In the Bible it is repeated many times that God is a jealous god. Ands that’s a good thing.
Why? I’ll get to that, but let’s first list a few references:
- Exodus 20:5 (part of the Ten Commandments):
- “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…”
- Deuteronomy 4:24:
- “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”
- Deuteronomy 5:9 (part of the Ten Commandments repeated):
- “You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…”
- Deuteronomy 6:15:
- “For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you…”
- Joshua 24:19:
- “Joshua said to the people, ‘You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; He is a jealous God…”
- Nahum 1:2:
- “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful…”
- Exodus 34:14:
- “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
- Deuteronomy 32:16:
- “They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.”
- Deuteronomy 32:21:
- “They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols…”
- 1 Kings 14:22:
- This reference discusses how Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord and aroused his jealousy with their sins.
- Psalm 78:58:
- “They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.”
- Ezekiel 8:3:
- This passage describes a vision where the idolatry of the Israelites is said to provoke God to jealousy.
- Ezekiel 16:38:
- “I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger.”
- Zephaniah 1:18:
- “Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. In the fire of his jealousy, the whole earth will be consumed…”
We are created in God’s image. One of the important things about that is that God is God and can do whatever he darn well feels like. God’s will is his own. So, for us, we too have a will and can do as we please. We have free will. Just like God.
To deny someone their free will is a grievous sin and utterly criminal.
Our free will comes from God.
So what does that have to do with jealousy?
Simple.
God gave you a free will to do as you please, and he’s jealous when you worship other gods.
If your destiny were pre-determined by God, he couldn’t be jealous because he pre-ordained that you’d do that.
But God DOES get jealous. He’s jealous because you’ve chosen to worship gods other than him, and that’s ONLY possible if you have a free will.
I think that’s pretty cool.
God loves us beyond anything we can understand, and when we reject that, it hurts God and he becomes jealous over whatever we’ve rejected God for, be that other gods, money, sex, career, ideology, or whatever.
God’s jealousy is proof of our free will.
Q.E.D.
