“I the LORD your God am a jealous God…”
Sermon by Tyler Been, Nashotah House Senior, delivered at St. Mary’s Chapel at Nashotah House on December 10, 2021
Reading: Isaiah 48:17-19
Our reading from the prophet Isaiah this morning gives us a short snapshot from chapter 48. Of course, the problem with snapshots is that we don’t have any of the necessary context; in the words of my bible college professors, “Context is key!” The context of Isaiah 48, in a word, is idolatry. In the beginning of chapter 48, the Lord tells Israel that it was because of their stubbornness that he tells them what is going to happen before it happens. Otherwise, they would give credit to their graven images and their metal gods. In other words, the Lord knows the hearts of the Israelites so well that he knows if he does not announce beforehand how he will bring salvation, they will assume their idols brought about their salvation. God is clear that he shows the vanity of Israel’s idols because he will not share his glory with another, especially an idol.
In verse 14 the Lord seemingly mocks Israel; he asks, “Who foretold that you would be freed from Babylon? Was it your idols?” And, as if the question weren’t rhetorical, the Lord answers himself, “I am the one who released you from Babylon. I raised Cyrus to do my bidding and stretch out his arm against Babylon. And because I am the one who did this, he will succeed in his mission.” Then, in verses 17-19, the verses read this morning, our Lord laments:
I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains, their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.
What all of this paints is a picture of God that we often don’t want to reflect on; it is a picture of a jealous God--so jealous that if he is going to give salvation, he is also going to get the recognition of being the one who did it. So insistent is the Old Testament about God’s jealousy that one cannot help but wonder if, alongside simplicity, impassibility, and omnipotence, jealousy ought to be added as a divine perfection of God. In fact, Isaiah 48 goes so far as to say that God only delays his wrath for the sake of his own name; he delays his wrath for the sake of his praise and so that his glory will not be given to another. The God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a jealous God.
It is tempting at this point to say something like, what are we to do with this? But notice what assumptions are lurking behind such a question. That question, what are we to do with this biblical depiction of God?, assumes that the depiction is problematic. Most likely this assumption is grounded in the idea that Jesus isn’t jealous in this way; and just like that, Fr. Bott is wondering if he should teach two classes on marcionism instead of one. To be clear, I am not speaking to some “liberal” out there; I am speaking to us, who, in what we probably think of as sophisticated christological interpretation of the Old Testament, do harm to its narrative. I am speaking to myself. Moreover, the question assumes that God’s jealousy is a problem the preacher or theologian has to solve, rather than something that should be graciously received as saving revelation.
And so, that is where we can start: God’s jealousy beats at the heart of redemption. To paraphrase Athanasius, it would not be fitting for the jealous God of Israel to let death have the final word about his creation. And so, the Father sends his Word so that death’s word may die. It is in this light that we ought to marvel at the Christ hymn of Philippians 2. The Word of God, the one we wait upon in this advent season, who although in very nature God, becomes a servant and becomes obedient unto death. And in doing so, he is given the name above every name, the name that the Father guards with an unfathomable jealousy. And at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord, all to the glory of the Father.
The jealous God of Israel has given Jesus the name above every name; he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; in him all things were created; and all things have been created for him; he is before all things and all things hold together in him; he is the head of the church, he is the beginning, he is the firstborn from the dead; in all things he has the supremacy; before Abraham was, Jesus is; he is the alpha and the omega; and to put it plainly, as the one who is given the name above every name, he is the jealous God of Scripture. Jesus’s love burns with jealousy; salvation in Jesus Christ is the triumph of God’s jealousy. God’s jealousy is not a problem to be solved but a mystery of salvation to be proclaimed, worshiped, and adored.
But make no mistake: the apostle Paul exhorts us to be imitators of God, not in jealous wrath, but by walking in the way of love and giving ourselves up for others, as Christ did for us. In other words, we do not curse our enemies but bless them; we do not take an eye for an eye but, when slapped, give the other cheek. We imitate the jealous love that breaks forth from the cross in Christ’s words, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Tyler Been is a senior student at Nashotah House and is an aspirant in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas.