He is jealous for me

Sometimes I like to just think about one of God’s attributes. For some reason, today, the fact that God is jealous has been sitting in my head and I have been pondering exactly what that means.

The first place my thoughts go is to the kind of jealousy we usually talk about. “I am so jealous of how she looks in that dress.” “I am jealous of the way she can sing.” Obviously these sound like they fall under the category of coveting. Those things don’t rightfully belong to me, so being jealous is actually a sin. I also think this type of jealousy is a sign of weakness. If I am jealous, I am not happy with what I have. And it seems like such an uncontrollable, emotional response.

Sooooo, how on earth, based on these thoughts, can God be jealous? He can’t covet because He doesn’t sin. There is nothing that doesn’t rightfully belong to Him anyway. And the hardest part for me is how can God have what I kind of view as a weak uncontrollable, emotional response?

I decided to go look at a bunch of verses that deal with jealousy. Most of them relating to God’s jealousy occur in the Old Testament. I was reminded that we can’t view God’s attributes through our own experiences. God’s jealousy for us is something different altogether.

“For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Deut 4:24.

“You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God am a jealous God.” Exodus 20:5

All of our worship (our time, our devotion, our praise, our everything) belongs to God and only God. It is rightfully His. Jealousy therefore becomes an acceptable response when our worship goes to something else.

If I accept the idea that jealousy is the appropriate response to my actions (and who am I to say how God should respond anyway?), then I start to be extremely thankful that a God who knows all about all the crap in my life...all my faults and thoughts and screw-ups....is still jealous when I turn to things or people other than Him. How cool is THAT!?! Even in the midst of me being consumed with material things or a pan of brownies or any other thing that is not Him, his reaction is still one of love and care and never giving up! He is jealous for me!

HE is jealous for me. (God....the creator of everything!)

He IS jealous for me. (Right now!)

He is JEALOUS for me. (He cares and loves me THAT much!)

He is jealous for ME. (Beth....who sins every hour of every day)

Read that sentence and emphasize and think about each word separately. This is such an amazing concept and I don’t think I fully appreciate it. God was SO jealous, that he was willing to sacrifice his Son, to bring us back to Himself! That is crazy jealous.

And to think there are so many other attributes of God to study and ponder. And I am betting that each and every one will lead to the same response. Pure worship of the One and Only.