God Gets Jealous Too

Did you know - God gets jealous too? (Ezekiel 16) ‘What????’ I hear you say, ‘God D can be jealous? Surely you have got that wrong, isn’t jealousy a sin?’

How can a God who is Holy and loving, full of Grace and Mercy be jealous? Just maybe we need to revisit our understanding of the word ‘jealous’ and how it is used to describe the nature of God.

‘you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God’

Its use here, in Exodus 20:5 to describe God is different from how it is used to describe the sin of jealousy (Galatians 5:20). “Jealous” is often used in the context of being envious or covetous of someone who has something we do not have. That something could be looks, ability, possessions or even their partner or spouse. It is in the setting of this last example that we may want to consider God as being ‘Jealous’. In Ezekiel 16, it is not that God is jealous or envious because someone has something He wants or needs God is jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him! The word used for ‘jealous’ Kana is often translated or re-interpreted as ‘Zealous’ and is perhaps a better way of understanding its use in Scripture. Ezekiel describes Jerusalem as an unfaithful wife giving favours to several other suitors, in fact giving favours to anyone except her husband, God! God is responding as someone who catches their partner in the act of cheating on them. It is not jealousy as in the sense of coveting someone else but indignation at someone taking what is yours and spoiling it.

God Gets Jealous

We very often are guilty of taking the things that should be reserved for God and giving them or using them for someone else. Think about how we use our time. On many occasions, we give God the last five minutes before we fall asleep, having given away everything else, the best part of our day. We expect Him to be satisfied with that. I have news for you, He is not.

Think about how we use our ‘GodGiven’ skills and abilities, think about how we use the things we possess.

What God is ‘jealous’ of belongs to Him; our worship, our service, our devotion belong to Him alone. Anything or anyone we put ahead of Him, in front of Him, assumes the position of an idol.

‘I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images,’ Isaiah 42:8

When we relegate God to less than first, we hurt and damage ourselves because it is like exchanging Gold for tin. God desires the best for us and is zealous about it. His zealousness is a reflection of His love for us. A love so intense, so zealous that John said ‘For God So Loved the

Too

World… that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ.

This is the ‘ jealousy’ Paul described in 2 Corinthians 11:2, “I am jealous for you with godly jealousy...” p

Bishop John Jackson, Senior Pastor NTCG Muntz Street. Married with children and a keen lover of music and Arsenal Football Club!