As an aside, or perhaps as not an aside, I want to share with you a real-life story that has been on my mind, that was told to me by someone I pay to work around my house. He lives with his parents, who received an eviction notice by their landlord giving them 30 days to get out. The reason for their eviction is not relevant since it was approved by the court.
The 30 days almost expire, so in a matter of days they have to get out. Problem is, they haven’t found another place yet. The family asked God to help them in their predicament. The day for them to leave arrives, and the Sheriff shows up with a van to get their belongings out of their apartment. The Sheriff goes inside and looks over what has to be removed. He then tells the parents that they have too much stuff for his van, and they have animals. He says their landlord will have to file another eviction notice mentioning all the items in the house. I don’t know offhand of any earthly reason why the Sheriff doesn’t just get a larger van, and perhaps some animal cages, and return. But the time it takes for their landlord to file another Notice, plus the 30 days that Notice will give them, provides them with additional time to find someplace and in the meantime, they can stay where they are. I believe that God was a factor in buying them more time. They cried up to Him and He answered their cry.
I don’t believe they ever acknowledged any other god, for if they did, then God, who is jealous, would not have helped them.
The Bible tells us that God is a jealous God. Is He jealous for the sake of His own vanity, or is He jealous of others whom His people would turn to? Does it matter? After all, the Bible, which according to 2 Timothy 3:16 was breathed out by God for our teaching, reproof, correction, and for training in righteousness. But within the Bible there is Proverbs 3:5 which says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and to not lean on your own understanding. Our relationship with God on a transactional basis, in terms of what He can do for us is strictly business, to the extent it is not our concern what His motives are. Yes, God will provide if we love Him, but our love for Him is unlike our love for eachother in that we cannot know everything about Him.
But as we have a natural temptation to question things in our realm and to seek answers for our own purpose, we can at least look in the Bible to see if there is any indication as to what God is jealous about.
First off, Exodus 34:14 says “(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God)…” So, God admits to being jealous. That passage alone may suggest that He becomes jealous when attention is draw away from Him. Is there anything in the Bible to indicate He is jealous of what other gods can do, that He can do?
In Deuteronomy 32: 21, God had said “They have made me jealous with what is no god…” Well, why would God be jealous of someone who is not a god? The jealousy then, must be the result of God’s vanity, of people giving their attention to others instead of to God. God doesn’t think, here, that others, who may refer to themselves as God, can do the things that God can do. And we have seen in Exodus of how God overpowered the Egyptian gods with the misery he placed on the Egyptians for not letting the Hebrews go. So, it must be for the sake of His own vanity.
Suppose you looked in a mirror, expecting the mirror to show your own reflection. Instead, it shows, to your shock and dismay, a reflection of someone else. Perhaps it’s someone you heard of, but in any event, you don’t see your own reflection. Each time you look in that mirror you see someone else’s reflection. Would you be jealous if the mirror doesn’t show your reflection? What is a mirror but something that was made to show our image? God made man in His image. How should God react if we reflected other gods instead of Him?
The New Testament doesn’t allude much to God’s jealousy. There is a passage, 1 Corinthians 10: 21-22 which says, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to JEALOUSY? Are we stronger than He?”
Jesus doesn’t mention God’s jealousy, though he must have surely known that the Old Testament speaks of it. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” So, what does the Son do? He focuses on the benefits of God, rather than on the shortcomings of idols or others that the pagans at the time may have worshipped. God sent Jesus for the benefit of those who didn’t know Him, and He sent Jesus for the benefit of the Jews that did know Him. Perhaps Jesus felt he wouldn’t win the pagans’ devotion to God by comparing God to what they were worshipping, and in the case of the Jews, well, the leaders among the Jews at least were aware that the Bible says God is jealous; no point in rehashing that with them.
God can get jealous, but if it is because of His vanity, then who among us can question Him on that?
