Provoking to God in jealousy, and God provoking us to jealousy

Exodus 20: 4-5 says, “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God...”

Notice that God is jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him. It is not that God is jealous or envious because someone has something He wants or needs. In these verses, God is speaking of people making idols and bowing down and worshipping those idols instead of giving God the worship that belongs to Him alone. God is possessive of the worship and service that belong to Him. It is a sin (as God points out in this commandment) to worship or serve anything other than God. It is a sin when we desire, or we are envious, or we are jealous of someone because he has something that we do not have.

It is a different use of the word “jealous” when God says He is jealous. What He is jealous of belongs to Him; worship and service belong to Him alone and are to be given to Him alone. And in this jealousy, God shall unleash vengeance and judgment on the unrighteous, as clearly spelt out in the Book of Revelations and Romans 1 for they have not honoured Him not as the living and only God. God’s jealous is appropriate, for He is God and there is none like Him. He deserves all our praise and honour. Matthew 6 in the Lord’s Prayer says “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]’ Jesus underlines the superior nature of God, and because God is above all and anything, all praise, worship and adoration belong to Him alone.

God is jealous of His people because He created all of us. He is jealous over His Kingdom, over His Truth, and His Name. He is God - the one true living Deity that has made it all.

There is no other god. There are only imposters and pretenders. Satan is the greatest imposter, trying to claim God's throne. God made this earth, He gave us all life, and He will bring about the New Jerusalem. God is a jealous God, yet we try to exploit and manipulate Him, we play with His Name, we play with His Truth and Word, we mock Him, we mock His Spirit, and we mock Jesus with our sins and idolatry. We run after man and gods [demons], we destroy this planet, we destroy each other and we trample on love.

God is a jealous God, but we have made Him cheap, we have made His Truth cheap, we have made His Kingdom cheap and we have denied His excellence and glory, all for the sake of our kingdoms. God is a jealous God, but we think we can make the rules, bend the rules, change the rules and we strive to reign and rule like gods. He is all-powerful, yet we dare to command Him what to do, how to do it and when to do it! We are His creation, yet we are on this planet pretending He is our creation and thus our little pet. We constantly provoke Him to jealousy. Yet, He is mighty, glorious and powerful, He breathes life and is life. He is light. He is Truth. There is no other, He parts the seas. He makes our heartbeat every second of the day. His grace and mercy have allowed us the opportunity at eternal life.

At the burning bush, the Lord said to Moses He is “I AM.” There is none like God. No rival. No equal. He made all. All things are upheld by a mighty God. So He deserves all the thanks from mankind, thus His creation, yet we would rather choose to serve other ‘gods’, or ourselves. So of course daily this entire world is provoking God to jealousy, for as His creation we rebel against Him. Revelations 4 also demonstrates the honour and the glory due to I AM: “8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes all over and within [underneath their wings]; and day and night they never stop saying, “Holy, holy, holy [is the] Lord God, the Almighty [the Omnipotent, the Ruler of all], who was and who is and who is to come [the unchanging, eternal God].” 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanksgiving to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever; and they throw down their crowns before the throne, saying,”

When giving the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, God warns that He is a jealous God, who does not tolerate rivals. He wants a committed love relationship with us, and He is not prepared to share our affections with any other. He will not tolerate what might be called an “open relationship” in today’s terms – he is strictly monogamous. When the people of Israel (or any of his beloved, including you and I) spend too much time and attention with another, allow our hearts to go astray, or prioritise something or someone else ahead of him, there is a righteous response of jealous anger. And why shouldn’t God be angry? And such anger and being provoked to jealousy goes against our romantic view of God. He has given everything for us and to us, and our hearts should belong to Him.

In Genesis 6 we read how the Lord was sorry that He made man on earth and felt grieved. The King James says “it repented the Lord” for creating mankind that had fallen into such wickedness. Why did it anger God? Because the people, who were His creation, were not displaying the nature of a loving and holy God. And in such demonstration, we give the Lord not the respected honour and glory due unto Him. Similarly, we grieve the Holy Spirit when we constantly deny Him, suppress Him, ignore Him or go against His counsel. God deserves our full attention and our full devotion and obedience, otherwise, we provoke Him to jealousy. And in this jealousy lies His wrath and His anger but also grief and sorrow.

Deuteronomy 32 says “21 ‘They have made Me jealous with what is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” God knows full well that Israel will go astray. But He had a plan to win them back. He planned to make them jealous! Paul reiterates this promise from Romans 10:19 and continues by asking in 11:11, “Did they [the people of Israel] stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!”

Yes, God planned that His new covenant would extend the possibility of a relationship with God to all the peoples of the earth. This would also cause the Jewish people to see what they were missing out on! Israel was thus meant to be provoked to jealousy because of God’s grace and mercy that was extended to the Gentiles. And this is the jealousy that still provokes many Jewish people into finding out more about Yeshua, the One through whom this connection is possible.

At times in our rebellion, in idolatry and iniquity, we as believers hit rock bottom and drift away from God. Sometimes this needs to happen so that we are provoked to jealousy to realise what we are missing when it comes to truly walking with God and seeking God. Yes, at times we need to be provoked to jealousy! At times we need to drift away so that we can realise that only in God is our strength, our hope and rescue.

This is thus the story of the prodigal story, who was also provoked by jealousy. This prodigal son left his father’s house because of envy, which turned to anger and bitterness. Yet when he realised what he was missing out on at his father’s house, he was willing to return even as a servant. Envy drove him away, yet when provoked to jealousy he returned to love! The good news is that we can return to God as His adopted sons and daughters, but at times we need to be provoked to jealousy so that we can realise that this world is not the answer to our joy or fulfilment. Only in God’s house can we feel at home, and find our rest with our eternal and glorious Father.

You see, our entire life should be devoted to God, and we should be jealous of anything that steals our devotion and adoration reserved for God. We should be passionate about guarding our devotion, and be careful of anything that robs our attention of God. And so at times, we drift away from God, and we do all kinds of strange things on our sojourning, but there is a way back and God does welcome us as His prodigal children. To be provoked to jealousy is thus a reminder of what we have lost and are not enjoying when we are not walking with God. And this is the jealousy that results in boundless joy.