For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.-EXOD. xx. 5, 6. EALOUS JEALOUS teriorate. Without LECT. IV. US God! is a strange word. Without a doubt it runs risk of misinterpretation, just Words debecause we are so apt to place their lowest meanings upon words. Nothing is more suggestively sad than the deterioration which words undergo at the hands of time, that is, of man. become tainted and noble ones abased. Pure ones Once it was possible to speak of our Lord as the "silly Jesus," meaning meek and gentle; now "silly" is only an adjective of contempt and scorn. Jealous may be So this word "jealous" may be construed un- The word worthily. All unconsciously we may import into it some of the worst feelings of our fallen hearts. understood Instead of a noble word, guarding man's deep sense. in a low LECT. IV. It rouses pride. interests in holiness, it may only seem a selfish one, envious of human freedom and enjoyment. The Greeks believed that their chief god, Jove, was a jealous god, and they conceived of him as launching his thunderbolts against all the great and lofty, because he could not endure their greatness and was envious of it, or wished to show that he was greater. We can see a reason for guarding ourselves against a superficial judgment upon this word. "jealous." The human heart is impatient at the secret restraints which it enforces. There is in it that which challenges instinctive feelings of pride. It naturally rouses a wilful resentment. Therefore it inevitably follows that man will try to think meanly of Divine jealousy as something unworthy. In this way his own disobedience and resentment get a sort of justification. Think of The belief this. In the earliest Christian times there arose a set of "Gnostics," or wise ones, who were called Ophites or serpent worshippers. And what suppose you was their doctrine? "The serpent in Genesis was the Saviour of mankind, the champion of liberty, intelligence, and progress. . . . whilst Jehovah, His adversary, was the jealous God." A proud mind and corrupt heart hate whatever restrains or reproves them. of the Ophites. That old story of Eden, repeated in the tempta would have us resent the Divine jealousy. tion of the Son of man, how true it is to-day! LECT. IV. "I know you," says the tempter; "Isympathize Satan with you fully, with your feelings and natural aspirations. I will take off from your conscience just that one moral restraint which your wilful natures cannot bear. I know the pinch, and there I will leave you free; you shall be your own masters, to possess all the world at peace and in ease if you will only fall down and worship me. I will disturb you neither in business, nor pleasure, nor religion. I am no jealous God.' And to-day men believe it, and worship not Jehovah but the serpent, who says, "Ye shall be as gods." through Let us pause then reverently before this word The word "jealous "jealous." As the true conception of the Divine only to be nature is not the result of human thinking, but understood of revelation, so as to this special aspect of God's reverence. nature, “jealousy," we are still to be taught of God Himself. He will show us what He means. We must not limit it by human feeling, or think that in human jealousy there is an adequate representation of the Divine. Let us grasp the idea that it is not God who is made in the likeness of men, but men in the image of God. Man does not represent what God is, but God in revelation, in Jesus Christ, represents what man should be. All the ideals of every part of man's moral nature God is man's ideal. LECT. IV. Jealousy an instinct. Jealousy are in God. What is deeply, blessedly true is, that being made in the image of God, our human feeling, though corrupted and finite, is still of the same nature as God's feeling, and therefore is the medium through which we can understand Him. Our whole capacity for religion lies in this fact, "made in the image of God." When we question our own nature with true reverence jealousy stands out as one of its deepest instincts. It does so apparently just because we are moral, that is, possess a sense of right and wrong; and just because we are affectionate, that is, are capable of yielding ourselves to another, of possessing and being possessed. For what is "jealousy"? The whole self concentrated in the feeling of love wounded, wronged, outraged. It is not a feeling of the will, but of the nature behind the will, if I may so speak, a feeling that arises because an object rouses it, as when we suffer pain from a blow. And this also is true, that just in proportion as a man is noble will be his jealousy, because the more he is able to love the more he is able to suffer through love. The purer love is and the deeper it longs; the more it gives, the more it yearns for adequate response. Because it is a passion, a hunger of the heart. It is the very life of life. Therefore rob true pure love of its due, and it must ache; it burns as with a fire, which LECT. IV. many waters cannot quench. love. What then His jealousy? We fail to because realize weak in love. But God's love is perfect, God's nature is ab- God is solute in holiness. With Him this jealousy feels, aches, works amidst manifold perfections. Apply then the idea as personally as you please, but with measure as infinite as possible. Love is God's essential being. "God is love. What then must be his capacity of jealousy? We fail to realize His jealousy's power and glory and awfulness, chiefly because we don't feel that the "Love" loves us as its very own, and that we belong to it, body, soul, and spirit. We know that the wife belongs to the husband and the husband to the wife, these mutual claims are real to us, but we do not realize the ownership of the Father of our spirits, "in whom we live and move and have our being. "" The sense of Divine love being weak, the idea of Divine jealousy is perverted. We have so little of the feeling of the child that we are not able to judge of the heart of "Our Father. دو Thus then the love of God interprets His As jealousy. As is the love so is the jealousy. |