When I was a little kid I memorized the Ten Commandments. The “jealous” word describing God was a bit disconcerting. I thought of that characteristic in negative terms and I did not want my God to be negative. I was told if I wanted to know what God was like I was to look at Jesus since Hebrews 1 tells us Jesus is an exact representation of the Father. I couldn’t see Jesus having a bad attribute. Then it was that I learned that the word “jealous” can have positive characteristics. The dictionary uses the example, “The American people are jealous of their freedom.” It goes on to explain that it means they are vigilant and protective.
I like that idea. Our God is vigilant and protective of His children. It goes along with Paul’s idea in Romans 8. “If God be for us who can be against us? . . . For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
But there was still an idea in Exodus 20 that bothered me. It is about God visiting the iniquities of fathers unto their children. Thankfully I came to understand that inheritance is not only eye color, etc., but the mental dispositions of our ancestors. This is not only a Biblical concept but an idea shared with the likes of Freud, Jung and the sociobiologist Edward Wilson. Our God isn’t kicking around children because their fathers were wicked. It’s talking about natural inheritance.
I have come to like the idea of my God jealousy taking care of us.
Written by Roger Bothwell on November 11, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org