His name is Jealous

"(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), - Exodus 34v14

This intrigues me. To our minds, to mine at least, jealousy has such a negative connotation. And yet, here God tells us that one of His names in Jealous!

How can jealousy be a good thing? The problem is that like so often we think of terms and ideas from a human perspective. We think of sinful, silly, petty childish jealous that is motivated by our own pride.

Would I be treating my wife right if I did not guard her with a right kind of jealousy? My wife is my wife. Her deepest love is reserved for me. I am not jealous of her friends, even her male friends, but I am jealous of the affection that is reserved for me as her husband.

God’s jealousy is a righteous jealousy. It is a guarding and protective jealousy. He is jealous of our deep affection. There can be no other gods before Him. Everything else comes after Him.

He is jealous with a perfect jealousy. He knows that only a relationship with Him leads to eternal joy and peace. He knows that when our affections are directed elsewhere they will only lead to our hurt and pain eventually.

One of the definitions for ‘jealous’ in dictionary.com is ‘solicitous or vigilant in maintaining or guarding something.’ The illustrative sentence is ‘The American people are jealous of their freedom.’

Perhaps it is this definition that describes God righteous jealousy the best. He is and always will be ‘solicitous and vigilant in maintaining or guarding’ His people.

Praise God that His name is Jealous.