Jealousy - Rom 10:19-21 -

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/220933340052

 

"Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, >>I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.<< Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, >>I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.<< But of Israel he says, >>All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.<< (Rom 10:19-21)"

 

Mr. Kim was a very rich man. His wife got married into his house, and at first she served and honored him very well, thinking he was her overlord. But Mr. Kim became almost a stranger in his house when she bore a son. One day, Kim at mealtime saw his wife putting the best part of the food on her son's plate even first, not on his plate. Kim thought that perhaps she must have done it by mistake. However, after that, he carefully paid attention to her behavior, and found that it had not been a mere mistake. Kim felt miserable. As the son grew up, he learned something from his mother who did not respect her husband faithfully. So he did not like his son's behavior toward him, and thought, 'Have I got married to see this?'

 

The next day, Kim brought home a pretty girl who was an orphan. And when bringing her, he said to her, "Can you consider me as your father, and respect me as your real father? If so, I'll be your father who would certainly take responsibility for your future and take care of you. I'll let you study until college, and help you have a good marriage, and you'll inherit my property as much as my own son. Do you want to be my daughter?" The girl promised him to do so.

 

The house fell into great confusion. The wife raised her voice, saying, "Haven't you cheat on me and got this child?" And the son yelled at the girl, "Why do you call my dad your father?" Kim spoke sternly to the mother and son, "This is my daughter from today. This house is mine. I regard this kid as my own daughter. And with my money, I'll raise her as my own daughter, and she will inherit my property as much as you will later. You two, mother and son, haven't respected me as husband and father, so why should I not be called dear father and respected as a father with my own money?"

 

 

As the two were angry with him and turned on him, Kim, the next day, brought two orphans, a boy and a girl, to his house and made them his children.

 

Knowing what kind of man he was, she began to weep and beseech him, saying, "Honey, I'm sorry. From now on, we, mother and son, will serve and respect you the most. So send them away with some money from this house!" But Kim said, "It was I that first chose them. They call me father. I first proposed to take responsibility for their future. How can I first betray them and desert them? It's impossible!"

 

In the end, the two, mother and son, who treated Kim insincerely and didn't respect him had to inherit much less property than they could have inherited when they respected him indeed. The three orphans, thanks to the two who didn't respect Kim became Kim's children and were dealt with as well as Kim's own son was. Of course, after the three children came in, the mother and son could not look down on him.

 

Are you a rich man who has not received due respect from his wife and children? You can do as Kim did, which is not a sin. Rather, if you behave yourself like that, you're an imitator of God! God made the Gentiles his people when his people Israel fell into idolatry and did not fear him. Thanks to unfaithful Israel, the Gentiles could enjoy the blessing of those who made God the Holy One their God.