of the church their entire lives. What happened? They hooked up with a group of friends who had an idol…the idol was sex. And idolatry is contagious. And it didn’t take long. It didn’t take long for the Christians to start worshipping the same idol as their friends.

This is why your connection to the church is so critical. You spend time all week with people who have various idols that they worship in their lives. And their idolatry is contagious. If you’re not in regular contact with God and God’s people, their idolatry will worm its way into your life. Instead of influencing them for Christ, you’ll find that you’re being influenced through their idolatry because idolatry is contagious.

A third principle we learn from our Bible passages this morning is that idolatry has consequences. When we worship an idol in our lives, there is a price to pay.

When God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments,he told them, “Don’t bow down and worship idols. I am the LORD your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations.” (Exodus 20:5, CEV)

Idolatry has consequences. When we allow something to take God’s place in our lives, there is punishment. There is a price to pay.

Back to the lunch table discussion on after-prom sex…there was a price to pay for allowing the idol of sex to take over. There was a girl involved in that discussion, we’ll call her Samantha. Samantha was a member of our church, she had been in our youth group for years…and I remember sitting and listening to the graphic details of the sex she had with her boyfriend.

Move a few years ahead…Samantha carried a lot of pain around because of her sexual past, and unfortunately, she fell into a classic pattern. She became sexually involved with a guy, eventually marrying him. He was verbally abusive. That escalated to physical abuse. And Samantha wound up divorced with a child, bearing not only physical bruises, but also the emotional scars of her past. Idolatry has consequences.

I’m thankful to say that Samantha has since turned things in her life around. But it took a long time. It took many years before she was able to overcome the pain of her past because idolatry has consequences.

It’s time for us to do some evaluating. The name of our God is Jealous. His jealousy is at the core of who he is, and he takes idolatry very seriously. As you take stock of your life, where do you find God on your list of priorities? Where is your relationship with God among the things that you value? What idols have taken over in your life?

It’s been said that all you have to do is look at two things in a person’s life to determine what they worship: their calendar and their checkbook. If you’re wondering if there is an idol in your life, start by looking here. What gets the majority of your time? What receives the lion’s share of your money? As we pinpoint the idols that we may be carrying around in our lives, we’ve got to know what to do about it. How do we deal with this in a practical way in our lives?

In each session in this series, we’ve ended with some impact points. These are points in our lives where what we’ve learned about God impacts our day-to-day lives. Today we only have one impact point.

Here it is: Because God is jealous, I must smash my gods. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and saw the golden calf, here’s what the Bible says that he did:

“He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it into powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.” (Exodus 32:20, NIV)

You think Moses meant business when he came down off the mountain?

After the calf episode, remember what God told Moses to do when they entered the new land. The people in this new land were immersed in idol worship. God told Moses to, “break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.” (Exodus 34:13, NIV)

God is serious about getting rid of idols. He wanted them destroyed, burned, cut down, and smashed. The only way to get rid of an idol is to totally destroy it.

If we’re serious about our relationship with God (capital G), then we’ve got to destroy all our (little g) gods. We’ve got to smash them. We’ve got to take extraordinary steps to destroy the idol in our lives.

If pornography is your idol, then move the computer out of the bedroom and into the living room where everyone can see what you’re doing. If sports are your idol, then give away your season tickets. If entertainment is your idol, then cancel your cable. If your boyfriend/girlfriend is your idol, then break up. If food is your idol, then go home, open up your refrigerator, and start pitching.

Some of you are thinking, “That’s pretty drastic.” Yep. It’s drastic because idolatry is deadly. And God has told us that the only way to deal with an idol is to totally destroy it.

A lot of you know the incredible story of Josh Hamilton, the rookie centerfielder for the Reds. He’s currently on the disabled list, but hopefully he’ll be back soon. He has overcome some phenomenal obstacles in his life. He was addicted to crack cocaine, and this addiction robbed him of everything in his life. But through the influence of his godly grandmother and his godly wife, Josh is living drug-free. And his relationship with Jesus has been renewed.

But Josh knows that he can’t return to drugs, his idol. Before every road trip, each member of the team is allotted money for meals. But Josh always has another guy carry his money for him. Josh says that he knows he can’t walk around with $400 in his pocket. He has to ask this guy for money whenever he wants some food. Is that humiliating? Yes. Is it necessary? Yes. Josh is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to keep his idol from returning in his life. He’s willing to smash his little-g gods in order to please his capital-G God.

What about you? This is tough work we’re talking about. Are you willing to do whatever it takes? Are you willing to take radical, drastic steps? Are you willing to smash your idols, your little-g gods?

God is a jealous God. When there is an idol in your life, it stirs anger in Him like we learned about last week. But it also breaks His heart. He is so passionately in love with you that He can’t stand anything else getting in the way. You are his, and he is jealous for you.

The Bible reminds us, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NIV)

God’s jealousy is directly connected to God’s love. God paid a very high price for you. He gave his life for yours. He died to buy you back from sin. To redeem you from the mess of your past. To save you for all eternity. He’s jealous for you. So jealous that he wouldn’t allow sin or Satan or anything else to have you. He was so jealous for you that he was willing to die for you.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: God's jealousy, God's nature, idolatry, idols, What's God Really Like,