Some years ago, I visited with a family that had two dogs. One was a boxer, and the other was a Pekingese. They both loved attention and scratches on the head. On that day, I scratched the head of the smaller Pekingese, and while that was going on, the boxer decided to nudge her head and knock my hand off of the smaller dog so she could get the same amount of scratching and love. Needless to say, the Pekingese was jealous of this and began to bark in protest. I have often wondered who was more jealous of the attention. This humorous story reminds me that when it comes to our pets, jealousy can be light-hearted and fun to watch. In human beings, it leads to a whole lot of trouble.
There is also a jealousy that reflects the heart of our God as we are told by Moses and Paul. In Exodus 34:14, we read, “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Paul penned, “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). This divine or “godly jealousy” about which Paul wrote was sincere in that the Corinthians were always in danger of losing their spiritual purity and being “led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). God told Moses when He gave the Ten Commandments, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me” (Exodus 20:5).
God is jealous in a good and positive sense. He is not jealous on His own behalf. He has an intense interest in us and desires that our affections continue to be centered on Him alone. God’s jealousy is protective because He saved us from sin through His Son. How can we then reject Him?
