Jealousy is Good?

We have all heard stories (or maybe even experienced personally ourselves) about a jealous husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend, neighbor, classmate, or family member.  Jealousy is seen as a very negative thing.  It usually leads to harm of self and/or others.  So you might think I am crazy for saying this, “Jealousy is a good”.  The Merriam-Webster’s dictionary would even disagree with me, “1 a : intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness b : disposed to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness 2 : hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage 3 : vigilant in guarding a possession”.  I say jealous is good, because God gives us His own example in His Word. 

Nothing God does is bad.  It is usually us humans that make things bad.  Exodus 34:14 “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” One of God’s names is even “Jealous”.  Why would God, who is the ultimate good and sin free, be named Jealous or be jealous?  Many times in the bible we see the people of God, whether it be the Hebrew people or Christians, be equated as God’s wife or bride. One example is seen in Revelation 19:7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.  This is a reference to the Christians as Christ’s bride.  When a man marries a woman, he is taking her as his own.  They are to become one.  They are becoming totally committed to each other.  No longer will they date and see others.  The will spend their time with each other.  They will be devoted to each other.  On earth when a man becomes jealous of his wife, he is suspicious that she is being unfaithful.  He thinks she is spending time with someone other than himself.  The reason this thought would bother the man is because he loves her so much and he can’t stand the thought that she is not showing love and devotion to him.  Instead she is sharing it with someone else.  This jealousy usually leads to spying, bad actions and words.  God, like a husband, loves us so much, that it is heart wrenching for Him to think of us being devoted to someone else other than Him.  The difference between man and God is that He is holy and pure.  He will not let His jealousy turn in to sin like man would.  It is a good thing that God is jealous of us.  It demonstrates how important to God our relationship is with Him.  He loved us so much in the first place that He gave His Son for us.

It is not good when a spouse evokes jealousy in their spouse.  We are hurting them.  We should do whatever it takes to show them our total love and devotion.  That is why we married them.  We let temporary pleasures draw us away from them.  It can be anything from an activity we spend too much time doing or another person.  Our focus should be loving our spouse and fulfilling their needs.  That’s what we committed to when we married them.  The same is true of our relationship with God.  We need to think of Him as our jealous spouse.  He committed to us and we committed to Him when we became Christians.  We need to show our love and devotion to God by removing anything from our life that would draw us away from Him.  Just like your spouse, are you spending time with God?  Just like your spouse, are you talking each and every day to Him?  Just like we spend time getting to know about our spouse, are you spending time getting to know God through His Word.  If you want to bless or exalt the Lord, as scripture tells us to, then be zealous for Him and your relationship with Him.  Put some time and energy and commitment in to it.  God, like our spouse, should be number one in our life.  Is your job, your hobbies, your TV, your money, your friends more important to you?  Do you give those things more time than you give God?  We can take away some instructions from this concept of our jealous husband, God.  Be Zealous for our Jealous God.  Jealousy is Good!

Jealousy is Good?

We have all heard stories (or maybe even experienced personally ourselves) about a jealous husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend, neighbor, classmate, or family member.  Jealousy is seen as a very negative thing.  It usually leads to harm of self and/or others.  So you might think I am crazy for saying this, “Jealousy is a good”.  The Merriam-Webster’s dictionary would even disagree with me, “1 a : intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness b : disposed to suspect rivalry or unfaithfulness 2 : hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage 3 : vigilant in guarding a possession”.  I say jealous is good, because God gives us His own example in His Word. 

Nothing God does is bad.  It is usually us humans that make things bad.  Exodus 34:14 “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” One of God’s names is even “Jealous”.  Why would God, who is the ultimate good and sin free, be named Jealous or be jealous?  Many times in the bible we see the people of God, whether it be the Hebrew people or Christians, be equated as God’s wife or bride. One example is seen in Revelation 19:7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.  This is a reference to the Christians as Christ’s bride.  When a man marries a woman, he is taking her as his own.  They are to become one.  They are becoming totally committed to each other.  No longer will they date and see others.  The will spend their time with each other.  They will be devoted to each other.  On earth when a man becomes jealous of his wife, he is suspicious that she is being unfaithful.  He thinks she is spending time with someone other than himself.  The reason this thought would bother the man is because he loves her so much and he can’t stand the thought that she is not showing love and devotion to him.  Instead she is sharing it with someone else.  This jealousy usually leads to spying, bad actions and words.  God, like a husband, loves us so much, that it is heart wrenching for Him to think of us being devoted to someone else other than Him.  The difference between man and God is that He is holy and pure.  He will not let His jealousy turn in to sin like man would.  It is a good thing that God is jealous of us.  It demonstrates how important to God our relationship is with Him.  He loved us so much in the first place that He gave His Son for us.

It is not good when a spouse evokes jealousy in their spouse.  We are hurting them.  We should do whatever it takes to show them our total love and devotion.  That is why we married them.  We let temporary pleasures draw us away from them.  It can be anything from an activity we spend too much time doing or another person.  Our focus should be loving our spouse and fulfilling their needs.  That’s what we committed to when we married them.  The same is true of our relationship with God.  We need to think of Him as our jealous spouse.  He committed to us and we committed to Him when we became Christians.  We need to show our love and devotion to God by removing anything from our life that would draw us away from Him.  Just like your spouse, are you spending time with God?  Just like your spouse, are you talking each and every day to Him?  Just like we spend time getting to know about our spouse, are you spending time getting to know God through His Word.  If you want to bless or exalt the Lord, as scripture tells us to, then be zealous for Him and your relationship with Him.  Put some time and energy and commitment in to it.  God, like our spouse, should be number one in our life.  Is your job, your hobbies, your TV, your money, your friends more important to you?  Do you give those things more time than you give God?  We can take away some instructions from this concept of our jealous husband, God.  Be Zealous for our Jealous God.  Jealousy is Good!