Is God Petty, Jealous, Angry and Murderous Like the gods of the Ancient Greeks? Deuteronomy 6:14-19
“You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations, for the LORD your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you, and he will wipe you from the face of the earth. You must not test the LORD your God as you did when you complained at Massah. You must diligently obey the commands of the LORD your God—all the laws and decrees he has given you. Do what is right and good in the LORD’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the LORD swore to give your ancestors. You will drive out all the enemies living in the land, just as the LORD said you would." Deuteronomy 6:14-19 (NLT)
Pastor’s Blog
Can this God of jealousy, anger and threats be the same God we love and trust?
I think this is a really, really important question to come to terms with. I must believe in the God revealed in the Bible, not the god I make up in my own mind.
The God of the Bible (YHWH – “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”) is jealous. Our language no longer contains the biblical meaning of this world. In this passage it means “zealous to protect what belongs to Him alone”. It does not mean envy as in the 10th commandment. Jesus demonstrated this same zeal for all men and women.
The God of the Bible eradicates evil. In fact Israel was chosen to be God’s vehicle to destroy evil and restore the world. When Israel becomes part of the problem, it too faces eradication. No human has any right to take life, but God, who created life, retains that prerogative.
The God of the Bible warns. Check out Jesus words in Mark 13 for example. Deuteronomy, for all its detail teaches a very, very simple message. Obey God and life will go well. Disobey and things will, sooner or later, go very, very badly for you. It is a simple impossibility to live at cross purposes with God. Never put God to the test by complaining. God is not averse to responding with consequences.
The God of the Bible blessed Israel with a land that belonged to others, the Canaanites. This was God’s judgment on these inhabitants because their evil had simply exceeded God’s tolerance. The occupation of the land was both blessing and judgment.
This aspect of God must not be rejected. If it is we violate the first verse of the passage, we will have created a different god, one more to our liking, yet one who is an idol, an alien god, a god who won’t stand the test of time or be there in your time of need.
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This is an issue I have struggled with my entire life. My grandparents were extremely ridged and preached sermons that God held us over the pits of Hell by a single spider's web, just waiting for us to "mess up" so that the string could be cut. As a child, I lived in terror knowing that I was not able to be good enough. In my own church, I kept hearing that God was my Father. That didn't help either. My father was a drunk, profane, violent and unpredictable. In the midst of all this confusion, however, God initiated a relationship with me while I was still quite young. So while I have been a long time coming to understand the character of God, He has been patient and loving with me, teaching me, step by step, sometimes gently, sometimes not so, to trust Him.
ReplyDeleteI try to accept God as He is revealed in the bible, even when I do not understand.
ReplyDeleteIsaiah 55:7-11 reads "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.