A Jealous God?

Why does the Bible say that God is a jealous God?

Does that seem odd to anyone else?

Jealousy is usually thought of as a negative thing.

However, none of God's qualities can be negative because he is supremely perfect and holy.

Therefore, jealousy is not always negative.

God is a jealous God, because he loves us an unbelievable amount.  The Old Testament constantly refers to Israel as God's bride.  This analogy creeps some people out lol.  However, the illustration of the church as the bride and God or Jesus as the bridegroom can be found throughout scripture.

I once read that in our Christian walk we progress through various stages in our relationship with God. 

At the beginning it resembles a servant/master relationship.  It then progresses to a father/son relationship.  Then it becomes a friendship.  And finally, at the height of our understanding of God's love for us and our ability to love him, it can become more similar to a romance. 

I know this can seem odd for men, since God is depicted as masculine.  However, I think the reason the Bible illustrates our love for God and his love for us in this category is because marital love is the closest kind of love and creates more of a bond between two people then any other kind of love.

In marriage we are called to have agape love for each other, in that it is unconditional.  This love we can only experience through knowing God.  Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches.  Remain in me and I will remain in you.  Apart from me, you can do nothing."

He says this because he is the source of all love.  We cannot love without knowing God.  Because he loves us we can then love others.  On the other side, the degree to which we can love each other is a reflection of how much we love God. 

For example, if we allow our IV to God to be thin we will receive little from him and be able to dispense little love.  But if our IV to God is like a fire hose, we will be filled to overflowing, as the scriptures promise, and will be capable of unbelievable amounts of love. 

Take for instance, Mother Theresa.  How was she able to thrive so well in the slums of India?  I have actually been to Calcutta myself.  We stayed there one night when I was 14 on a mission trip on our way to Guwahatti, and let me tell you, I would not have wanted to stay longer. :)

However, Mother Theresa did not care about her own comfort.  She only cared about loving others as God called her to love them, and going where God called her to go. 

Jesus also did not care about his own comfort.  He loved everyone equally all the time.  He was not a discriminator of person.  In the culture of that time, even speaking with a women that was not your wife was incredibly shameful.  But he spoke with many women and showed his love for them.

"We are able to love because he first loved us."  I love the book of 1st John.  If you have not read it in awhile, I highly recommend reading it.  Because God loves us we know how to love. 

Praise God for loving us when we were and are so unlovable! 

It is out of this great love for us that his jealousy stems from.  Jealousy can be like envy, when you covet something.  But in it's purest form it is essentially the fear of loosing someone you love deeply.

God is jealous for us, because he loves us deeply.  He does not want our hearts to turn to anything else, and we do every single day.  We forget about him.  We forget what he did for us in sending in his son to die for us.  We forget to thank him for the fact that we are breathing, that we have families and friends who love us, that we have food to eat every day and water to drink.

I love the worship song "How He Loves" by David Crowder.  The lyrics are below.  Ask God to speak to you in reading them.....



 He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all


And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way...

Oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
How He loves

There are three amazing illustrations in this song.  The first being that his love is like a hurricane and we are a tree bending beneath the weight of his mercy.  This illustrates that his love is overwhelming sometimes.  If we really think about it.  Reading the story of Jesus' crucifixion should be enough to illustrate to us the immense, unbelievable amount that God loves us.  It is just insane how much he loves us!

Secondly he says God's grace is like an ocean and we're all sinking, meaning it envelopes us.  It wraps all around us.  It is not like a drop of water and that's how much love and mercy he has for us.  No, it is an ocean!  A huge, monstrous ocean!  That is how much God loves us!

Have you ever looked at the ocean?  It seems to go on forever.  In the same say God's love for us goes on forever and ever.  Nothing can stop it.  Nothing can hinder it.  He cannot hide it from us.  That is why every morning he blesses us with a gorgeous sunrise and every evening with a sunset. 

I personally am overwhelmed by God's love for me when I look at a sunrise or sunset.  I see it as God's love letter to me, and it warms my heart. 

The third illustration is that heaven meets the earth like a kiss.  This line always struck me as odd before when I heard the song.  But the meaning is that God's love for us is a passionate love.  The reason he created marriage was to help us understand his love for us.  He wants our heart to beat as violently for him as it might for the person we are in love with. 

If it does not, and we love our spouse more, could we say they may be an idol? 

Our love for God should eclipse our love for anything else, because he is our creator.  We would not exist if it weren't for him.  And the things we enjoy about life are all because he gave them to us. 

As scripture says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above." 

God's love is monstrous, never ending and never changing.  Amen!