When we think of jealousy we often associate it with coveting and envy. Since God tells us not to covet, we assume jealousy as a bad human emotion. When displayed in the form of covetousness or envy, jealousy is a harmful, unproductive and unnecessary emotion of the flesh. But did you know there is a “good” form of jealousy?
One of the many names of God is El Qanna, the Jealous God. God first refers to himself this way in Exodus 20:5- you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God
El Qanna refers to a “marriage” relationship between Yahweh and His people. This symbolism makes it easy to understand how God can be jealous. Think about it. Do you want to share your husband’s affections and devotion with anyone or anything else? My guess is no. I know I sure don’t! The marriage covenant is holy and unlike any other relationship we will ever enter into. Just like we don’t want our husbands to be intimate with another woman, God does not want our loyalties, attention and praise to be directed toward anyone/thing but Him.
I like to think of it as a form of being protective. He is willing to “fight” for us, even to the point of death on the cross and once we are His (reconciled through the blood of Jesus), He will not let us go and is “jealous” of anything that may try and woo us away.
We should exercise this same form of jealousy towards guarding the Truth in our homes. We should remain diligent to not allow anything profane to leak into our homes, where we strive to raise our children in Truth and to the glory of God.
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