The declaration of Exodus 34:6, which appears to assure us that God is not jealous, is repeated ten times in the Old Testament: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”
Other texts, however, appear to assert that God is indeed jealous. Exodus 20:5 clearly states, “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.” Deuteronomy 29:20 reiterates, “The LORD will never be willing to forgive [the person who invokes God’s blessing on himself and goes his own way thinking it is safe to do as he pleases]; his wrath and zeal [jealousy] will burn against that man.” Psalm 78:58 asserts, “They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.” Ezekiel 36:5 confirms, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my burning zeal [or jealousy] I have spoken against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, for with glee and with malice in their hearts they made my land their own possession so that they might plunder its pastureland.”
So how are we to understand God?
The anthropopathic descriptions of God (which describe God’s emotions in human terms) help us understand that God is not just an abstract idea but a living and active person. He does have emotions similar to our human emotions of jealousy, vengeance, anger, patience and goodness—with the exception that none of these are tainted with sin.
Certainly God has many agreeable traits, as Nahum 1:7 goes on to affirm: “The Lord is good. … He cares for those who trust in him.” In Nahum 1:3 God is also described as being “slow to anger and great in power.” But what of his seemingly less attractive emotions?
God’s jealousy is often linked in Scripture with his anger. As such, it is an expression of his holiness: “I will be zealous [or jealous] for my holy name” (Ezek 39:25). But in no sense is his jealousy or zeal explosive or irrational. Those depicting the God of the Old Testament as having a mysterious if not primal force, which could break out against any of his creatures at any time for any or no reason, have an overly active imagination. Never does God’s zeal or wrath border on caprice or the demonic.
God’s wrath is indeed a terrible reality in both Testaments, but it always reflects a totally consistent personality which cannot abide the presence of sin. God’s anger never causes him to avenge himself or retaliate, as if he were briefly insane. In our Lord, anger may be defined as his arousing himself to act against sin.
The same could be said about the word translated “vengeance” in the hard saying at hand. Divine vengeance can only be understood in the light of the Old Testament’s teaching on the holiness and justice of God. Of the seventy-eight times this word is used in the Old Testament, fifty-one involve situations where God is the perpetrator. The classical text is Deuteronomy 32:35, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay.” God cannot be God if he allows sin and rebellion to go unpunished. His very character cries out for the opposite.
Basically, there are two ways in which God takes vengeance: (1) he becomes the champion of those oppressed by the enemy (Ps 94) and (2) he punishes those who break covenant with him (Lev 26:24–25).
If the book of Nahum appears to exhibit savage joy over the crushing defeat of the Assyrian capital, Nineveh, the question must arise: When is one justified in rejoicing over the downfall of a despotic and tyrannical nation? If the answer is that one must wait until the rejoicing nation has been purged of their own sins, then we should be careful in our smugness over the destruction of Nazi Germany. Our own purging may lie ahead.
Contrary to the popular criticism of the book of Nahum, Nahum’s condemnation of Nineveh grows out of a moral and ethical concept of God. In the prophet’s thought, God is sovereign Lord over the whole creation, including all the nations. As a holy God, he abhors any form of unrighteousness, but all the more when it is committed on an international scale.
There are three basic reasons why God decreed the end of the Assyrian empire. First, the Assyrians not only opposed Israel, they opposed God (Nahum 1:9, 11, 14). Second, they flouted the law and moral order of God. Not only did Assyria draw her own citizens into the dragnet of idolatry, but she also lured many other nations into her practices, just as a harlot lures her prey to destruction (Nahum 2:13; 3:4). Finally, Assyria’s imperial greed provoked robberies and wrongs of every sort.
God, therefore, does not indifferently and helplessly watch the sins of the nations multiply. Instead, he is a warmhearted, understanding, but thoroughly just and righteous God who will act against those who persist in flouting everything he is and stands for. The fact that God expresses jealousy, vengeance or wrath is a sign that he cares for his people and champions their cause. He can and he will administer justice with equity among the nations.
The words jealousy—or, as it is more accurately rendered when referring to God, zeal—and vengeance may both be used in a good and a bad sense. When applied to God, they denote that God is intensely concerned for his own character and reputation. Thus, everything that ultimately threatens his honor, esteem and reverence may be regarded as the object of his jealousy and vengeance. The metaphor best depicting this emotion is that of the jealous husband, which God is said to be when false gods and false allegiances play the parts of suitors and potential paramours. He cannot and will not tolerate rivalry of any kind—our spiritual lives depend on his tenacious hold on us.
See also comment on EXODUS 20:4–6; PSALMS 5:5; 11:5.
Kaiser, W. C., Jr., Davids, P. H., Bruce, F. F., & Brauch, M. T. (1996). Hard sayings of the Bible (338–339). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity.