Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. – Exodus 8:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 18, 2018): Exodus 8

Sean Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” writes “Isn't it kind of silly to think that tearing someone else down builds you up?” And he is right. One of the most uncomfortable conditions of our success is finding someone who is not threatened by it. Instead, people seem to find the need to knock us down, to make us as unhappy as they are, and in the process hope against hope that our unhappiness will result in their happiness. And it never works because the two are never related. And this forms our cultural idea of jealousy. Jealousy is the green-eyed monster that lurks within us and destroys anything that is good within our circle of influence. In popular culture, jealousy is the enemy of love. The two cannot exist together.

And then we begin to read the Bible, and it talks about God being a jealous God. Some years ago we played a song in a worship service that hung on this idea of God being a jealous God, and I remember after the service having a conversation with a woman who was angry over the song. God was a God of love, and therefore, no matter what the Bible said, he could not be jealous. The concept of a jealous God was a non-starter; that just could not be true.

And yet, there is no doubt that God is a Jealous God. We often misunderstand the first commandment - “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). We make the commandment about priority. In our modern world, we often think about the gods differently. Our gods are not molded deities we place on the mantles of our home. Our gods are often things (and many good things) like family, job, and even money (there is a lot of good that we can accomplish with what we possess). And in our minds, that is okay as long as God is first. So we write it down on a list.

1.      God

2.      Family

3.      Job

4.      Church (the separation of God from the Church has always baffled me, but we seem to do it).

5.      Friends.

These are our gods. Maybe we place them in different orders, but we worship at their altars. And that is okay as long as God is kept at number one. But that is not the meaning behind the commandment. The first commandment actually teaches that you shall have no other god in my realm. There is God, and there is only God. Not God as number one with lesser gods tailing behind. There is only God. This is the essential meaning of God being described as a jealous God. He will tolerate no other gods in his orbit. He is God alone.

The reason why Pharaoh needed to let the people of Israel go is related to this idea that God is a Jealous God. They could not worship Yahweh in the presence of the Egyptian gods. There could be no temptation to add Yahweh to the pantheon of gods that already existed in Egypt. He was a jealous God; God alone. He could not be worshipped in a temple built to honor Ra or Isis or any of the other gods. The people needed to get away from the false gods of Egypt to worship the God who is God alone.

And so the repeated request of Moses was that Pharaoh let Israel go into the desert so that they could worship the jealous God who was God alone. And our quest is the same. To truly worship the God who is God alone, we have to be willing to give all to him. He is a jealous God who does not want just part of our worship. He wants it all. He wants us to offer our temple time to him, but also our family time and our job time and our moments with friends. It all belongs to the jealous God who also loves us. And in giving him everything, he will be the one who will build us up.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 9