Author’s note: If you are new to my blog and are interested in reading the 23.xx series, please first read the 23.01 through 23.09 in order to best get the idea of what I am attempting to communicate. They are built like chapters in a book, one building on the previous one. Consider the points made in each article to help you understand where I am coming from in hopes I can make a connection with you on your spiritual journey.
How do we come to terms with a character trait of God like Jealousy?
Our human minds are limited in ability to grasp the wholeness and completeness of many things, not the least of which are divine and glorious traits of God. The traits of God are evidenced repeatedly in the Bible.
One trait that I had difficulties with is this concept of Jealousy, because when I think of jealousy, I have embarrassing reminders of not succeeding with my love interest du-jour when others would be succeeding. To add further color to the biased concept, these experiences I had were most pronounced when I was a young single man who was, if anything, lacking a lot of confidence and self-awareness.
Now it may be more accurate to say that, rather than jealousy, I suffered from envy or covetousness, because I desired to have something someone else had. In either case, in the past, I tended to associate my own subjective experience and literacy and applied it to my interpretation of a God trait written in the Bible.
People can get hung up trying to understand God through puny and sin-ladened understandings, which would be the equivalent of lowering the state of a Holy and Righteous, Creator God, to the idolatrous product of a degenerating society saturated with pornography, drugs and self-righteousness.
Well, wouldn’t that be a pitiful thing to do, to project human insecurity into the definition of what the BIble proclaims in many instances of the Godly trait of Jealousy. For instance, Exodus 34:14 states: “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
In this verse, God is not only stating He is a Jealous God, He is placing emphasis on His nature of being jealous.
As a student of the Bible there are several avenues of thinking you can adopt, but I will only highlight two just to emphasize a point:
TIRE KICKING APPROACH: “I cannot reconcile that God can be Jealous because of my personal paradigm of what jealous means; therefore, I cannot subscribe to what the Bible states as divine Truth. In fact, I can’t share the same room as a jealous God, I’ll look for another god who isn’t jealous and doesn’t make me uncomfortable.”
THE DISCIPLE APPROACH: “It’s easy for me to believe God is a God of LOVE and COMPASSION and I definitely don’t understand the depths of either LOVE or COMPASSION. To a degree I have sensed it, enjoyed it, given it, and have goofed it up and got it wrong; I realize, I can’t say I will ever plumb the depths of those Godly virtues in this life. I really ought to be careful of being self-righteous and with an open heart seek the real meaning of what Godly JEALOUSY is.”
For your continued edification, here are two by-the-book definitions of Jealousy
-From the Cambridge Dictionary: A feeling of unhappiness and anger because someone has something or someone that you want:
-From the Merriam Webster Dictionary: Jealousy carries the particular sense of “zealous vigilance” and tends to be applied more exclusively to feelings of protectiveness regarding one’s own advantages or attachments.
An explanation about godly jealousy from my friend Larry Rippere:
So think of somebody you really care about. They do something you know is dumb. It hurts, doesn’t it? Don’t you think the hurt/anger you feel is jealousy? Are you not jealous for them to be better, smarter, more grown up?
I think that’s very similar to Jesus’ jealousy when He sees you/me doing something stupid = idolatrous, thinking someone/something is better than Him.
That may “feel” a bit different than the possessive male/female jealousy, but the motive is really the same. “She thinks that clown is better than I am. She’s being dumb. That makes me mad.” The difference here is that I am insecure and worried that maybe he is better! Jesus never has to worry about that. But He gets the you’re-stupid part real well!
A Final Thought
It pays to be concerned anytime we are offended by a characteristic of God. God, and I mean the God of the Bible, who is Sovereign, Holy and Righteous. He is without sin. While each of us is born into sin, part of our fallen nature.
Attempting to understanding God, like in any project you should get as much of a top level picture as possible. The Bible offers that picture.
Despite this chasm that separates us from God, God so loves us that He chose to bridge what would naturally be an irreconcilable separation with the one supernatural act of sacrifice He provides for us as a gift. It’s simple, but you need to receive it.
The Book of Isaiah, written by the prophet of Israel about 700-800 years before Christ, is sometimes referred to as the “5th Gospel” for its vivid prophecy of Christ’s suffering for each of our sins. The following passage From Isaiah 53:4-6, is only one of a vast array of prophetic visions found in the Bible, many have already been fulfilled and some are yet to be fulfilled:
“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All like sheep have gone astray: We have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has on Him the iniquity of us all.”
CKY
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