Bible
Study: Zechariah 8, 1 to 8. And Luke 10, 46 to 50.
In our
analysis of yesterday’s readings, we identified jealousy as a sin which we must
avoid. Surprisingly, today’s first reading speaks of God as being jealous
thereby bringing to light the fact that jealousy can be of different categories.
There is a
jealousy that is sinful in that it leads to a bring-him-down-syndrome, this
kind of jealousy is aimed at the destruction of the person. However there is
another type of jealousy which is not sinful but holy, it is the type of
jealousy a mother has for her only child, a jealousy that guards the person,
protects him from any danger is goes at any length to provide for him or her. This
is the jealousy of God for us.
God is not
ashamed to be jealous for us because he truly loves us. He wants us to give our
hearts to him whole and entire. In the phrasing of the first commandment, God
says: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not
make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am
a JEALOUS GOD. Exodus 20, 2 to 5.
The reason
for God’s jealousy is simple: He want to dwell inside our hearts. This is what
we understand from the prophecy of Zechariah: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I
am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great
wrath. Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion, and will DWELL IN THE MIDST of
Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city.” Zechariah 8, 2 to 3.
God is so
jealous for our sake that he wants nothing else and no one else to occupy our
hearts. That is why the saying is so true that OUR HEARTS ARE RESTLESS UNTIL THEY
REST IN GOD. The summary of everything our hearts long for is God. Money,
beauty, relationship, etc., are poor substitutes. Only God can fill the heart
with deep inner satisfaction.
Let us
pray:
Lord Jesus,
increase my love for you and draw me nearer to you everyday. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy new week.
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