If you read the Bible, listening in on the conversations between Israel and God, you will discover that conversations between this God and God’s people quickly get overheated. As the Bible often says, our God “is a jealous God.” This God is not a cool, dispassionate, and detached bureaucrat, just following the rules, treating everyone without regard or engagement. The God of Israel and the church is a passionate lover, a God who has staked a great deal upon us, who cares deeply about us, risks all for us, and demands the best of us. In short, just the sort of God who would get white-hot mad with us for making such a mess of things at God’s Temple.
– William Willimon, Sinning Like a Christian
