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Exodus 20:4-6:
4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
"Say to my people," spake the Lord in the ear of Ezekiel (11:5), "I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. Thus also what ought, but does not, come into it."
The all-seeing eye and the all-hearing ear of the Holy One of Israel are never impeded. The look of that eye bores down through everything; the hearing of that ear escapes no single vibration.
In one of the marble tombs at Syracuse the tyrant Dionysius managed to effect a wonderfully far-carrying echo, that he might overhear every conversation of his imprisoned opponents. Even now this echo returns most clearly the crackling sound of a sheet of paper at a distance of several hundred feet; and, as the story runs, nothing so kept these prisoners in check as this so-called "ear of Dionysius." They could not put it out of mind. They thought of it with every word. It dominated their spirit and their existence.
This is "what these wretched prisoners did for the sake of the ear of a man, but what do we do for the sake of the holy ear of that all-hearing God?
For Him Who not only sees, and sees through, everything we do, but to Whom, also, every word is known before it passes over our lips. Yea, Who scans every one of our thoughts which we will never put into words, and Who becomes aware of every impulse, every movement, every thrill, which will never crystallize itself into a thought within us, but which yet comes into our mind.
He who does not believe has no impression of God's all-knowing and all-hearing perceptive character; is not influenced by it; its power does not dominate him. He acts, speaks, thinks and lets his disposition operate as though there were no God Who watches him, overhears and inwardly penetrates him with His look.
But he who believes cannot be so. With him the fear of the Lord is identical with every awakening in the life of his soul; and when he thinks of God he avoids the evil deed for God's sake. He shuns the unbecoming word, suppresses the unholy thought, and checks everything sinful or demoniacal, that would enter into his spirit.
Only his soul is not always so fully awake in him. It is as though faith in him slumbers through whole parts of his life. And then he does not think of God, does not concern himself about God, and is almost insensible as to what God observes of his commissions and omissions in his inmost self—all of which leads to sin, till the conscience comes to act again, and God Himself awakens him.
Is then our faith-life derived from fear alone?
No, it is born from God-fearing love.
For already from Horeb it had been proclaimed to God's people; "I the Lord thy God am a zealous (a jealous) God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children" (Exodus 20:5).
For us it is a blessed privilege, if we may be near unto God, if we may enjoy His nearness and fellowship and may taste His hidden walk; but here, too, God responds to our spiritual feeling with a like feeling on His part.
For Him Who loves us more tenderly than a father it is a Divine joy when His child is mindful of Him, thinks of Him, goes out after Him, and seeks His holy fellowship. Then too, on the other hand, the love of God feels hurt when His child can forget Him, not think of Him, and is busy in mind with everything save with Him.
When He, so far as it depends on us, is the forsaken One!
For, in order strongly and deeply to impress upon the heart that outgoing of God's Father-heart after love's fellowship with His child, God in His Word does not hesitate to picture this love to us in the image of conjugal love.
With conjugal love enters zeal, the passion of jealousy which can not endure nor tolerate to be forgotten or forsaken by the object of its love.
In the love-picture of Ezekiel (16) the continual message is that Jehovah hath betrothed Himself unto Israel; and so also in the bride-picture of the Church, time and time again the passionate love which finds its unfolding in the relation of husband and wife is applied to God and His people.
Like as a bride lives for her husband alone, so must God's people live and exist alone for their God. And like as the desertion on the part of bride or wife most deeply hurts, insults and wounds the heart of bridegroom or husband, so that jealousy arises irresistibly, even jealousy burning like a fire, so, too, the Lord our God avows that He is moved by holy jealousy when His people, when His redeemed can forget Him, wander away from Him, and desert Him in His love.
Yea, even the wrath of quickened jealousy is not held back: "Who visiteth the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation."
So "to be near unto God" has its terrible reverse side. He who is not near unto God is near unto something else, turns his heart towards something else, gives his love to something else. And this provokes Divine jealousy.
Whether you then pawn away your love to your own self, to a human being as your idol, to the world, or to demoniac spirits, the Scripture condemns this always and unconditionally as a withdrawing of yourself from God, a violation of fidelity to God, a wandering away from the Holy One, a deserting of Him Who alone is worthy of all your love.
There is here no neutral ground. It is always a being busy in your heart with something, a giving of your heart to something, an allowing to enter into your spirit of something that does not extend itself after what is God, but what is God's creaturely competitor, and what, therefore, in the holy domain of love and affection is God's enemy and opponent.
And this awakens the holy jealousy.
Of course not as though there were ever passion in God; but instead of this there is in God an exquisite sensibility which in the mightiness of its working far exceeds all human passion.
With conjugal love among men what is known and observed hurts, but there is so much that is not known and therefore does not hurt. With wedded love among men there is also successful misleading, successful deception. And then, too, there is what does not hurt because it is not known. No bridegroom on earth can scan his bride to the center of her inner life and existence. There is here a broad domain that does not come into account.
But all this is unthinkable with the Lord your God. Nothing escapes Him in your doing or not-doing, in your thinking or speaking, in your inward ponderings or perceptions. He enters unceasingly, always more deeply into your being than the brightest beam of light into the bed of the stream.
And here no misleading avails, no putting forward of yourself other than you are, no hypocrisy. His all-penetrating look pushes every covering aside.
And these two taken together bring it about that the sensibility of the holy love in God is far more strongly aroused to jealousy than the strongest passion among men can ever quicken brooding envy.
Among friends it troubles us when no one thinks of us; but far more seriously does it hurt the bridegroom when he perceives that his bride is filled with other thoughts than of him.
This most tender love demands that we be interested in one another, that during temporary separation we shall live with one another in thought, and, while the separation lasts, cherish no other purpose than to seek one another again, to find one another again, and in each other's company to feel ourselves rich, happy and blessed.
Now apply this to your love for your God, to your avowal that it is good for you to be near unto Him. For that love, too, is unique. It is no love alongside of another love, but a love that far excels every other attachment, every other affection, and every other union of mind and heart, and must dominate them all.
Not, to love your wife, your child, your country and your God; but to love your God solely and alone; and from this love let the cherishing flow forth wherewith you also love wife and child, Church and native land.
And is it, then, too much that God asks of you, that you shall always be concerned with Him, that you shall always think of Him, that with your heart you shall always go out after Him, and that in your spirit you will repress everything that rises up within it to lead you away from Him, and induce you to forsake Him ?
Is not this jealousy of your God for your love, your very honor, your greatness, your glory? And is it not dishonoring to both yourself and to Him when you discard this holy urge of love, play with it, and for the sake of religious recreation spasmodically return to it, but for the rest withdraw yourself from it again, in order in your innermost soul to be busy with all sorts of things except with God?
The wound thereby inflicted in His holy love would not be so grievous, if your God could for a time forget you, like as you forsake Him. But that He cannot do. Before there is yet a word on your lips, behold, He knows it altogether. Your God Himself has said it: "I know every one of the things that come into your mind." Hence, let it be here repeated, every one of the things that ought to come into your mind, but remain away.
He knows, He feels it, every moment that you do not think on Him, are not engaged with Him, do not seek Him, do not crave His nearness, and shamefully live along outside of His hidden walk. And when, in the face of all this, you yet sing together with others: "But it is good for me to be near unto my God," is there then not something of a provocation that offends and must wound?
And if this is the reverse of desiring to be near unto God, confess, does there not go out from this an altogether unexpected, an altogether new impulse, to make your seeking of God's nearness an ever broader reality in your life?
So long as you view this being near unto God from your side alone, you can comfort yourself about any temporary loss of it, by calling to mind the rich blessedness of the single moments of its enjoyment. But when you view this being near to your God, this thinking of your God, this being engaged with your God, also from the side of Him Who loves you, then there mingles itself in this love-song an altogether different note.
Then you must not, then you will not grieve the Holy Spirit. Then it is not your soul alone that seeks God, but, far more, God Who awaits the love of your soul.
God Who, with holy jealousy is vexed every moment that you withdraw yourself from His seeking love.
* * * * * * *This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit
Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.
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