Jealous – God's character from A to Z

We think of jealousy as a bad thing. We point to jealousy as a character fault. We call it envy, monopolization, possessiveness, suspicion, and a whole lot of other nasty things. We paint jealousy as a green-eyed monster.

But God is jealous, and it’s a positive thing. It’s right, when it’s God.

Here’s a song I’ve been listening to lately.

I love this part:

“He is jealous for me. Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.”

That sounds almost scary, doesn’t it? How do we feel, if we consider God as a hurricane, fairly tipping us over and bending us almost to the breaking point?

But maybe that is exactly the point. Maybe God has to take us past our own strength. Perhaps He has to push and pull us past our own wants and whims, and anything that competes with our passion for Him.

“Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 4:23-24, NIV)

A consuming fire? Yikes. But it’s true. God’s passion for His people is simply that strong. He wants to burn away anything that gets in the way of our love for Him and His pathway to bless us.

God is jealous. The Almighty wants our undivided devotion, our wholehearted worship, our full praise. He is intolerant of any idolatry, which is anything that competes with His rightly merited place – right on top of all our priorities and hopes and dreams and desires.

He’s God. He is the only One who deserves to be jealous. In God, that’s a good thing. That’s who He is and how much He loves us.

Image/s:

Adapted from public domain art

Bible verse graphic – created on quote generator

Feel free to follow on GooglePlus and Twitter. Don’t miss the Heart of a Ready Writer page on Facebook.

Share