Have you ever found it odd that God describes Himself as a jealous God? But there it is, right there in the middle of the Ten Commandments, God says, “for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God!” And we’re left thinking, ‘What kind of God gets jealous?!”
Well, the answer is, “A God who loves.”
In Glen Scrivener’s devotion, “Reading between the lines”, (in which I got most of the ideas for this) Glen says, “At a glance, I found 34 times in the Bible where the LORD is said to be jealous. This is not something He seems to be embarrassed about.”
If you read the verse in context, he’s talking about false gods. It says, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them…”
Effectively God is saying, ‘don’t go after false gods, because I AM jealous.’
Again, a God who gets jealous is a God who loves.
What does the word ‘jealous’ here mean? In a sense, the word could be translated as ‘zealous’. The words have come to us from the Greek translation of this word (“Zelos”).
In the Hebrew, in which this was written, ‘jealous’ comes from the word ‘red’. It’s the idea of hot-blooded commitment.
We are given a few examples in scripture where jealousy is a bad thing, and we would usually view jealousy as a bad emotion or attitude. But there is good jealousy. Good jealousy is hot-blooded, protective, and zealous for another. If the good jealousy is missing from a relationship you might question whether something is wrong.
And so, God tells His people, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex 20:3) God wants His people’s affection. He wants His people’s whole-hearted devotion and love on Jesus.
Just to be clear, God doesn’t need this love and devotion from us. God, in trinity, is self-sufficient. He is not in need of our love, our devotion and affection. But He is jealous for it.
This is far from the distant, cold God that people often think about. This is a God who tells us what He thinks, tells us how He feels. Here He says “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God”. Later in Exodus 34:14, it says, “for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” This is because God’s love is a hot-blooded commitment, faithful, everlasting love.
Firstly, there is complete, perfect love in trinity. In Islam, in the Qur’an, it says “(Allah) is the All-Forgiving, the All-Loving.” But in Islam, Allah needs his creation in order to make him loving. He needs his creation in order to define himself. In the Bible, God, in Trinity, doesn’t need anything else to make Him loving. He already is in Trinity.
But that’s not all. God then chooses to love His people. Those who trust in Christ, are the bridegroom of Jesus. Therefore, have you noticed in scripture that when God’s people sin, we’re not just called sinners or transgressors, but we’re called adulterers (many places in Jeremiah).
To know this love from God, to be that bridegroom of Christ, is the most amazing thing imaginable. To be on the other side of this love, to reject Christ, is the worst thing imaginable. Either way, this God is not a cold, distant stranger. Even in the Ten Commandments, we’re told about God’s loving commitment to His people.
But go from Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary, and there in the fullest, most extreme way you will see the depth and level of God’s committed love for you. This isn’t just a God who wears His heart on His sleeve, this is a God who’s put His heart on the cross. This jealous love, this jealous God is there for us to see. Let’s look nowhere else for such a love.
Lloyd
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