Burning Jealousy

Think of a lover spurned.

Or deep envy over someone else’s position or possession.

Not the kind of emotion you would normally ascribe to God.

We think of jealousy mostly in a negative sense.

It shows up in several of Paul’s lists of sins in his letters to Rome and Corinth.

So, when we read about God’s jealousy, especially His burning jealousy, it should get our attention. I know it does mine.

I ran into it in one of my readings this morning in Zechariah 8.

In verse 2, God says, “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.”

This is strong emotion ascribed by God to Himself and focused, in this passage, on the physical space and people in Jerusalem known as Zion…a name sometimes used to refer to all of Jerusalem.

But since God cannot sin, it is impossible for Him to be jealous in the same way we understand that sinful human emotion. In Him, it has to be a holy jealousy, totally consistent with every other attribute of God, including, and maybe especially, His love for us. But that doesn’t make his jealousy any less dangerous, in some cases…like the holy judgment that broke out over Aaron’s sons, for presuming to bring their unauthorized fire into God’s holy presence, or Ananias and Sapphira’s death, for their selfish duplicity in worship.

Some of the synonyms for jealousy in the Old Testament are…fervor, ardent love, passion, a desire for exclusivity in relationship. The verb expresses a “very strong emotion whereby some quality or possession of an object is desired by the subject.” One commentator describes “righteous jealousy” as “an appropriate desire for what a person has a right to.”

Now, that helps me understand God’s jealousy better.

In Zechariah 8, God’s burning jealousy is for a physical space on earth and the people in that space called Zion. It is the place where God had chosen, hundreds of years earlier, to set His Name, to make His presence known and to live with His people. In Zechariah’s day, Zion had been under God’s refining judgment for seventy years. The glorious temple Solomon built had been destroyed. The gates of the city burned and the walls torn down.

All because God would not sit back and allow His Name to be profaned by a people, called by His Name but openly worshipping idols.

But the words of Zechariah are a prophetic word that the redeeming judgment had done its work, that God would now “return to Zion and dwell, once again, in Jerusalem” (Zechariah 8:3).

And, God’s return to Zion, would be accompanied by His blessing.

“Once again old men and women would sit in the streets of Jerusalem…filled with boys and girls playing there” (Zechariah 8:4-5).

Once again “the seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people” (Zechariah 8:12).

What a picture of the shalom of God…everything as it should be!

All accomplished by the burning jealousy of God to possess what was and is rightfully His.

So, what does all of this have to do with you and me? That’s all Old Testament history.

What if I were to tell you that the Church of Jesus is Zion?

The writer of Hebrews says to the New Testament believers, concerning their corporate worship…

 “…you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.” (Hebrews 12:22–23 NIV)

God’s burning jealousy today is for the condition of every local church to be wholly His with contagious, joy-filled worship; an insatiable hunger for the Word, and repentance; a genuine love for one another; everyone using their spiritual gifts in service of others; vibrant personal and corporate prayer; personal transformation that leads many into salvation.

In short, God is burning with jealousy to have a church that is passionately in love with Him…

…and that has to include you!

The whole purpose of revival in our day, in our city, in our nation, is for God to “return and dwell amongst His people.”