Our God Is A Jealous God

Our God Is A Jealous God

What does the Bible mean when it says that God is a jealous God?

ON September 17, 592 B.C., the prophet Ezekiel was sitting in his home in southern Babylonia with the elders of Judah. It had been five years since Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Jerusalem for the second time and taken the Jews into exile.

Suddenly Ezekiel had a vision in which the Spirit took him to the temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:1-4). There God appeared to Ezekiel and showed him the idolatry was being practiced in the temple. An idol had been erected at the entrance to the altar. Seventy elders of Judah were worshiping engraved animals in the dark, thinking that God would not see them. Women were weeping at the temple gate for the heathen god Tammuz. Twenty-five men with their backs to the altar were worshiping the sun (vv. 5-17).

God asked Ezekiel, “Is it nothing to the people of Judah that they commit these terrible sins, leading the whole nation into violence, thumbing their noses at me, and rousing my fury against them? Therefore, I will deal with them in fury. I will neither pity nor spare them. And though they scream for mercy, I will not listen” (vv. 17-18).

God commanded, “Bring on the men appointed to punish the city!” Six men appeared, each carrying a battle club. With them was a seventh man with a writing kit. To this man God said, “Walk through the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of all those who weep and sigh because of the sins they see around them.” To the other six God said, “Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked” (9:1-5). The seven then carried out their respective orders.

The glory of God rose up and went to the entrance of the temple (10:4) and then to the eastern gate (v. 19). Ezekiel was taken to the eastern gate, where God told him the meaning of the vision. Speaking to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, he said, “I will drive you out of Jerusalem and hand you over to foreigners who will carry out my judgments against you. You will be slaughtered all the way to the borders of Israel” (11:9-10).

Ezekiel fell facedown in the dust and cried out, “O Sovereign Lord, are you going to kill everyone in Israel?” (v. 13).

The Lord answered:

Give the exiles this message from the Sovereign Lord: Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile. I, the Sovereign Lord, will gather you back from the nations where you are scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel once again. . . . And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead, so they will obey my laws and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those who long for idols, I will repay them fully for their sins.” (vv. 16-21)

Then the presence of the Lord left Jerusalem and Ezekiel was taken back in the Spirit to Babylonia, where he told his fellow exiles everything he had seen and heard in his vision.

The prophet Malachi said that God’s presence would not return to the temple until it did so in the person of Jesus: “Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple” (Malachi 3:1).

God is a jealous God who will not share his worship with rivals. Ezekiel’s vision was fulfilled six years later when God sent the Babylonian armies under Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Jerusalem a third and final time, destroying the temple, killing thousands of Jews, and taking the remainder captive to Babylonia.

Reflection

What can we learn from this for our own lives? What modern gods are competing for the allegiance of God’s people today? How about your allegiance?

I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god! I do not leave unpunished the sins of those who hate me.

Exodus 20:5