God is jealous for his holy name because being good means guarding what is sacred.
We come now to the aspect of God’s holiness that may be the hardest for us to understand. Therefore, it is vital that we meditate on this, for anything we do not understand about God’s holiness seriously cripples our knowledge of God and hampers our properly revering him.
When we say that God is holy, it means that he is jealous for the honor of his name. He is holy because he guards and vindicates the honor of his name.
He does this because he alone is good, and he alone is God. Because he is good and God, he perfectly understands what is sacred and protects it. God rightly understands that there is nothing more sacred than his own name. Psalm 138:2 says, “You have exalted above all things your name and your word.”
Guarding what is sacred
All people guard whatever they regard as sacred. For example, one of the most sacred things in the possession of the U.S. government is the U.S. Constitution. I have been to the National Archives several times to view it. I found it displayed at the center of attention in a large, majestic hall along with other important historic documents. Thick, protective glass encases it. The room is dark, because light harms the ink and paper of the documents. There are guards throughout the building. (Actually, I think it is only a facsimile of the Constitution on display; they keep the original locked safely away.)
Suppose the administrators of the National Archives did not protect the Constitution with care. Suppose they decided to put the original document on a table, so anyone who wanted could have the experience of touching it. What if the administrators decided that even children should be able to hold and even write on it with crayons as a way of experiencing U.S. history? Would those administrators be good? Would they be doing their duty?
Suppose that terrorists tried to destroy the Constitution by blowing it up with a bomb. The terrorists charge into the building with guns drawn prepared to neutralize the armed guards assigned to protect the building and its documents. What would we say if the guards did nothing to stop the attack but instead ran out the back door in fear? Would we call these guards good? Would they be doing their duty? No, a good guard would shoot any terrorist seeking to harm the most sacred document in the nation.
We need the sacred
In any community, society, or family, when people profane what is sacred, that community begins to disintegrate unless someone vindicates the sacred. For what is sacred is the basis of all morality and values, meaning and significance. Therefore, it is good for humans that God is jealous for what is sacred, and that he vindicates what is sacred when it is profaned. God is good to us when he is jealous for his holy name. It is wrong for anyone to do anything less.
Our problem with God’s jealousy
Our problem with understanding God’s jealousy for his name is that we don’t rightly understand the sacredness of God’s name, reputation, and the idea of God. We don’t understand the sheer horror of violating his name. We hear God’s name violated every day. But to profane the Holy One is unthinkable to a good person. To violate the sacredness of God’s holy name is the horror of horrors, the evil of evils, because God is the ultimate holiness, the most sacred of all that is sacred.
We would react violently to hearing our own name defiled, or the name of a family member we love. But many react far less, if at all, when God’s holy name is profaned. This reveals how calloused and blind a person can be to God’s holiness. Our names do not have one billionth of the sacredness of God’s holy name, yet many are more concerned for the honor of their names than the sacredness of God’s name. They just don’t get it. And so, they don’t understand why God in his perfect goodness is jealous for his name, and why in his goodness he must be so. An absolutely good God could do nothing less than guard the most sacred name, the most sacred reputation, the most sacred idea in the universe from the defilements of evil persons. And that is so even when that name is his own.
An example of God’s jealousy for his holy name
Ezekiel 39:25–28 says:
“25 Thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, 27 when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land.”
So, God says, “I will be jealous for my holy name.” The word jealous first brings to mind its meaning in romantic relationships: “intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness” (Webster’s Dictionary). But Webster’s gives a second sense for the word jealous: “vigilant in guarding a possession.” The Online Dictionary puts it this way: “fiercely protective or vigilant of one’s rights or possessions.” God’s right and possession is the sacredness of his name and the sacredness of the idea of God. He is jealous for it, fiercely protective of the sacredness of his name, fiercely vigilant for the sacredness of his name. God is holy. He is good. So, he guards what is sacred.
Vindicating his holy name
And when God’s name has been profaned, sooner or later he vindicates it. In verse 27 above, God speaks of a time when he will have “vindicated my holiness.” The Online Dictionary says that the word vindicate has the meaning: to “show or prove to be right, reasonable, or justified.”
Sooner or later God will always vindicate the holiness of his name. He will show and prove that he has always been right, reasonable, and justified.
When we say that God is holy, we are saying he is jealous to vindicate his name.
What profanes God’s holy name
Obviously, God’s name is profaned when he is spoken against and when people say false things about him.
His holy name is also profaned when it is taken in vain. Therefore God protects his name with a command: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).
His name is profaned when people called by his name (Christians or Israelites) do wrong and unholy things, even if they never speak against him. For example, in Leviticus 20:3 God says of those who sacrifice their children to idols: “I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name.” In this case, God’s holy name is associated with something he hates.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: We do not fully understand the sacredness of God’s name, reputation, and the idea of God. We are not as jealous for the honor of God’s holy name as he is.
God’s way: God perfectly understands what is sacred and why he must protect and vindicate it. God’s jealousy for the honor of his holy name is one thing that makes him holy.
Life principle: We should treat the holy name and idea of God as the most sacred of all that is sacred. We should fear profaning his name either in speech or by doing something that associates God’s name with something he hates.