God's Jealousy

I had a dream the other night. Something of a nightmare. I dreamt this girl, a girl I'd like to date one day, was with another guy. They were holding hands and smiling and just being happy together. And I didn’t like it. In fact, in my dream, I was quite jealous. Of course, the dream wasn’t real. It was fictional, but I was still jealous. It’s quite silly isn't it? I should be able to get over jealously. After all, it’s quite childish to get jealous. So how do we make sense of God’s jealously then? Is God being childish?

This is a common question, and quite a simple one to answer. If jealousy is a sin (Galatians 5:20), why is God being described as being jealous? It turns out jealousy isn’t such a bad thing. There are times when one can be childishly jealous, like I was in my dream, and then there are times when jealously is justified. When is it justified? When something rightfully belongs to you.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a parent, if you are not already. Coming from a guys perspective, imagine your daughter calls another man “Daddy”. You raised this child, you fed this child, you protected this child, you took her Disneyland and bought her stupid Hannah Montana merchandise. And you loved her mother. You are truly the one that deserves the “#1 Dad” mug. Now imagine that your daughter runs out of your house, goes up to a hobo, shouts “Daddy!” hugs him and kisses him on the cheek.

Because the title “Daddy” belongs to you, and no one else, you are justified when your daughter calls someone else “Daddy”. It doesn’t belong to them. Now, this isn’t the childish kind of jealously where a girl you’re head over heels for is seen with some other guy. No. She doesn’t belong to you (yet, until marriage, and then your rights increase) and so you are not justified in feeling jealous. But if you saw your wife flirting with another guy, then you can be jealous. That right of her sexuality is reserved for you and herself, and nobody else. This is the jealousy described in Ezekiel 16 and 2nd Corinthians 11:2, which reads, "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him."

Well then, what does God have rights over? Well, being God, pretty much over all creation! So because God is Lord and Sovereign over all, he can be jealous about everything, and he would be in the right. There is nothing wrong with God being jealous about anything. He owns everything. So God isn't just jealous in a petty way, but in the right way. The Godly way.

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