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The jealousy of God

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Of all the attributes of God, jealousy is one that doesn’t get a lot of airtime. I totally get it because it’s hard for us to think of jealousy as a good thing, especially if we’ve had a relationship with someone who was jealous out of their insecurity.

But our God is a jealous God. He said so Himself.

Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus‬ ‭34:14‬ ‭NIV, emphasis mine)

Not only is He jealous, but He used it as an identifier of Who He is. His name is jealous!

The Hebrew word used there for jealous is only used six times, and it’s reserved only for God. It’s basically saying that He is in a league by Himself, and won’t stop at anything to keep everything else out of His space.

His jealousy doesn’t come from a place of insecurity and fear, but rather from a place of holiness and awe.

Knowing this about God should inspire a healthy blend of love and fear. “Yikes! God is massive — there’s no one like Him!!! And He wants me??”

There’s a song that gets sung in churches a lot about how much this God loves us. Church people tend to fight over the sloppy wet kiss part, but I think the fact that we skip through the beginning lyrics on the way to the love illustrates our uneasiness with the jealousy of God.

“He is jealous for me.”

We want a God who loves us relentlessly and still allows us to love Him half-heartedly. As if the God of the universe should be grateful that we think about Him every now and then? No! He is jealous for me, and that means He will fight for me (and at times, with me) so that He will have all of me.

We want a God who loves us relentlessly and still allows us to love Him half-heartedly. Share on X

Until we’re willing to work through the implications of that first line, we aren’t truly in a position to belt out the all-too-familiar chorus. Yes, He loves us, oh, how He loves us! But the question that a jealous God will always ask is, “Do you love Me more than any other loves?”

Until we can say yes, the breath of a jealous God will continue to bend our hearts like a tree in a hurricane.

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October 9, 2021by Paul Jenkins
Written by Paul Jenkins
Paul Jenkins is lead pastor of The Gathering, a community church located in beautiful downtown Albemarle, North Carolina. He's the author of God is My Air Traffic Controller and My Name's Not Lou. Paul is passionate about his wife, his 3 children, running, reading, coaching, leading people who are following Jesus, Swedish Fish and the Carolina Panthers.