⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶ but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:4–6)

Uncomfortable as it seems, God’s description of Himself as jealous is very clear and unambiguous in the Bible. He so designates Himself at the very beginning of His revelation to Israel, in the giving of the Law. This is not just an incidental thing, a sort of accommodation to ancient sub-Christian thought patterns that can be explained away through clever theological manipulation. This description is repeated at various junctures in the span of OT history (see Ex 34:14, Deut 4:24, Josh 24:19-20, Nah 1:2, Ps 94:1).

What makes this difficult for us today is the association we draw between jealousy and sinful attitudes. We see the problem of jealousy within Jacob’s family, first between his wives and then between his sons. The apostle of grace wrote, “Love is … not jealous” (1 Cor 13:4). So how do we reconcile the truth that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) with God being jealous? It helps to know that Paul used the word jealous (Greek: “zelos”) to express an extreme desire. For example, he tells Christians to “desire earnestly” spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:31, 14:39). Even Paul says, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy” (2 Cor 11:2). So we see jealousy is a morally neutral term. The question is what is the jealousy for?

God made it clear that He was jealous for His people. The Theological Wordbook of the OT (TWOT) tells us the Hebrew word “expresses a very strong emotion whereby some quality or passion of the object is desired by the subject.” God greatly desires a relationship with His people, Israel. This is not a casual “feeling” but an intense desire. He made humans in His image and chose Abraham and his descendants from among fallen humanity to show to the world what a relationship with the Creator should be like. In the Law, He spells it out. He is jealous for His people and will not share them with other so-called gods that would steal their reciprocal affections away from God. He desires us, our friendship, our worship, our obedience.

Is this not why God sent His Son into this fallen world, because He is jealous to win us over (John 3:16)? He demonstrated His strong desire for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8). Praise to Yahweh that He is a jealous God.

Lord, I praise You for being jealous for me. And You continue to be jealous that I would not worship the false gods of today, but You only.