What Am I Zealous For?

What Am I Zealous For?

The Pharisees and the scribes were very concerned with what Jesus was doing. They reacted and protested when He allowed His disciples to eat grain, and when He healed the sick on the Sabbath. They were zealous for the Law of Moses and Jewish traditions. Despite this, none of them reacted to animals and goods being sold in the temple, or to the money changers that were sitting there. Therefore, it must have shocked them when Jesus, upon finding those selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and the money changers in the temple, made a whip of cords and began driving them out of the temple.

“And He said to those who sold doves, ‘Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!’ Then His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.’” John 2:14-17.

Many people are zealous, but most often their zeal is not zeal for God’s house or His will, but rather for their own interests: I, me, and mine. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they became so zealous that they started complaining against the Lord when they were lacking the few goods they had in Egypt. This zeal drove them to create an idol, nearly stone Joshua and Caleb to death, and reject Moses as their leader. This zeal consumed them, so they died there in the wilderness. They were not permitted to enter the Promised Land.

Saul was so zealous for his own honor that, despite having been disobedient to God, he asked Samuel to honor him before the people. In the end, he was stripped of his kingdom.

It was completely different with Jesus. His zeal was to do the will of God. This zeal, which He demonstrated when He cleansed the temple, had been practiced in His own life, throughout His entire time on earth. “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.’” Heb. 10:5-7. Jesus’ zeal to do the will of God consumed all His self-will, so that it ultimately led Him to the cross, where He nailed the old man firmly and took the handwriting of requirements with Him. Then the way was opened for us, so that we also can become zealous for the will of God. Now this zeal can consume us according to the flesh, so that we drive out all honor-seeking, love of money, and everything that does not belong in the temple of our hearts. Within our hearts and minds, there must be purity and freedom; there must be worship of God and reverence for His will. God’s name is Zealous, so let us pray as we have heard Elias Aslaksen exhort us to do: Dear Zealous, make me zealous!