Exodus 34:14 - His name is Jealous

Jealous is a provocative word.  We can become jealous in friendships, relationships with our spouse or significant others, even with our kids!  Jealousy is a terrible feeling because it is often rooted in insecurity, resentment or even fear.  We are afraid of losing someone.  We are insecure about our position with the other person.  We resent others that may make our loved ones happier than us.  What an ugly feeling.  You can understand my difficulty when reading a text that says my God, the God of the universe, all powerful, is a jealous God.  I can understand me being jealous because I struggle with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy, but God?  The One who spoke, and everything formed?

I began to dive deeper into these feelings of jealousy.  What else could this possibly mean?  I started to look deeper at the text and the intent of the author.  What I found shook me.  This ancient word used to describe jealousy, has roots that communicate a different meaning.  The word used in the text describes an unrivaled position, an unwillingness to share because I am unrivaled.  This takes on a whole different meaning.  God is not jealous because He is insecure or feels inadequate or scared, He is unrivaled, and as such, is not interested in sharing our attention with other things that don’t measure up to Him.

I felt convicted to my core.  How often do I give my attention to things that can’t stand in His presence.  How often do I bend my knee to thoughts, feelings, idols that can’t compare to Him.  The Creator has to compete for my attention with Tik Tok?  That is wild to me.  The all powerful, all knowing, gracious and loving, unrivaled God must share my attention.  I’m sorry for doing this so many times.  Father, forgive me.  I want to encourage you, as I reflect on myself, to devote more attention to God.  As you work, work for Him.  As you raise your children, raise them in His way.  As you love your partner, love them the way He loves you.  Direct your heart toward Him alone and don’t share it with anything else.