God Is Jealous

God Is Jealous

You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god! –Exodus 20:5

It has never seemed right to me that God would be jealous. Isn’t jealousy a bad thing? Doesn’t it ruin relationships and poison souls? So how can we say that a perfect God is jealous? We say it because this is how God describes himself. And even if it doesn’t sit well with our sensibilities, we want to accept what God says about himself.

In the grand revelation of his nature through the Ten Commandments, God said, “I am a jealous God.” In fact, jealous is not just a description; God also used it as one of his names, calling himself “the LORD, whose name is Jealous” (Exodus 34:14, NIV). Far from being in conflict with the nature of God, jealousy is the very epitome of it. So what is God so jealous about?

God is jealous for his holy name and reputation. He is jealous for his people, jealous for our sacrifices and devotion. James writes that God “jealously longs for us to be faithful” (4:5). And if God’s jealousy is part of his perfection, we know that God’s jealousy is not like our jealousy. He is not out of sorts because of envy, but he is zealous out of love. Just as there is an appropriate measure of jealousy that my husband, David, exercises out of his desire to preserve the exclusivity of our relationship, God is right to jealously guard the relationship he has with you. He doesn’t see his relationship with you as purely business. He is not going through the motions of religion. This is a love relationship that stirs his deep passions in pursuit of your exclusive devotion and affection. “He is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you” (Exodus 34:14). He does not want you to allow your affections to wander away from him. His jealousy is an appropriate outgrowth of the value he places on his relationship with you.

God is not really interested in your passive, lukewarm love; he wants your passionate devotion. Has hardship dampened the delight you take in your divine Lover? Has it turned you toward another comforter? Hear him call to you from his jealous nature to love him, and let him love you richly in return.

Jealous, this very name for you speaks to me of your passionate love for me, not your demands on me. Stir in me the passion I have had for you in the past. Draw me close and make me the passionate lover your jealousy desires.

DIGGING DEEPER