TLIC FAMILY. DAY 31. JANUARY 31: A JEALOUS GOD.

THINK TOGETHER

Do you know what jealousy is? Have you ever been jealous of someone?

READ TOGETHER

God rescued his people, the Hebrews, from slavery in Egypt, brought them through the Red Sea, guided them across the wilderness and finally they made it to Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai God will make a covenant with his people. Do you remember what a covenant is? A covenant is a set of promises that join two people or two groups of people together.

When a covenant in made between a king and his people, often the king will ask the people to obey certain rules. And so, on Mount Sinai, God gave his people a set of rules called the Ten Commandments. Have you ever heard of the Ten Commandments? Can you name any of these ten rules that God gave his people?

But the Ten Commandments are more than just rules. They actually teach us who God is and what he is like. Listen to how the Ten Commandments start and see if you can hear what God is like:

Exodus 20:1-5. And God spoke all these words, saying, ² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any [idol] of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.

What is God like?

One of the ways that God describes himself is jealous. Now for us jealousy means that we want something that somebody else has, or that we want to be someone else instead of who God made us to be. And that’s bad because it shows that we don’t trust God.

But for God he is never jealous OF us. He is jealous FOR us. He wants us! And he wants us to want him. Not because he needs us. God doesn’t need anything or anybody. But God knows that we need him. We need his kindness. We need his love. We need his protection. We need everything that he gives us. And so because he loves us so much, and because he knows how much we need him, he gave us the Ten Commandments to show us that we shouldn’t worship other Gods or make idols of anything that’s not God.

Do you know what an idol is? It’s anything that we love or worship instead of God. God gave us all kinds of good things to enjoy, but sometimes we love God’s gifts more than we love God. We love food more than God. Or soccer more than God. Or video games more than God.

But God is jealous. He wants us to love him the most. Why? Because he knows that loving him is what is best for us. He is the only person and the only thing that will never let us down.

But we can only love God the most when we remember that he loves us the most. And that’s why God sent Jesus to us. Jesus came and obeyed all the commandments for us. Jesus came and died for our sins, proving that God loves us forever, even when we don’t always love him back.

Because of Jesus I know that God is jealous for me.

With Jesus I don’t have to be jealous of others because i know God loves me.

DO SOMETHING TOGETHER

Talk about idols together. What are some things in your life that could become an idol?

PRAY TOGETHER

Jesus,

Thank you for keeping all God’s commandments for me because you love me. Help me to not be jealous of others anymore.

Amen.

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