God Is Jealous For You

"I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God" Exodus 20:5

Jealousy is perhaps the most intimate of emotions.  One cannot be jealous for something or someone they do not feel personally belongs to them in some way.  For God to say that He is Jealous for you implies that He feels that you belong to Him.  This belonging is personal.  Jealousy is not something we can theologize or turn into doctrine, it is a raw feeling of zeal and pursuit between the lover and the beloved.  Don't forget the connotation that jealousy has in our minds today.  There is no doubt that it is as corruptible as anger or desire.  But in almost every case I can think of where jealousy is bad, it has begun to overrun the reality of a situation.  Like when a man or woman becomes so possessive of another person that they become blinded to the truth of their love.  But what if, in a relationship of deep love and commitment, true infidelity were a chronic and frequent behavior?  What if the lover watched with their own eyes the beloved turn to rival lovers time and time again.  Wouldn't jealousy be the only natural response to such blatant disregard for a promise of love and faithfulness?  This, I believe is where God's comment about His own character is immortally burned on the world famous 10 commandments in Exodus chapter 20.  God is jealous because he holds out the hope and expectation that vows are to be kept.  Like when someone says in prayer "Oh God, thank you for saving me, I give my whole life to you.  You are my Lord"  and then turns around and allows ANYTHING else to dictate their behavior and attitudes.  God should be jealous!  God's love, affection, and personal desire for us would be either shallow or cold if he were not jealous when we found our hope, life, and salvation in things other than himself.  I, for one, often make the mistake of assuming such a ridiculous possibility about our God: That God's love for me is like the love an assembly line worker has for yet another product rather than the love a lover has for the beloved.  The truth is this: God is so personally attached to me being in an ongoing, faithful relationship with Him that when I disregard that relationship or make it play second fiddle to anything else, He becomes fiercely jealous.  God is jealous for you.  Are you taking your relationship with Him seriously enough?