Jealous with my Jealousy
As Lot witnessed the lifestyle of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, he felt a growing sense of frustration and exasperation. He was “greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked.” This sensual conduct revealed their complete lack of reverence for God. “For as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard” (2 Pet. 2:7-8). Living among wicked people is always a sore travail to the godly. For though “it is shameful even to speak of the things they do in secret.” (Eph. 5:12), the wicked don’t see it that way. They openly discuss, brag about, and seek to normalize such shameful things. What else can the righteous feel when in the presence of those “having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Eph. 4:19)? I feel Lot’s pain. Tabloid trash is now mainstream media. America now treats God with contempt and uses God’s gifts in selfish and disgusting ways.
As Israel neared Canaan, Aaron’s grandson, Phinehas witnessed similar ungodliness. Balaam had “taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality” (Rev. 2:14), and Israel fell right into the trap. God was furious and so was Phinehas. His actions “turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them” (Num. 25:1-12). What a perfect description of what our own feelings should be! The wicked are destroying all that is good and wholesome in our nation. They are successfully removing God from his creation with evolution and destroying the foundations of godliness and purity. Politicians, actors, teachers and even many priests and preachers also support it. If we are jealous with God’s jealousy, then we truly are tormented and distressed by what goes on today!
When we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we feel his pain and his jealousy. This jealousy always keeps God’s people pure and indignant at the conduct of the wicked. David spoke of this in one of his psalms. “Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22).
We are told “do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn. 2:15). “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other” (Mt. 6:24). To love God is to hate the world! To love the world is to hate God! “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4).
This cuts both ways. Not only do Christians hate the world, but the world also hates Christians. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn. 15:18-19).
Light and dark will never peacefully coexist together. One must banish the other. Those who “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” will always be disgusted by the light. Such a man “hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (Jn. 3:1-21). At the same time the more we love and walk in the light, the more we must despise the darkness.
Since Phinehas was a part of Israel’s government and death had already been decreed, his jealousy could lead to action. But Lot had no power and therefore could take no action. Jesus bids us to remain passive. “But I tell you not to resist an evil person” (Mt 5:39). We are to “cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret–it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth” (Ps. 37:7-9). Such conduct does cause grief, but it does not lead to action for “vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19) and so he will! At such times our only response is to sigh and cry. “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it” (Ezek 9:4). After marking those who “sighed and cried”, all others were killed without mercy.
As we watch the moral foundations of our nation ripped apart by the wicked, are we greatly distressed? Is our righteous soul tormented day by day as we hear and see this ungodliness? Do we sigh and cry? Are we jealous with God’s jealousy? Today we live in the midst of those “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32). Although we are in the world, we should not be of the world! We should hate such conduct, be tormented by it, feel godly jealousy, and remain loyal and devoted to the Lord our God.
As Israel neared Canaan, Aaron’s grandson, Phinehas witnessed similar ungodliness. Balaam had “taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality” (Rev. 2:14), and Israel fell right into the trap. God was furious and so was Phinehas. His actions “turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them” (Num. 25:1-12). What a perfect description of what our own feelings should be! The wicked are destroying all that is good and wholesome in our nation. They are successfully removing God from his creation with evolution and destroying the foundations of godliness and purity. Politicians, actors, teachers and even many priests and preachers also support it. If we are jealous with God’s jealousy, then we truly are tormented and distressed by what goes on today!
When we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we feel his pain and his jealousy. This jealousy always keeps God’s people pure and indignant at the conduct of the wicked. David spoke of this in one of his psalms. “Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22).
We are told “do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn. 2:15). “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other” (Mt. 6:24). To love God is to hate the world! To love the world is to hate God! “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4).
This cuts both ways. Not only do Christians hate the world, but the world also hates Christians. “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn. 15:18-19).
Light and dark will never peacefully coexist together. One must banish the other. Those who “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” will always be disgusted by the light. Such a man “hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (Jn. 3:1-21). At the same time the more we love and walk in the light, the more we must despise the darkness.
Since Phinehas was a part of Israel’s government and death had already been decreed, his jealousy could lead to action. But Lot had no power and therefore could take no action. Jesus bids us to remain passive. “But I tell you not to resist an evil person” (Mt 5:39). We are to “cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret–it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth” (Ps. 37:7-9). Such conduct does cause grief, but it does not lead to action for “vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19) and so he will! At such times our only response is to sigh and cry. “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it” (Ezek 9:4). After marking those who “sighed and cried”, all others were killed without mercy.
As we watch the moral foundations of our nation ripped apart by the wicked, are we greatly distressed? Is our righteous soul tormented day by day as we hear and see this ungodliness? Do we sigh and cry? Are we jealous with God’s jealousy? Today we live in the midst of those “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32). Although we are in the world, we should not be of the world! We should hate such conduct, be tormented by it, feel godly jealousy, and remain loyal and devoted to the Lord our God.