Ah, those dreaded words, "some assembly required." They bring fear and trepidation to any dad desiring to assemble something for his children. Over the years I have had the privilege of assembling many toys. Some I did quite well at and some not so good. The one thing that could not be questioned as I assembled those toys was my zeal to accomplish the task.
Interesting word - zeal. Webster's defines it as, "eagerness and ardent interest in pursuing something (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zeal?show=0&t=1327839871)." The Greek word that is translated as zeal, means the following:
excitement of mind; fervour of spirit
- zeal in pursing, embracing or defending anything
- zeal on behalf of or for a person or thing
- fierceness of indignation; punitive zeal
- an envious and contentious rivalry; jealousy
The same term is also used to describe the Lord Jesus Christ. John 2:17 reads, "And His disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." What had the Lord done that caused the disciples to immediately remember these words, which are also found in Psalm 119:139?
The Lord was at the Temple for the Passover and he observed the selling of oxen, sheep, etc... He observed the money changers. Although not the topic here, it is imperative to learn of the money changer and how they still exist today. The Lord, Himself was so full of zeal for the House of God, that He fashioned a whip and drove them all out of the Temple. He also poured out their coins and overturned their tables (John 2:13-16).
The question is why would the Lord demonstrate His anger this way? Because the House of God was intended to be a house of prayer for all nations, but it had become a den of thieves (Mark 11:17). We must see that immediately after driving these thieves from the Temple, "He taught, saying unto them... (Mark 11:17)." This was NOT an uncontrolled act. The Lord was completely in control, so much so, that He immediately imparted to them why He had done what He had done. It was because of zeal for the Temple of God.
These words of the Lord are also found in Jeremiah 7:11. Here Judah was being confronted for their defilement of the Temple. They were stealing, murdering, committing adultery, swearing falsely and going after other gods, etc... They would then go stand in the Temple and proudly declare "we are delivered" only to go on committing these very same things.
I reference this passage in Jeremiah to make the point that the zeal Jesus had was according to knowledge. The same thing that had occurred in Jeremiah's day was happening again.
Going back to Romans 10:3, we see that those who had zeal for God, yet without knowledge, were also, "... ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." Does this not describe modern day churches?? They are filled with people who may have a zeal for God, but have no interest in obtaining any more knowledge of God. Underlying this zeal is a desire to establish their own righteousness. Why? Because when confronted by the Scriptures we do not like it. We then have to concoct our own righteousness or find some "loophole" in the Scripture so as to ease our conscience or justify our position. The end result - we do not submit to God's righteousness because we have already submitted to our own. I recently read an article in which the following question was posed: How can people get different interpretations from the Scripture? The answer was insightful. We tend to come to the Scriptures with a preconceived idea of what we want Them to say. We already have our position or engaged in some type of behavior and we want the Scripture to support our position or our behavior. Rather we should come to the Scriptures open to what they clearly say and prepared to adjust our lives accordingly, whether we like it or not.
He must increase, I must decrease!
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