For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Exodus 34:14
Parents will often refer to the ‘green eyed monster’ when they see an older child display obvious signs of jealousy when a new baby is receiving all of the attention the older child used to get. Jealousy gets a bad name, and much of the time it is well deserved. So how can the Lord, Who we know is always good, possibly be called Jealousy, as our text declares? Maybe jealousy has a different meaning than we thought.
Today’s text is only one of several references to God’s jealousy in the Old Testament. When we examine this subject, we find a vast difference between God’s jealousy and most human jealousy. As humans, our jealousy usually arises from insecurity or envy, and is sinful and destructive. Because a holy God cannot sin, His jealousy must be different. It arises from His rightful claim to exclusive allegiance and worship from His people. And it reflects His commitment to all that is the very best for His people.
Our text has a commandment to worship no other god. That is why God is jealous, because all of the other gods that could be worshipped are false, and it is both foolish and rebellious against the true God for anyone to worship them. That applies whether those gods are carved and cold idols, or the Baal of Old Testament times, or the impersonal and vengeful Allah of Islam, or the materialistic and apathetic lifestyles around us today. Any worship of those false gods will do us nothing but harm, and our loving God longs to bring us out of harm and into His richest blessing. Any worship of those false gods must grieve the heart of a God Who alone is rightfully and fully deserving of our love and worship. -Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/Mxn-LItWwVk