{"id":33702,"date":"2014-05-31T07:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-31T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=33702"},"modified":"2015-03-19T22:10:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T05:10:00","slug":"a-jealous-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2014\/05\/31\/a-jealous-god\/","title":{"rendered":"A jealous God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day, I received a question via Facebook from a friend asking about a\u00a0passage she had read\u00a0in the Old Testament. Her query related to a turn of phrase used in the Book of Exodus where God describes Himself as a “jealous God”<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(Exodus 20:4-6<\/a>). What did it mean? Why would God ever be “jealous”<\/span><\/em>?\u00a0Surely jealousy is always a bad thing?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

God as Man<\/h2>\n

When reading the Old Testament, we often come across what is known as “anthropomorphic<\/a> language”\u00a0<\/em>(AN-THROW-PO-MOR-FIC). This is where Scripture speaks of God as though he possessed human attributes.<\/p>\n

There are many forms and examples of anthropomorphism in the Old Testament. For example, God is spoken of having human characteristics such as\u00a0“eyes”<\/em><\/span> (2 Samuel 22:7<\/a>), an “arm”<\/em><\/span> (Job 40:9<\/a>) and a “head”<\/span><\/em> (Daniel\u00a07:9<\/a>). Additionally, we are told that the Lord\u00a0experiences the human emotions of\u00a0“joy”<\/em><\/span> (Isaiah 65:19<\/a>) and “grief”<\/span><\/em> (Judges 10:16<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Why does Scripture do this? Well, anthropomorphisms are used to communicate truth by analogy<\/em>; it’s rather hard to narrate a story involving the timeless, transcendent God. In short, Scripture is teaching us about God in terms we can understand<\/em>.<\/p>\n

God as\u00a0Husband<\/h2>\n

So, if Scripture is using an analogy to explain something to us, what is that “something” it’s trying to explain in this case?<\/p>\n

When trying to understand any verse of Scripture, we must always look to its context. The context of the \u00a0“jealous God”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0phrase is the episode in which God gives “The Ten Commandments”. God begins the Decalogue by\u00a0completely banning the worship of any other God. What is the reason He gives? He explains that it is\u00a0“for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God”<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n

All this took place on Mount Sinai, when\u00a0God was entering into covenant with Israel through Moses. The Lord\u00a0was swearing an oath to them, making Israel His special people, part of His family. A very similar thing happens at a wedding when a man and a woman invoke the name of the Lord and swear an oath to one another and thus become family.\u00a0It is for this reason that, again and again in Scripture, we see the relationship between God and His people spoken of in spousal terms:<\/p>\n

And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy<\/em> –\u00a0Hosea 2:19<\/span><\/p>\n

Given this context, we can see that God is “jealous”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0for Israel’s affections. God did\u00a0not want Israel to enter into a relationship with any other “gods”. This is also why, when the prophets rebuked the people for their unfaithfulness to the Lord and His covenant, they spoke of Israel’s betrayal in terms of adultery.<\/p>\n

Sole Soul Mates<\/h2>\n

We can now hopefully see that “jealous[y]”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0isn’t necessarily such a bad thing. If a man walked up to your\u00a0front door, gave your wife some flowers and asked her out on a date, I think it’s a okay\u00a0to be a bit jealous! In fact, I would think\u00a0something was\u00a0a little wrong if you weren’t!<\/p>\n

You and your\u00a0wife are in a life-long covenant together to the exclusion of all others<\/em>. It is for this reason that\u00a0the Lord described Himself as\u00a0“jealous”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 – he wanted Israel’s undivided allegiance. What he desired from the Children of Israel, He desires from us also: our\u00a0love, our loyalty and our devotion, ’til\u00a0death do us unite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day, I received a question via Facebook from a friend asking about a\u00a0passage she had read\u00a0in the Old Testament. Her query related to a turn of phrase used in the Book of Exodus where God describes Himself as a “jealous God”\u00a0(Exodus 20:4-6). What did it mean? Why would God ever be “jealous”?\u00a0Surely jealousy is always a bad thing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[3101,2969],"class_list":["post-33702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-anthropomorphism","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33702"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35400,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33702\/revisions\/35400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}