To be honest with you, when used to think of words that describe God, I did not think about "jealousy". For I thought how could God be jealous? God is good. He could never be jealous, because jealousy is wrong. Or so I thought...
That is until I heard about when it is good jealousy. There are times when it is okay to be jealous. Times when it is bad and even harmful. When it came to God, it was a holy anger that burned and was a consuming fire. God's jealousy would be so great that it would be a consuming fire. Think about that everything that He touches was consumed with His holy anger, and His holy jealousy. Have you ever been so jealous? so angry ? that it seems like it consumes you it takes over what you think and do?
It's like a spouse who has just realized that the other is having an affair. One is cheating on the other. One who is giving their all to make things work, has just found out that the other would rather find their love somewhere else. So jealousy consumes the one and takes over all you do. No matter what that spouse does, all they can think about is the other and how they betrayed them. Picturing how they were wronged in their mind and playing it over and over. It consumes their everyday life.
The Israelites came to know God's jealousy first hand. Moses had just led the children of Israel out of Egypt, and all the practices of Egyptians. All the of their evil rituals towards small "gods".
Though even though after all they had seen and experienced, God do for them...the plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, the manna from heaven...
They still turned to their old ways. Turned to other "gods", other idols. They gave their worship to all those except the one true God.
It is something that still true today. After all we see all God does for us, after it all...we turn our attention to our small "gods", our idols if you will. An idol is anything that you put before God. So what do you make your idol?
When Moses went up to get the ten commandments, God put one that dealt with this subject.
"You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments."---{Exodus 20:5-6}
He tells them to not bow down and serve other gods. To remember the good that God has done for them. How far He has brought them out of slavery. He remembers those who have done good in His name and those who hate Him, and all that He stands for.
Do we remember all that He has done for us? How far He has brought us? and even though we go back to the small gods, He still comes and rescues us. He still loves us.
"The Lord is a jealous God and avenging; the Lord avenges and He is full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries and reserves wrath for His enemies." ---{Nahum 1:2}
Sometimes we need a wake up. Yes, God is slow to anger, but He also can act in holy anger. If we let it go on too long, that jealousy becomes a hard lesson. God may use various things to get our attention. Things that shake our foundations and at times bring us to where we have nothing, but the realization that we need God. Let's not wait for it to get that bad, that we need God to do something drastic to get our full attention...
Our God is a jealous God. He wants our love, He wants it more than anything. He wants our worship. (Important note to think about, that...He doesn't "need it"...for He is never is in need...He "wants it")God is a jealous God. "Man's chief end is to glorify God" (Piper) He will be glorified one way or another.
He loves us so much that He could not leave us where we are. He saw where we were going, on our own...so He chose to send His son to die on the cross and save us from our sins. So that way we can be in Heaven with Him.
He wants you. He wants our love. He wants to have a relationship with you. He wants your worship.
So much that it consumes Him...
He is a jealous lover!!!
