Exodus

On my way through Exodus now...There could be a lot to be written about the connections between God bringing the Israelites up out of slavery in Egypt and bringing His people up out of slavery to sin. I encourage you to read over the first few chapters of Exodus & think of it as God doing all those things for YOU in order to rescue you from your slavery! Especially read over Moses & Miriam's song of Deliverance in Exodus 15 as a song of praise for your own deliverance!
Also, if you're like me, and you can't get over how ridiculous the Israelites are for wanting to go back to Egypt so often, then you'll come to humbly realize that you actually do the same thing a lot when you think about going back to our "easier" life of sin rather than choosing to cling to God and trust His ways completely.

Another thing in Exodus is all the details about the ark of the covenant, consecrating the priests, how to make sacrifices, etc. In church this morning, we celebrated the Lord's Supper, and it just made me think all the more about how big of deal it is that we can approach God's throne with boldness & confidence because--and only because--of Christ's blood. I can't even begin to imagine what life would be like if that curtain hadn't been torn in two. Sure, the details in Exodus might get a little mundane, but it certainly shows how serious approaching God's Presence is. This is not a privilege that we New Testament Christians should take lightly!

And now for a verse that really stuck out to me when reading today: Exodus 34:14 AMP--"For you shall worship no other god; for the Lord, Whose name is Jealous, is a jealous (impassioned) God..."

I love that word impassioned! And then to think that this is so much of who God is that He says His very Name is Jealous! Check out the Dictionary definition for impassioned: filled with passion or zeal :  showing great warmth or intensity of feeling

Synonyms

ardent, blazing, burning, charged, demonstrative,emotional, fervid, feverish, fiery, flaming, glowing, hot-blooded, fervent, incandescent, intense, passional, passionate, perfervid, red-hot, religious, superheated, torrid, vehement, warm, warm-blooded

Antonyms: cold, cool, dispassionate, emotionless, impassive,unemotional

I am so thankful that we have a God that shows great warmth and intense feelings for His people, rather than a cold, emotionless, impassive god. When we truly know God and His impassioned character, why would we ever want to worship any other god?? Don't you think that's what God was longing for the Israelites to understand about Him all along? I think that's what He still longs for His people to know about Him--He is FULL of passion for us!

And all that made me think of a paper I wrote my junior year on discipleship for CORE 399. I've been cleaning out my computer and came upon it a while back. You can read the whole thing HERE if you're curious but the following paragraphs are really what applies to the jealousy idea. For a little background--protagonists are the good guys in the movies, antagonists are the bad guys. :) 

In an individualistic narrative, we are the protagonist. We think the story is centered on ourselves and that we are the most important. Essentially, this has been human’s problem from the day that we fell into sin. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree, they represented all of us telling God that we know better than Him, that we cannot trust Him to guide us, and that we must make the decisions on our own for how to best live our life. We became individualistic and independent, believing that we could live life on our own without relying on God every step of the way. 

Ever since that day, God, filled with perfect and holy jealousy for His Beloved, has been fighting for our hearts to come back to Him. We defined the antagonist as anyone who gets in the way of our story’s plot, and I believe that when we are a disciple of anyone or anything but Jesus Christ, our antagonist is God Himself. He will do anything to get His Beloved to fall in love with their Bridegroom again. He graciously lets our other stories fall apart until we realize that we are not intended to be the protagonist—God is. 

The key to being a disciple of Jesus Christ is realizing that we are not intended to be the protagonist in our story of life. When we are the protagonist, we are on a never-ending search to find satisfaction, but that will never be found until we fully surrender our stories to God and let Him be the protagonist. We need to recognize the privilege God has given us in being able to have a part—regardless of the size—in His story of Redemption and bringing the Kingdom here to earth.

So who is God to you--the antagonist or protagonist? Have you come to realize yet that this life is not about you? Ask the Lord to reveal more of that His Name--Jealous & Impassioned--really means. Ask Him to show you that His Story is the only one truly worthy of being followed. Tell Him that you want Him to be the protagonist from here on out. Thank Him for being the gracious antagonist letting your story fall apart.