Godly Jealousy

Good morning - Thank you for welcoming me back to Friendship Baptist Church

Williamstown KY at the opening of the Ark Encounter - attraction

My wife and I are blessed to be a part of what God is doing through the ministry of Answers in Genesis

God's Word - World View - Taking God at His Word.

The next family vacation you take out of the state, plan to include the Ark Encounter.

God is a jealous God

Exodus 34:14  Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Has anyone here gone through the series "The Truth Project" by Focus on the Family? In this series Dell Tacket talks about how he went into what he calls a cocoon as he worked to understand how God could be Jealous.

The term "jealousy" often carries a negative connotation with it in our culture today for good reasons. We pity the man who is jealous of his coworker's success. We frown upon families who react to a neighbor's newly found fortune by becoming overcome with jealousy. And we are perturbed to hear of a jealous husband who distrusts his wife and questions every possible wrong action that she might make, even going so far as demanding that she never leave the house without him. Add to these feelings about jealousy what various New Testament passages have to say on the subject and one can understand why some might sincerely question why -God is described at times as jealous. The apostle Paul admonished the Christians in Rome to "behave properly," and to put off "strife and jealousy". To the church at Corinth, Paul expressed concern that when he came to their city he might find them involved in such sinful things as gossip, strife, and jealousy and he explicitly told them that love is NOT jealous. If this is true, then why did Paul tell the Corinthians in his second letter that he was jealous for them with a godly jealousy. Furthermore, how can God who is love be jealous and even be called jealous by name?

Let’s examine the difference between godly jealousy and carnal jealousy The original Hebrew world translated as jealous in this Scripture above is pronounced caw-naw.  It does not simply mean jealousy, but to be provoked to jealousy. Carnal jealously is a covetous emotion that is the result of either mistrust, alienation, or envy. Human jealousy is self-centered. Godly jealousy is, on the other hand, a positive response based upon God's desire to see humans remain faithful to the One True God, for their own good. Humans become jealous for their own sake; God is jealous for our sake. The closest example we can find in creation of a righteous jealousy is that between a husband and wife when infidelity happens.  The law of Moses addresses this type of jealousy. It calls out infidelity as sin, and the feeling of jealousy is guiltless. Now it is entirely possible that our jealousy can lead us to do things that are not guiltless.

Proverbs 6:34 For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

Here is a story I recently read about...

A jealous husband who caught his wife cheating decided the most reasonable response would be to destroy his own home with an SUV, and the whole incident was captured on film.

I do not want to leave you with the idea that it is ok for a spouse to act upon feelings of jealousy and take revenge because vengeance is the LORDS, but that feeling of broken trust in marriage according to scripture is guiltless before God. It is the closest type of jealousy in creation that we can compare Jesus Christ being jealous for His bride the church. If any of you are going through these kinds of feelings today, the solution is to pray for those who have hurt you. Pray that God would forgive them and that He would bring them to repentance. When I read the story of the jealous man who decided to destroy his own home I was reminded of the flood, when God had regretted that he had made man.

Genesis 6:5-7 When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.”

Nahum 1:2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.

Now my friends unlike the man that drove his SUV through the picture window, God is very merciful and patient with humankind. He wants no one to perish but all to come to repentance. God waited patiently in the time of Noah as He waits now. During Noah's time even though Noah preached, no one believed in the Lord, everyone had turned away to idols and thought Noah a fool.

Now let us go forward about a thousand years. Israel under the Old Covenant is an example to us today. Deuteronomy 32:16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.

Psalm 78:58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols. Now let's look at what we see in the New Testament under the new covenant

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2 Corinthians 7:2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.

James also declares James 4:4-5 Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy. Or do you think it’s without reason the Scripture says that the Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously?

So, my friends we all tend to have idols in our lives that we use to cope with rather than the savior Jesus Christ. What is your idol? What are you holding onto? What in your life keeps you from an intimate relationship with Jesus? Take your idols today and cast them out!

The good news my friends is this Jesus has paid the price for our sins. Jesus Christ is our ark of salvation. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you do not have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ or would like to recommit your life as a pure bride before God, I invite you to come up to the alter and give your life to Jesus today.