All Your Love

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Exodus 34:11-14

Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you. You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles (for you shall worship no other god, because the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).

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Gimme all your lovin'
All your hugs and kisses too.
Gimme all your lovin'
Don't let up until we're through.

"Gimme All Your Lovin'" written and recorded by ZZ Top from "Eliminator"

Here's something we don't talk much about anymore, a jealous God. It's scriptural and fashionable to say "God is Love." Shoot, it's so true you will find those very words in this devotional more than once. But it doesn't stop this very ancient truth. The Lord is a jealous God.

We ought to break this down with a touch of history. In the ancient of days, there were many Gods who ran a variety of enterprises. In fact, the word "polytheistic" means "many gods." This is what we generally associate with the ancients. In truth, we should be using the word "pantheistic" instead. This means "all gods." The ancients believed in Gods as a way to look at creation.

Different peoples had different Gods. Each had its own stable of Gods who took care of sun, rain, wind, planting, harvest, love, lust, and on and on. But the Hebrews established something different. One single God, a God Christians know in three persons, who is supreme over all.

This is the Lord who is jealous. This is the Lord who knows that creation prays to gods that are worthless and is jealous. This is the Lord who is sick and tired of others getting the love that the Lord alone deserves.

More than this, this is the Lord is the God who wants these things from us and all creation.

God wants all our love and all of our hugs and kisses too. The Lord who created all things seeks a relationship with all creation. God seeks relationship... with us. So when we run off with idols, it is no wonder the Lord is jealous.

Caution here though, we no longer worship Baal or Zeus or any of the other ancient gods, but there are still other Gods we seek. These include fame and power and wealth. So beware, while our gods may shifted, the Lord is still the only god who deserves our love.