Passage: Exodus 34:10-16
The Big Idea
God takes a stiff-necked people as His own and makes a covenant with them, like a marriage. And because He loves them, He is jealous for their love. His jealousy isn’t a green-eyed monster; it’s a red-faced lover who won’t share His people with idols that will only hurt them.
The Surprising Reason
Moses had just asked God to go with the people, to be close to them and take them as His inheritance. It’s like an unworthy child asking a wealthy family to adopt him, or an unfaithful woman asking a wonderful man to marry her.
And what reason did Moses give? Even though they were a stiff-necked people (Exodus 34:9). Some translators even render it “because we are stiff-necked.”
Not because they were good. Moses had learned that God is full of grace, and if that’s true, God would delight in saving the wretched, the weak, the broken. The very reason God had given for destroying them became the occasion for His mercy.
My sinfulness should be the reason God abandons me. But when grace comes in, my sinfulness becomes the very thing He comes to save, because God gets more glory by forgiving and transforming me.
Jesus said He didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Matthew 9:13). The sick need a doctor.
The Pharisees complained that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them (Luke 15:2). The idea that God is a God of grace offends people who want to impress Him with their performance. Bummer for them. Good news for us.
Paul entrusted believers to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build them up and give them an inheritance (Acts 20:32). Grace gives us an inheritance, and it transforms us so that we become God’s inheritance: born again, changed, beginning and continuing, justified and sanctified.
This process of change isn’t a list of rules. It’s more like falling in love: letting His love change how we see things and ourselves. His love for sinners is what makes us saints, both in standing and in practice.
When Someone You Love Loves Someone Else
What do you feel when someone you love gives their love to someone else? Jealousy.
Sometimes jealousy is wrong, especially when we have no rightful claim. But when we do, jealousy is right. A husband rightly feels jealous over his wife’s love. Not because a law says she has to love him, but because their love is based on a covenant of promises. He longs for her freely given love.
God has shown He loves these people. He’s forgiven them, provided for them, taken them as His own, and now He makes a covenant to make them His inheritance. Like a man who finds a woman he loves and promises to be faithful and kind to her. What does he get out of it? He wants to be loved back.
“I loved you first, so that you might learn to love Me back. I chose you, so you could choose Me.”
Spurgeon urged believers to hide themselves under the banner of God’s jealousy. If God’s glory is wrapped up in saving me, he said, then I’m behind an unshakable rock. If it would dishonor God to let a sinner who trusts Him perish, and make people say He broke His promise, then I’m secure, because His glory and my salvation are tied together.
“Behold, I Make a Covenant” (Exodus 34:10)
God announced that He was making a covenant. In front of all the people He would do wonders never done in any nation on earth, and everyone around them would see the awesome work of the Lord (Exodus 34:10).
A covenant is a promise, like marriage. God takes them as His own. But it’s not on their terms; you can’t just do whatever you want when you’re married. God makes the covenant. If we’re doing this, it’s His way.
And look at His bold claim. He’d already done awesome things: ten plagues, the burning bush, the Red Sea, victory over Amalek, water from the rock, manna from heaven, fire on the mountain. But He says the next thing will be the truly awesome miracle.
What could be more marvelous than all those miracles? Transforming these people into His kind of people. Changing them by His love and faithfulness. God is most glorified by the work He does in our lives.
“Observe What I Command” (Exodus 34:11)
Get ready for a list of rules, right? Not really. The heart of it is, “I want your love.”
God promised to drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (Exodus 34:11). We’ll see this list often. These are peoples who wouldn’t choose God. He’s making room for those who are in relationship with Him.
Don’t Fall for Anyone Else (Exodus 34:12-13)
They were warned not to make a covenant with the people of the land, because it would become a trap. Instead, they were to tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their idol poles (Exodus 34:12-13).
Don’t fall in love with anyone else. It will only bring pain.
In your life, there will be a constant battle for your love and affection. God says, “Choose Me. I’ve already chosen you. So choose Me back.” Don’t even be nice to the temptation. Just tear it down.
Does that mean we should wage war on every evil in the world? Not in that sense. Our battle is spiritual: against anything that keeps us from enjoying our inheritance in Jesus.
That’s idolatry: anything we trust in or look to to meet our needs or give us worth. Jesus is jealous for that part of your heart. He deserves your faith. But we so often give our trust to something or someone else, like someone looking for worth in the arms of other lovers.
“Whose Name Is Jealous” (Exodus 34:14)
They were to worship no other god, because the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14).
The Hebrew word here, qanna, is used only of God. It means He won’t tolerate a rival.
He’ll fight anything that competes for your love. In a completely righteous way.
Sam Storms put it this way: divine jealousy is zeal to protect a love relationship. It’s the passionate energy that moves God to act against whatever stands in the way of His enjoyment of what He loves. The intensity of His anger at threats to the relationship matches the depth of His love. Jealousy in God isn’t a “green-eyed monster” but a “red-faced lover” who won’t tolerate rivals in His relationship with His people.
He’s earned their love. He asks for it. He’ll fight for it. But He won’t force it. He will warn them, though.
Playing the Harlot (Exodus 34:15-16)
A covenant with those nations would lead to compromise: an invitation to their sacrifices, then intermarriage, and soon Israel’s sons would be chasing after other gods too (Exodus 34:15-16).
If you choose to give your love to another, you’re the one who suffers. God isn’t the one ridiculed for unfaithfulness. We bear the consequences.
But that doesn’t make God a cold machine. He feels the pain of jealousy. His heart is torn when we choose another. Read Hosea to see the depth of God’s feelings about this.
A Heart Check
- Is there anything in my hands I won’t put down when I hear His voice?
- Is there anything in my heart I won’t surrender when He calls?
- Is there anything I treasure or need that comes before Him?
When His child chooses an idol over Him, God will lovingly discipline. He may take away our peace. He may bring the fire of discipline. But it’s always mixed with the mercy of His love and patience (Hebrews 12:5-11).
God is all in with us. And that means He invites us to be all in with Him.
How Do We Turn Around?
- Agree with God about the idol.
- Ask God for His Holy Spirit to change our hearts.
- Step forward in faith.
Grace Takeaway
God loved you while you were stiff-necked and chose you anyway. His jealousy isn’t insecurity; it’s the fierce, protective love of a husband who won’t let anything steal you away. Hide under the banner of His jealousy. You’re safer there than anywhere else.
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