Loved by a Jealous God
Opening Prayer
God reveal Yourself to me as I humbly come before You in Your Word.
Read Exodus 34:1-14
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The New Stone Tablets
The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”
4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. 5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. 9 “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”
10 Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. 13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles. 14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
The most important thing about you is how you view God. What is God like? What kind of a God is our God?Moses was ready the next morning to see the glory of God (Exod. 33:18–23). God passed in front of Moses and declared his name, the Lord, as well as all the richness conveyed by that name. The Lord is compassionate and gracious. He is slow to anger. He is abounding in love and faithfulness (in
the New Testament: “full of grace and truth”; John 1:14). He is faithfully loving to thousands, a God who forgives sin, but not a God to be taken lightly, for he takes sin most seriously.
Moses had encountered the glory of God—a glory resplendent in selfless affection. Moses responded in the only way appropriate to an encounter with the glorious grace of God—he worshipped (8). God then gave Moses instructions regarding the purging of the land that lay before them (10–14). While the command might seem harsh to the inhabitants, God’s motives are clear: God wants his people to be faithfully his. They have just committed spiritual adultery with the golden calf, and now God wants their hearts undistracted from him.
God desires that their hearts be fully devoted to him. This jealousy is the entirely appropriate jealousy of a husband who desires that his love for his wife be reciprocated without distraction.
Apply
Is your heart prone to wander? How would a greater glimpse of God’s goodness draw your affections more fully toward him?
Closing prayer
Ask God to reveal an aspect of his character to you today—then keep your eyes open for it!
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