The words of Elijah express
the hearts of all God’s people in every apostate age. “And he said, I have been
very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the
sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” (1
Ki 19:14) There is no doubt that God is jealous of His Bride, the Church which
the Lord Jesus purchased with His own blood. He says so time after time. But the
true people of God are jealous for God and His glorious name in the world.
Elijah was rebuked to some degree for his lapse of faith, for his inability to
see that there were other believers besides himself, and for his giving up and
requesting to die. But he was not rebuked for his “jealousy” for the living God.
Where there is love for God, there is holy jealousy for His glory and honor. The
subjects of the beloved King cannot bear to hear His name used with unholy
familiarity. Or hear His character misrepresented, His glory stolen and His work
diminished. As objects of His sovereign mercy we are jealous for the integrity
of His Gospel. It is His love letter to His people. It is the only source of
“good news” to such sinners as ourselves. It is the “power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes.” It is the Gospel “concerning His Son” in Whom He has
given “eternal life.” If we hear a gospel in which God is not just as well as
the Justifier it makes our very soul shriek with horror at the thought! If men
preach a gospel that exhibits God as weak, His will subject to the wills of men,
His works dependent on man’s acceptance or rejection and His success resting in
the hands of sinful man...we are indignant with jealousy for the Lord of hosts.
We are jealous for His true people. When they are assailed we stand in their
defense. When they are persecuted and cast out by the world we take them up. We
do not excuse or condone their errors but we forgive and receive them for
Christ’s sake because we are jealous for HIS glory! This jealousy does not make
us harsh, censorious or mean spirited. We are concerned for all men but
unwilling to compromise the honor of our God and Savior for any. We are willing
to sacrifice all that is ours but nothing that is His. One Hebrew scholar
defines this “jealousy” as “to be warmly concerned to vindicate injured honor.”
God’s elect seek the vindication of God’s honor whenever and by whomever it is
injured! Like Elijah, we are “very jealous for the Lord of hosts.”