We are in chapter twenty of Exodus with our word for today, used for the first time in the Bible. קַנָּא jealous, zealous, fiercely protective and unaccepting disloyalty. It is used 6 times in the Old Testament. Let’s look at them. Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a קַנָּ֔א jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. We find the exact same wording in another usage in Deuteronomy 5:9 which is when Moses repeats these commandments.
I find it interesting how God defines himself with this specific phrase אָֽנֹכִ֞י יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ אֵ֣ל I YWHW God is a god. Did you catch that? Previously God has focused on the fact that the kind of god he is compared to all other so-called gods is that he is reality the great I Am. In other words when God does something it becomes reality. It is a good thing that God makes this point over and over again in the Bible because we like to take anything and serve and worship it making it a god to us even though there is only one true reality God YWHW the great I AM. But what is interesting here is that God is saying what makes me unique in all of the other things or idols people trust in is that I am jealous. We might think haven’t I read somewhere where other nations described their gods as jealous so why does God call himself unique in this. That is because YHWH is the only true God. All other so-called gods aren’t real since they can’t do anything they also can’t be jealous. Because YWHW is reality the true God who can act on his jealous he describes later in the same verse how specifically this action comes about. God will act on his jealousy for us with either visiting iniquity which as we have seen with previous words is a way to say judging or punishing it or showing unfailing love. So, what determines which one a person receives. I like how the Holy Spirit answers this in Romans. Romans 11:22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. So whether or not we accept God’s grace through Jesus makes all the difference in the world. If we reject the salvation that is in Christ then God will look at us through the window of law and give us what we deserve which is to be treated sternly. This is where God’s protective jealousy comes in he will allow the consequences of our sin to catch up to us so that we will accept his salvation and turn away from our life of sin. This is where the window of grace comes in. If we don’t want God’s sternness, then we accept the salvation that God offers us through Jesus death in our place and then God looks at us through the window of grace and sees his perfect son’s life instead of our sinful one and we get grace. But it doesn’t stop when we accept Christ God calls us to be like him in holiness as we have looked at a few days ago. Even as Christians God in his jealously will allow consequences into our lives from our sin. He wants us to grow up and make the choice to leave sin behind and let him save, heal and continue to transform us into the image of his son. I’ll close with these two Scriptures where God even names himself with our word. Exodus 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. This is fascinating how our word is used in this phrase יְהוָה֙ קַנָּ֣א שְׁמ֔וֹ אֵ֥ל קַנָּ֖א הֽוּא we literally have YWHW jealous name of this god jealously is. So we have again what we looked at earlier god is the kind of God who is jealous because he is real so he even names himself jealous. Notice how intense God’s love is expressed. Deuteronomy 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a קַנָּֽא jealous God.
