Exodus 34:5-17 (KJV) And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

One of the more interesting names of God is JEALOUS. God told Moses:

Thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD (I AM),
Whose Name is Jealous, is a jealous God …

I have heard people say “If God is perfect and holy, how can He be jealous?” Jealousy is not a sin in it’s proper context. Envy or Covetousness is always sinful. What’s the difference?

Envy or Covetousness is when you see what someone else has and long for it. When you drool over something that God has given to someone else you may be led to go after it. This is why the Tenth Commandment states:

Exodus 20:17 (KJV) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

To “covet” (Hebrew חָמַד chamad) means to “desire” or “lust after”. What God has given to your neighbor you should not covet or envy. Envy is to desire what another possesses. But
“jealousy” is to desire or treasure that which is yours. The Corinthian Church was founded by the work that the Apostle Paul did. He labored – even while imprisoned – to help these people come to a strong fellowship in Christ. But while Paul was imprisoned and unable to come to them other false teachers came in and tried to twist the Church to their ways. The Apostle said:

2 Corinthians 11:1-3 (KJV) Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

There is a godly Jealousy, and an UNgodly Jealousy. Paul labored in love for the Corinthians, suffering to bring them into union with Christ. When other false people came in Paul was jealous, and rightly so. He invested his life in those people. Paul and the Corinthians were together in a covenant of love.

There is a godly Jealousy and an UNgodly Jealousy. The husband or wife who smothers their mate, guarding every inch of their lives lest anyone or anything consider them, this is unreasonable Jealousy, ungodly Jealousy. But every good marriage or every good family has a certain amount of godly Jealousy. The husband should cherish and guard the wife, and the wife should cherish and guard the husband. What God hath joined together let not man put asunder. Godly Jealousy belongs in a marriage.

God was in a covenant of love with Israel.
God is in a covenant of love with His Church.
God is Jealous over His own.

1 If We Are Saved By God, We Belong To God And God Belongs To Us. As a Pastor over these many years I have had to counsel both men and women who came home from work to find their spouse in bed with another person. Such a thing is horrible to imagine. To find that person you shared your most intimate secrets with is having a fling with another truly must tear at the soul.

This very thing happened to God.

God saved Israel from Egypt. Had God not intervened the Israelites would have died a slow and truly painful death as slaves to these idolatrous Egyptians. God led them through the Red Sea, through dry deserts, and up to the foot of Mount Sinai. At the foot of Mount Sinai God told Moses to come up into the Mountain, that He was going to give His Beloved His Law. There were not just Ten Commandments on these stones, though the Ten Commandments were the first part of the Covenant. These two Tablets were called called “Tables of Testimony”:

Exodus 31:18 (KJV) And {God} gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

What was the first three of the Ten Commandments? God told His people:

Exodus 20:2-7 (KJV) I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or 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: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

It is God that saves us, God Who delivered us from this world. God translates us, the Bible says. We are by faith:

Colossians 1:12-14 (KJV) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us {partners} of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

God translated Israel from the bondage of Egypt. God translates every believer in Him from the darkness and enslavement of this world and into the Kingdom of His Son. We come from darkness and into His marvelous light.

1 Peter 2:9-10 (KJV) But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

God says to His Israel, “I am the God – the Big G God – that saved you from the horror of Egypt”. You remember Egypt don’t you? The daily beatings. The poor rations. The many little g gods. That was Egypt. Moments of happiness, separated by hours and days and weeks of misery. Before the Red Sea the nation of Israel was but slaves. After the Red Sea they are now the people of God. Before Christ you were but a voiceless slave to Satan and this world. Now after Christ you are the people of God.

God saved us. This is why the first three commandments say:

• Recognize God is first (with your minds). Thou shalt not have any other gods before Me! God is first and foremost in the minds of His people. It is He that made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100).

• Recognize God is first (with your bodies). Thou shalt not make any graven image, nor bow down to them. God alone is to be worshiped.

• Recognize God is first (with your lips). Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain. The Lord will not hold Him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.

God saved Israel because He loved Israel. God saved you because He loves you. The Bible says:

1 Corinthians 6:20 (KJV) For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Corinthians 7:23 (KJV) Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

God bought us from the slave market of Egypt, of this world. We no longer belong in that place. We belong to Him, and He belongs to us.

2 Idolatry Is When We Define Who God Is. God Only Can Define Who God Is. Moses went up into the Mountain in Exodus 20 to receive God’s Law. The Bible tells us that …

Exodus 24:18 (KJV) Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Time passed as God gave Moses the Law. The Lord could have given Moses the Law in one second, but God wanted Moses to understand so that he could explain this Law to the people. As time passed the people got restless. Sinai is in Arabia, the country of Esau and Ishmael, ancient enemies of Israel. So the people started getting nervous. Moses was gone. They were exposed. Rather than look UP they looked AROUND. As God spoke to Moses, Israel spoke to one another and Satan whispered to their hearts.

Exodus 32:1 (KJV) …. when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

Where the King James renders this as “make us gods” what the text literally says is “make us Elohiym {אֱלֹהִים}”. Elohiym is one of the names of God. In fact, Elohiym is the FIRST name of God used in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1 (KJV) In the beginning God {Elohiym {אֱלֹהִים} created the heaven and the earth.

Elohiym is the name of the Triune God. Israel said “make us a Trinity which shall go before us”. Make a god in our image. So they called Aaron and demanded that he make them a Trinity. Aaron – a beautiful picture of the false religion of our day – said

Exodus 32:2-4 (KJV) Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

An idol is a representation of God, a false god, an untrue god. God does not need our money. God owns a thousand cattle on a thousand hills. The earth is His, and the fulness thereof. He gives us our money, and our power to earn our money. But God is not made with our money. We cannot melt gold down and make God. God is.

God is not a golden calf, either. Israel made a golden calf because idols expect things of you. Give your money and God will give you milk. Give your firstborn and God will give you something in return. An idol is a representation of God, a manufactured god, and no true god at all.

An idol is a slap in the face of the True God.
An idol is US defining God apart from His Word and His Law.

God told Moses:

Exodus 32:7-8 (KJV) … the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

God was going to destroy these people. Idolatry is one of the greatest of all evils. When Churches turn away from the Living God to the golden calves, the Gospel is hidden. Idolatry is evil. God loves His people, but will not tolerate idolatry. He has said:

Deuteronomy 4:23-24 (KJV) 23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. 24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

God is passionately in love with His people, and wants His people to be passionately in love with Him. He says

Nahum 1:2-3 (KJV) God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

An idol cannot save, nor can an idol defend us. God loves us, and will avenge us, because He loves us. God demands our love in return, and is hurt when His children care little for Him.

3 How Does God Define Himself? God is not a golden calf! Moses comes down the mountain and runs the idolaters out of the camp. Israel broke faith with God, and Moses broke the Tablets of Testimony. Yet God is faithful. God tells Moses to return up the Mountain, to receive the Law once more. Before God gave the Law the second time – once more written with the finger of God – we are told:

Exodus 34:5-7 (KJV) And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

The LORD proclaims the Name of the LORD. What does God say of Himself?

• He is the LORD, the Self Existent God. The Great I AM. Without beginning, without end, above all, and the Maker of all.

• He is the LORD God. There is no other God than the God of Scripture.

Isaiah 45:5 (KJV) I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

Isaiah 44:6 (KJV) 6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

This Sunday night we will see that God is Alpha and Omega. There is no God besides our God.

• Our God is merciful and gracious. Israel did not deserve the salvation of God, yet He saved them nonetheless.

Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV) because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.

It was all of Grace that God saved Israel. It was all of His merciful Grace that He did not destroy that stiff necked people.

• Our God is longsuffering, patient.

Psalm 86:15 (KJV) But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

• Our God is abundant in goodness and truth.

Exodus 34:7 (KJV) Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

God forgives transgrssion, iniquity, and sin – but will not clear the guilty. To those who repent and turn to Him He is ever faithful. But God does not condone sin. And God jealously guards His people. He loves us in Christ. And God warns His people:

Exodus 34:12-15 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

The policy of the Child of God is that we love our God and Him alone. We make no provision for other gods in our lives. We make no compromise with the unbeliever, for light has no compromise with darkness. We will not compromise with their altars, their images, their groves. We love Him Who first loved us.

He loves us. We love Him. Forever!

May God touch your hearts with His Word!