“Since he is the only God, the Creator of heaven and earth, he cannot endure that any creature of his own hands, or fiction of a creature’s imagination should be thrust into his throne and be made to wear his crown.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Human jealousy is rooted in selfishness, anger, envy and pride.

• In Othello, Shakespeare called it “the green-eyed monster.”
• Charles Spurgeon said “Self-love is, no doubt, the usual foundation of human jealousy…the fear lest another should by any means supplant us.”
• Paul included jealousy in a list of works of the flesh in Galatians 5:20, a list that includes such sins as sexual immorality, idolatry, strife, and fits of anger.
• Galatians 5:21 says, “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Yet Moses wrote in several verses in Exodus and Deuteronomy that God is a jealous God. (All verses in ESV)

• In the Ten Commandments, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)
• Speaking of the inhabitants of the land that Israel was to conquer, “You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),”(Exodus 34:13-14)
• “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”(Deuteronomy 4:23-24)
• “You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Deuteronomy 5:9-10)
• “You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”(Deuteronomy 6:14-15)
• “They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.” (Deuteronomy 32:16)

Notice in each of these Scriptures, God is jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him. In these verses, God is speaking of people worshiping idols instead of giving God the allegiance and worship that belongs to Him alone.

Idolatry is not just defined as a worshipping a craven image. Anything we desire more than God is an idol. Possessions, money, celebrities, desires, even family members can become idols if we allow them to have first place in our lives. God calls us to love, seek, obey, thank and worship Him with our whole heart. Nothing of this world is to be lifted above God.

• “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
• “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!” Psalm 119:2-3
• “Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!”(Deuteronomy 5:29)
• I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” (Psalm 9:1)
• “Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord.” (2 Chronicles 20:18)

Let’s spend some time today in prayer, asking God to show us anything we are putting above the Lord in our lives. We serve a God who wants first place in our lives, a God whose name is Jealous (Exodus 34:14).