The Scriptures tell us that God is a jealous God. but what does that mean? How can the finite creature comprehend the jealousy of an infinite God? To help us understand , brother J.I. Packer in his book Knowing God stated the folllowing:
"1. Biblical statements about God’s jealousy are anthropomorphisms. That is, they are descriptions of God in a language drawn from our life as humans. The Bible is full of anthropomorphisms - God’s arm, hands and finger, his hearing, seeing and smelling, his tenderness, anger, repentance, laughter, joy and so on. The reason why God uses these terms to speak to us about himself is that language drawn from our own personal life is the most accurate medium we have for communicating thoughts about him. He’s personal, so are we, in a way that nothing else in the physical creation is. Since we are more like God than is any other being known to us, it is more illuminating and less misleading for God to picture himself to us in human terms than any other.
We have to remember that man is not the measure of his Maker, and that when the language of human personal life is used of God, none of the limitations of human creature hood are thereby being implied - limited knowledge, or power, or foresight, or strength, or consistency, or anything of that kind. An we must remember that those elements in human qualities which show the corrupting effect of sin have no counterpart in God. Thus, for instance, his wrath is not the ignoble outburst that human anger so often is a sign of pride and weakness, but it is holiness reacting to evil in a way that is morally right and glorious. God’s jealousy is not a compound of frustration, envy and spite, as human jealousy so often is, but appears instead as a (literally) praiseworthy zeal to preserve something supremely precious.
2. There are two sorts of jealousy among humans, and only one of them is a vice. Vicious jealousy - is an infantile resentment springing from unfortified covetousness, which express itself in envy, malice, and meanness of action. It is terribly potent, for it feeds and is fed by pride, the taproot of our fallen nature. There is a mad obsessiveness about jealousy, if indulged, can tear an otherwise firm character to shreds.
But there is another sort of jealousy: zeal to protect a love relationship or to avenge it when broken. Scripture consistently views God’s jealousy as being of this latter kind: that is, as an aspect of his covenant love for his own people. The Old Testament regards God’s covenant as his marriage with Israel, carrying with it a demand for unqualified love and loyalty. The worship of idols, and all compromising relations with non-Israelite idolaters, constituted disobedience and unfaithfulness, which God saw as spiritual adultery, provoking him to jealousy and vengeance. All the Mosaic references to God’s jealousy have to do with idol worship in one form or another; they all hark back to the second commandment, the same is true throughout Scripture.
“And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.” Joshua 24:19
“And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.” 1 Kings 14:22
“For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.” Psalm 78:58
“Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?”
1 Corinthians 10:22
“And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.” Ezekiel 8:3
“38And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.
42So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.” Ezekiel 16:38, 42
“And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.” Ezekiel 23:25
From these passages we see plainly what God meant by telling Moses that his name was “Jealous.” He meant that he demands from those whom he has loved and redeemed utter and absolute loyalty, and he will vindicate his claim by stern action against them if they betray his love by unfaithfulness. Calvin hit the nail on the head when he explained the sanction of the second commandment as follows:
“The Lord very frequently addresses us in the character of a husband. As He performs all the offices of a true and faithful husband, so he requires love and chastity from us; that is, that we do not prostitute our souls to Satan…. As the purer and chaster a husband is, the more grievously he is offended when he see his wife inclining to a rival; so the Lord, who has betrothed us to Himself in truth, declares that He burns with the hottest jealousy whenever, neglecting the purity of His holy marriage, we defile ourselves with abominable lusts, and especially when the worship of His deity, which ought to have been most carefully kept unimpaired, is transferred to another, or adulterated with some superstition; since in this way we not only violate our plighted troth, but defile the nuptial couch, by giving access to adulterers.”
The goal of the covenant love of God is that he should have a people on earth as long as history lasts, and after that should have all his faithful ones of every age with him in glory. Covenant love is the heart of God’s plan for the world.
For God’s ultimate objective, as the Bible declares it, is threefold - to vindicate his rule and righteousness by showing his sovereignty in judgment upon sin; to ransom and redeem his chosen people; and to be loved and praised by them for his glorious acts of love and self-vindication. God seeks what we should seek - his glory, in and through men - and it is for the securing of this end, ultimately, that he is jealous. His jealousy, in all its manifestations, is precisely “the zeal of the Lord Almighty” for fulfilling his own purpose of justice and mercy.
“Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:7
“For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.” Isaiah 37:32
“Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.” Ezekiel 5:13
So God’s jealousy leads him, on the one hand, to judge and destroy the faithless among his people who fall into idolatry and sin,
“19And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.” Joshua 24:19-20
“Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.” Zephaniah 1:18
And indeed to judge the enemies of righteousness and mercy everywhere
“God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.” Nahum 1:2
“5Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
6Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen:
7Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.” Ezekiel 36:5-7
“Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” Zephaniah 3:8
It also leads him, on the other hand, to restore his people after national judgment has chastened and humbled them.
“14So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
15And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.
16Therefore thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.
17Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.” Zechariah 1:14-17
“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.” Zechariah 8:2
“Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.” Joel 2:18
And what is it that motivates these actions?
Simply the fact that he is “jealous for his holy name” .
“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;” Ezekiel 39:25
His name is his nature and character as Jehovah, the LORD, ruler of history, guardian of righteousness and savior of sinners - and God means his name to be known, honored and praised.
“I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” Isaiah 42:8
“For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.” Isaiah 48:11
