I did not expect to come to America. But just for this morning, I am thankful that I can share in your worship.
I have been in many places and have been in what is called worship, but so much is not their own words—borrowed words for worship. That is not worship to me. I am very thankful for the spontaneous worship from your heart.
Now we are going to read a few verses in Deuteronomy 6, beginning at verse 4 and going as far as verse 15.
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart;
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full; then beware lest thou forget the Lord, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; and Him shalt thou serve, and shalt swear by His name.
Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are round about you; for the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God; lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and He destroy thee from off the face of the earth.—Deuteronomy 6:4-15
O Lord, open our understanding. By Your Spirit, speak among us. We thank You that You speak. Give us the inner ear of the heart to hear, for Your name’s sake. Amen.
Verse 15 says, “For the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God.”
Turn back a little to Deuteronomy 4, verse 24.
For the Lord thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
—Deuteronomy 4:24
We do not often think about that. Perhaps we do not care to think about that.
I have never heard anyone speak on the jealousy of God, or God being a consuming fire—a very jealous God. Somehow, we like to think of Him otherwise.
Of course, He has so many names, and how precious those names are, because His names are His memorial. By His names we learn something of what He is.
The sad thing today is that while there are thousands of Bibles and thousands of people who read their Bibles, yet so few ever stop to really think upon God. Who is He? What is He like?
When the Lord appeared to Moses in the bush and commissioned him to go for the release of His people from Egyptian slavery, Moses hesitated and said, “What should I say? They will say, ‘Who sent you? What is His name?’”
And the answer was, “I AM THAT I AM.” That is very emphatic, is it not? It used to puzzle me: “I AM THAT I AM.” Whatever does that mean?
Well, it just means He is what He is, and He has not changed at all. “I am today what I was yesterday. I will be tomorrow what I am today.” And He added, “My name is My memorial.”
Here it is: a jealous God. That is His name. It says in Exodus—not Exodus 24; I have missed the reference—“My name is Jealous.”
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
—Exodus 34:14
We do not like the word jealous, because we associate something cruel with it—suspicion.
With what is jealousy usually associated? It is with the relationship of husband to wife. That is usually where we hear it used. A husband is jealous of his wife, or a wife is jealous of her husband.
Should not the husband be jealous of his wife, and should not a wife be jealous of her husband? Jealous of what? Of their affection.
We have every right. I have a right, as a husband, to be jealous of my wife’s affection. What does that mean? That it should not by any means be diminished, but that I might always retain it.
The husband should retain his wife’s affection and be jealous about it, and equally the wife. Why? Because if it is not retained as it was in the beginning, the first love disappears, or it diminishes. Then there is attention to others.
But while the first love is there, there is attention for only one. You have regard for my wife—I am pleased, because I love her.
First love for the Lord is very wonderful. How important it is that it should continue, because while He has our affection focused on Him without distraction, our relationship is preserved in holiness.
But in any degree that my love for Him is diminished, then other interests come in and He can be supplanted.
When was it that the Lord declared repeatedly, “I am a very jealous God”? It was at Sinai, in Exodus 20.
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate Me.—Exodus 20:4-5
What is happening here between the Lord and the nation at Sinai? A covenant is being established. That is what happened when they were assembled before the mountain. A covenant was being established, outlined by the law, or what we call the Ten Commandments.
And what was this covenant, really? It was the equivalent of a marriage covenant. Do you understand that?
It is in that context that this occurs: “a very jealous God, a consuming fire.” It occurs first in Exodus, with the first generation. It occurs in Deuteronomy with the second generation. The Lord is reminding them of this marriage covenant.
They committed themselves by two simple words. Do you know the shortest sentence in the English language? The shortest sentence in the English language is the longest of all, and it is two words: “I will.”
You said that when you got married, did you not? “I will.” How long? As long as we live.
We are committed by two words to one another. It is not a contract. A contract can be broken, but a covenant cannot. There is a difference between marriage and a contract. It is a covenant.
And here the Lord said, “I will,” and He heard the people say, “I will.”
See Exodus 24. This is when He appeared to the people on the mountain. What did the people say?
All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.
—Exodus 19:8
Then, in Exodus 24:7:
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient.
—Exodus 24:7
Here is the commitment. Here is the marriage of the nation Israel to the Lord. The second generation, when we come to Deuteronomy, is reminded of that, and reminded of the fact that God is jealous. There should be no distraction from their commitment or affection.
As we read in Deuteronomy 6:5:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
—Deuteronomy 6:5
These words were written on the heart, on the hand, on the forehead, on the doorpost, and on the gate. Very important: love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
That is the term of the covenant: keeping faithful to the Husband. How serious it is when there is unfaithfulness.
You know that little book of Hosea? What a gem, a treasure. But what a story—unfaithfulness on the part of the wife, and the husband did not know whether the children were his or not. That is the result of unfaithfulness. We cannot be sure whose children they are.
There should be no doubt about whose children are God’s children. Our God is a consuming fire.
I was arrested the other day when I read the words of our Lord in Luke 12:49.
I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I, if it is already kindled?
—Luke 12:49
Now, if I asked you why our Lord came into the world, I wonder how many of you would say, “That you might have life, and might have it abundantly.” Or, “I came not to judge the world.” But we do not often think of these words: “I came to cast fire on the earth.”
Fire. We do not want fire. What does that mean? He means a knowledge of God.
We know God is life; John tells us. John tells us that God is love. But here we read in the Old Testament that God is fire. What is it our Lord came to do? Not only to save us, but to cast the knowledge of God as He is into the earth.
How we need to remember: He is fire.
Of course, we are afraid of fire because we think only in terms of destruction. But that is not the only business of fire, is it?
Fire in the Old Testament came down and consumed the sacrifice. It was evidence that God had accepted it. In Leviticus 9:24, when the sacrifice was prepared, fire came down. God kindled a fire on the altar, and it was never allowed to go out.
But what did the fire do? If you notice the details of those sacrifices, fire did two things. There were always ashes following fire.
We read about the ashes of the sin offering, and we read about the ashes of the burnt offering. You say, “Well, are those the same?” Yes, they were both carried to the same place—a clean place outside the camp. Surely there is a difference.
The ashes of the sin offering indicate judgment of sin. We all agree with that, would we not? Sin must be judged. It is not only offensive to God; it is hurtful to us.
But the ashes of the burnt offering—what was the burnt offering? It was a particular expression of the devotion of the Son to the Father, expressed in the words:
Lo, I am come (in the roll of the book it is written of Me)
to do Thy will, O God.—Hebrews 10:7
Here at last is a Man totally devoted to the will of God, so that the Father can say:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
—Matthew 3:17
That is the excellence of our Lord Jesus Christ: the devotion of the Son to the Father, unto death, even the death of the cross.
God has got it. That is jealousy. The Lord has got what is due to Him, and He delights in it.
When Israel was united by this covenant at Sinai, it was to be for God’s pleasure, for God’s praise, and for the dissemination of His knowledge in the earth. God has zeal, and God has jealousy.
But how frequently and persistently the affections of God’s people have been tampered with. There is constant reference throughout Old Testament history to alternatives that the people had to the real, the true Husband—the divine God.
Idolatry—what is idolatry? It is the fruit of human imagination.
In India, they say there are thirty thousand gods for the Hindus. What does it mean? It means man’s imagination has been going out after God, but then they model according to their imagination. That is their god.
Why did God say that He is fire? Because you cannot make an idol of fire. Even if you paint a picture, it is not really fire, because fire is alive. You cannot make an idol of living water either.
Anything that is an alternative to the Lord is an abomination, and it is a deception.
But this is a tragedy. Having committed themselves in a marriage vow at Sinai, the nation accepted alternatives, and their affections were alienated from the truth to the false.
As we read the Old Testament, we find at least one man who shared the jealousy of God. We read about him in Numbers 25.
Here we read the sad event following Balaam’s prophecies. In Numbers 25, we will read the first three verses.
And Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab:
for they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.—Numbers 25:1-3
Then verse 6:
And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.
—Numbers 25:6
And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand;
and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.—Numbers 25:7-8
Twenty-four thousand died in the plague because of this illegitimate intimacy.
Then, in verse 10:
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy.
—Numbers 25:10-11
Here is a man who had the jealousy of God. I wonder if we do. Do we have the jealousy of God for the purity of His people? Are we really concerned where there is any evidence of unfaithfulness to this marriage relationship?
Here is one man in the Old Testament. There is another in the New Testament: 2 Corinthians 11.
I would that ye could bear with me in a little foolishness: yea, do bear with me.
For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.—2 Corinthians 11:1-3
He is expressing his jealousy—the jealousy of God in him—for the church in Corinth. Why? Because she is betrothed. She is not the bride; she is the betrothed of the Lord.
The bride, of course, is a term that belongs to the age to come, not this time. But Paul is aware of what the church is to Christ. She is the betrothed, and he is sharing God’s jealousy for her protection from any kind of unfaithfulness or defilement.
Generally, when we have a marriage, you have the bridegroom and the bride. Then there are the bridesmaids, and there is the best man. Who is the best man? The friend of the bridegroom.
I had been best man three times before I was married. What is the duty or privilege of the best man? In modern days, it may differ. You have got to see that there are enough cars for all the people, or enough treats at the reception.
But that is not the pattern here. The responsibility of the best man is to see that there is no accident, no defilement, between the betrothal and the wedding.
Paul is speaking like the best man here. John the Baptist spoke about himself as the friend of the Bridegroom, did he not?
The spiritual, the moral condition of the church was a deep exercise on the part of the apostle. He had the jealousy of God.
Now we read in the Old Testament that there is a law of jealousy. Jealousy must be godlike. There can be jealousy of other kinds, as I have said, but there is a law of jealousy.
We go back to Numbers 5. Here we get the law of jealousy.
This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goeth aside, and is defiled;
or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon a man, and he is jealous over his wife; then shall he set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.—Numbers 5:29-30
This is a summary of something that has gone before, showing how the law is to be applied.
Some people get very offended with these verses. Between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two, I was a member of a Baptist church. But at the age of twenty-two, I had to go to the pastor and say, “I am resigning my membership.”
I had read the Bible, and I understood that he was not really preaching the Word. So I told him I had come to resign my membership because he was not faithful to the Scriptures.
He suddenly said, “You want me to accept that passage in Numbers 5, about that trial of the woman suspected of unfaithfulness? You want me to accept that as the Word of God?”
Well, I knew what he was referring to. I saw that too, but we had not read the passage. I said, “I do not understand it, but I accept it as the Word of God.”
But now, thank God, I understand it, and I am going to share it with you. Of course, you may know already, but it does not matter. Let us be refreshed in the knowledge.
Here is a husband who suspects his wife of unfaithfulness. He has not the evidence, but he is suspicious. There was a procedure here to protect the wife and to protect himself.
The procedure is simply given to us in those verses. He must bring his wife before the priest, because this matter must be examined and tested—whether she has been unfaithful or not.
As he brings her before the priest, he is to put a grain offering in her hand. With the grain offering in her hand, in the presence of the priest, the priest is to tell her how solemn it is if she has been unfaithful to her husband, and to gain her agreement that sin of that kind must be judged.
In addition to what is in her hand, the priest takes holy water and dust from the floor of the sanctuary, puts the dust into the water, and that water becomes bitter. Now she must drink that water.
That water is going to witness whether she is guilty or not. As he recites the procedure to her, and the fact that this unfaithfulness is sin, he gets her consent to judgment.
It says in verse 22:
And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy body to swell, and thy thigh to fall away: and the woman shall say, Amen, Amen.
—Numbers 5:22
She is accepting the test and accepting the judgment. It is going to be proved whether she is faithful or unfaithful.
The priest, after he has obtained her consent to that judgment, then uses the water to blot out the charge against her. It is a very graphic, climactic, real experience.
Unfaithfulness is so bad, so sad, and so damaging to the family relationship. It must be arrested; it also has to be dealt with.
What happens? Well, the woman is cleared; she is not guilty. And the husband is clear. He must follow this procedure; otherwise, he can be identified with her unfaithfulness.
Here is a lovely message concerning another One who was jealous for God. In the Old Testament it was Phinehas; in the New Testament it was Paul. But there is another, is there not? “I am very jealous for the Lord God.”
It says in Psalm 69, a great prophetic psalm concerning our Lord. See what it says in verse 9:
For the zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up;
and the reproaches of them that reproach Thee are fallen upon me.—Psalm 69:9
That is in the context of other statements that clearly identify it with our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4 says:
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head:
they that would cut me off, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty:
that which I took not away I have to restore.—Psalm 69:4
And verse 21 says:
They gave me also gall for my food;
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.—Psalm 69:21
What was the Lord doing in all this cost, in all this experience, in all the sufferings of His cross? He was restoring what He took not away.
What had been lost? The affection of His people.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
—Deuteronomy 6:5
That is what had been lost. What was He doing in all the agony of His cross? He was recovering. He was restoring what He took not away.
Psalm 69 is referred to in John 2. When the Lord cleansed the temple, His disciples remembered these words.
His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for Thy house shall eat me up.
—John 2:17
The Living Bible says, “Zeal for My house is My undoing.” The jealousy of the Father for the affections of His people meant that there would be no unfaithfulness, no idolatry, no substitute for the real.
This wonderful relationship by covenant, which God had made with His people, was to continue in strength and not be annulled.
When we think again on Numbers 5, our Lord is here represented, perhaps not fully, by the husband who puts the offering in her hand in the presence of the priest.
That husband does not give her to drink the bitter water. What did our Lord do? He drank the cup.
That is what we have been reminded of. He drank the bitterness of our unfaithfulness, our diminished love, our fluctuating affection—exposing us to so many things that are grievous to Him.
But what has He done for us this morning? He has put a little offering in our hands.
We took the bread this morning. We did so in His presence, under the scrutiny of the great High Priest. What was the purpose? “Remember Me,” He says.
But not only that: we are to examine ourselves, to see if there is unfaithfulness to our Lord in any degree.
It is wonderful. It is a wonderful occasion, coming together like this on a Sunday morning. Let us have as much of its significance as we can.
When we are in His presence with the bread in our hands, think of the Numbers situation. It was to bring iniquity to remembrance. That grain offering in her hand, it says, was a memorial to bring iniquity to remembrance.
If we follow the advice of our Lord when we take the bread and the wine, we surely give Him an opportunity to show where there is some decline in our attention to His Word and our obedience.
So, brothers and sisters, our God is a jealous God. It does not frighten me any longer.
He is fire, but not to destroy—to appropriate.
He is among us this morning in His fire character. Is He finding that which He can appropriate with pleasure?
Are we walking in holiness? Is there no unfaithfulness in our relationship to Him?
Are we still loving Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength? That is what our time together on Sunday mornings should contribute to.