The jealousy of God is something I have never really thought about on a deeper level than, “oh yeah, God doesn’t want me to worship golden calves… Right… Right… Jealousy.” However, a few months before launch, I was invited to another church by one of my friends. During the the message, my friend turned and tapped me on the shoulder, telling me she had a word for me. Believe it or not, this happens quite often (I’m in Bible college.) As always, I anticipated what it could be, yet at the same time, I wondered, “God, why don’t you just tell me these things directly?” A question I will answer shortly.
The previous Sunday, I was fired from a great job where I had been three years, due to a scheduling conflict with my second job, and a genuine lack of motivation due to the extreme level of stress I was under since the beginning of the semester. I honestly just started to shut down. Fast forward to Tuesday, I let go of a relationship which was keeping me from the Holy Spirit. An old flame had come back into my life a few months before, it was perfect timing for the enemy to distract me from what I needed to be doing in that season. She was a great girl, don’t get me wrong, she loves the Lord, and I almost have nothing against her. However, we both knew we weren’t supposed to be in contact anymore because of a direct word from the Lord, but we continued in deliberate disobedience. That was the last time I heard God’s voice.
God wasn’t speaking to me directly, because I refused to listen…
The service went on, the message was great, ironically it was about the importance of having strong Biblical community. After the message, we sang one more song and dismissed the crowd, but invited people to stay in worship while the band continued to play. There were only about 20 people in that room, but it was filled with amazing worship. I have no idea how long the music continued to play, but the presence of God was so thick and tangible in that sanctuary, it was like it was just Him and me. The Lord began to minister to my heart and give me peace, which I hadn’t felt since the beginning of the semester. A while later, as the music began to fade, my friend delivered the word the Lord gave her for me. “Abide in His love. Let His love sustain you.” As she began to expound on those words, the Lord began to reveal to me how adulterous I had been over the last few months, running to this girl for my comfort, throwing myself into working two jobs while taking a full load of classes, and going out with friends all the time instead of going home and studying His Word. I felt extremely convicted, but it had no shame attached to it. As I began to process all that was going on in my head, and tell my friend a little bit about what had transpired over the last few days she said softly, “You belong to Him and He is jealous because He wants to be the one you run to. He loves you so much.” and I can honestly say, I had never heard those words in such an impactful way in my life.
So, what is jealousy? Webster defines the jealousy of God as, “demanding faithfulness and exclusive worship.” Which is true, however, I want to look at this in a little bit more natural light. Considering my past relationships, jealousy is an emotion which I am all too familiar with, and I’m sure you are too. So, from a natural standpoint, what is the emotion of jealousy? In the case of a relationship, a guy feels jealousy if his girl is flirting with another guy, right? In some silly cases, maybe when she gives the dog kisses instead of him? Or vice verse, if a guy is all into his brand new car and that is all he talks about, or if he is out playing golf all the time when she feels he should be home, she feels jealousy. It all boils down to, that’s the person you love and you’re worried about them giving attention to someone, or something else, when you desire that attention for yourself. Jealousy over a relationship is the most heart wrenching feeling and I don’t want to make God feel that way anymore. I was running to everything but God in a season where He was trying to bring me closer to Him. I was groping for my self worth and identity in my job, women, a car, and my group of friends, when that’s not who I really am.
Let’s check out Exodus and see where the jealousy of God is first mentioned. In Exodus 20, when God is giving the ten commandments, He says,
“You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.”
Later on in chapter 34 when He is giving the Mosaic covenant, God expresses His love for His people and how He will drive out the heathens from the land promised to the Israelites. He warns them,
“You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.”
Jealousy is such a characteristic of God, He Himself claims it as one of His names.
Do you feel that? I sense a Hebrew word study coming on. YAY! Let’s dive in! According to Strong’s, the Hebrew word “Qanna” is mentioned 6 times in the Old Testament. Pronounced kan-naw, it is a name for God, meaning, “He does not bear any rival.” The Arab version of this word means, “to become very red,” Whoa! This is kind of a big deal y’all. It shows the very nature of God’s righteous jealousy. He created us for the sole reason of glorifying Himself, so when we search for identity in something other than Him, when we search for fulfillment, or give our affection to something else, He becomes righteously jealous because that devotion, that affection rightfully belongs to Him.
As I continued this word study, I found that all of the derivatives of this word had to do with cheating or adultery in a marriage. We have to remember that we are the bride of Christ, so anything we look to besides him for satisfaction is spiritual adultery. Look at the wording in Exodus 34,
“They lust after their gods, offering sacrifices to them,” “they will seduce your sons to commit adultery against me by worshiping other gods.”
In this passage God wasn’t warning them of the women of the land seducing their sons with their bodies, He was warning them that they were going to seduce them with their false gods. When we allow a false god to guide our steps, such as a pursuit of money, or relationships and so on, or when we find our identity in something other than Him, God doesn’t see it as us just getting distracted from His good, pleasing, and perfect plan, He sees it as spiritual adultery.
God created each and every one of us to glorify Himself with our lives. Why do you think He told us, “You shall have no other God’s before me,” or not to worship idols. I think God is serious about this. Why? Because He created us to worship Him and Him alone, not a girlfriend, not a car, not your job, but Him. God doesn’t just selfishly desire our attention, it rightfully belongs to Him. The church is the bride of His Son, so when we become distracted with the things of this world instead of Him, His jealousy is 100% justifiable.
We are the bride of Christ and He desires our attention because He is desperately in love with us. So desperately in love, in fact, He sacrificed Himself to restore intimacy and be in communion with His ever so adulterous creation. This is the unconditional love of God we can abide in, this we can rest in, this we can feed off of when our desires for idols begins to allure us away from our King.
I will leave you today with this verse in Romans 6, “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?” We all know the areas in our lives that are taking us out of intimacy with God. Paul’s question to the church in Rome was, what fruit is that sin producing in your life? The Lord has shown me it is time to start taking a very careful inventory of the fruit my actions and desires are producing. Are they producing love, joy and peace? Or are they bearing temporary satisfaction followed by shame? Is my witness being ruined? Do I find myself in compromising situations? Even if it isn’t necessarily bad fruit, could you be putting your time and energy into something more Kingdom minded so you do bear good fruit? Love y’all. Thanks for reading.
