Character Day 3 Jealous God

Exodus 20:1-21
John 3:16
Philippians 2:1-11

Character, Day 3

I see the word jealous and I think bad, wrong, sinful.  The word should never be a word that describes my heart or my mind, much less God!  I think of all the times that my mom told me as a teenager not to be jealous or those times in my own mind I was warned of the green-eyed monster of jealousy rearing its ugly head. There are even children’s song that give admonition against the sin of jealously.

However, in this case, when it comes to God and His character,
jealousy doesn’t hold the same connotation.
There is nothing evil, nothing sinful, about God.
So, having a jealous God must be something righteous.
The jealousy of God is a characteristic of His, just like love or faithfulness, that He cannot deny about Himself.
So, what does it mean that God is jealous?
And why does it matter?

What does it mean that God is jealous?
Abba Father who longs so deeply to be deeply rooted in each of our lives fights for us.
He battles our battles,
He weeps when we weep,
and He rejoices when His children rejoice.
This same God desires so deeply that not one of His little sheep be apart from Him.
He covets our time, our hearts, our life, our all.
He wants all of us.

He is jealous of those things that steal our time, our precious God-given time.
When we commit to His ways, it is not something to take lightly.
NO!
He wants us to be who He created us to be which goes against the very culture and fallen world we live in.

Since the Fall, when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, God has fought to redeem His people so much so that He willingly sent His son to die on the cross to make the wrongs of humanity right (John 3:16, Romans 5:12-21).
He pursues every nook of our heart and speaks redemption over our darkest parts. In that process, He wants nothing to replace Him as being Sovereign of our life. He is jealous of all things that we put before Him.

Our time,
our possessions,
our finances,
our jobs,
our children,
our ministries….the list could go on!
It includes anything in our life that replaces His Lordship.

Don’t be mistaken in thinking God’s characteristic of jealousy falls under the same definition of jealousy like the world.
The world’s jealousy shrivels and eats at the heart and mind.
No, His jealously is a righteous one calling us back to our first love.
Calling us back to our Creator, our Father, our Savior, and our Lord.
Righteous jealously seeks after and pursues even the one lost sheep, the prodigal son, and the wayward woman at the well.
A jealous God seeks to restore relationship,
redeem the time, and
radically transform the lives of those that allow it,
because of His great love for us!

So why does it matter?
It matters because if God didn’t care…He wouldn’t care!
Silly sentence, I know, but our faith apart from God intimately caring about His creation and desiring a relationship with us, with me, is nothing.
Our faith, without a jealous God who cares enough to refuse to leave us in our sin and shame, means I am, we are, lost for all eternity.
God seeks after His Bride, the Church, and desires she not play the harlot anymore.

Just as we read throughout the Old Testament, the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, were told as part of the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:5, stop messing around with other gods (little g, no power, not the real thing gods) and know that I am jealous for you and I AM the One True God!
This was both a message of love, but also a condemnation of behavior and a warning to return or suffer the consequences of living apart from the Lord.
God wants everything we do to look like Him (Philippians 2:5).
It matters because the God we serve is holy and full of truth.
His jealousy comes when we allow the things in our personal worlds to crowd Him out.
He is jealous for that space!
He wants all of our space and desires for nothing less than things of eternal value that put His glory on display. When our hearts are fully delighting in the love of the God who jealously pursues us, our hearts are unleashed for abundance!

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