The Hebrew word for jealousy also encompasses the ideas of envy (Prov. 14:30) and zeal (Isa. 9:7). Envy is a vice because it wants what God has given to the neighbor and is sometimes willing to harm the neighbor to obtain it. Zeal can be either a virtue or a vice depending on its focus. Phinehas was zealous (or jealous) for God (Num. 25:11), but the Pharisees’ zeal, exemplified in Saul’s persecution of the church, Phil. 3:6), was without knowledge (Rom. 10:2). We tend to think that jealousy is also a vice and often equate it with envy, but that is not always true. A husband is rightly jealous of his wife’s loyalty (cf. Num. 5), and a wife of her husband’s. So jealousy also can be either a virtue or a vice.
God is a jealous God. He gives as the reason for the prohibition against graven images, I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God… (Exod. 20:5, cf. also Deut. 4:24, 5:9, 6:15). He even goes so far as to say that his name is Jealous (Exod. 34:14). His jealousy, of course, cannot be other than a virtue and is a manifestation of his holiness.
God is jealous, first, for his own name and glory. He says it in so many words in Ezekiel 39:25. This is why it is a reason for the second commandment. When we make images of God (or when we worship other gods, Exod. 34:14, Deut. 32:16, 21) we rob God of his glory. Then his jealousy wakes, and he visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children.
His jealousy drives him to anger against those who will not honor him. He becomes a consuming fire to them (Deut. 4:24). His anger is roused and works destruction (Deut. 6:14–15). His jealousy burns and the curses of the law come on transgressors (Deut. 29:20). His jealousy destroyed Jerusalem (Ps. 79:5). He will spend his fury on his people and make them a waste and a reproach among the nations (Ezek. 5:13). He will bring blood on them in fury and jealousy (Ezek. 16:38). The whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy (Zeph. 1:18). His glory is the reason for our existence and the reason for the creation of the world. When we refuse to give to him the glory due to his name, he becomes jealous and angry. We should hasten to repent lest we be consumed.
But his jealousy also works on our behalf. He is jealous (or zealous) for our well-being and safety. When enemies attack us, his jealousy will waken and burn against them. Isaiah says, in promising blessing to Israel, the zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this (9:7, 37:32). He will stir up his zeal like a man of war and prevail against his enemies (42:13). His arm brings salvation because he was clad with zeal as a cloak (59:16–17). And the people pray in 63:15, Where are Your zeal and Your strength, the yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me? His zeal and jealousy rise from his passionate love for us. When, oppressed by the nations, his people call on him to spare them, then he will be zealous for his land, and pity his people (Joel 2:17–18). The angel told Zechariah that the LORD was zealous for his people with great zeal and exceedingly angry with the nations at ease (Zech. 1:14–15, cf. also 8:2).
God expects a corresponding zeal in us.
That zeal or jealousy must be first for his glory. We’ve already cited the example of Phinehas, who killed an Israelite man and Midianite woman because of his zeal for God. But the Scriptures make it plain that all-consuming zeal for God should be normative for us. David says that zeal for the Lord’s house has eaten him up (Ps. 69:9). Elijah was very zealous for the Lord God of hosts (1 Kgs 19:10, 14). Jehu, king of Israel, invited Jehonadab the son of Rechab to witness his zeal for the Lord as he killed the members of the house of Ahab according to God’s command (2 Kgs. 10:16), though he lost that zeal later and aroused the Lord’s jealousy against himself in doing so. And the author of Psalm 119 says, My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten your words (v. 139).
And, of course, zeal for God means also zeal for his cause in the world, passionate love for his truth and his church, and sometimes a passionate hatred for those who hate God. Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? … I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies (Ps. 139:21–22). This jealousy or zeal for God made Jael kill Sisera and Deborah and Barak celebrate it and Israel’s victory over the Canaanites (Judges 5), drove Paul in expending himself for the sake of the gospel, and sustained many martyrs through fiery trials.
Such zeal for God is our response to God’s zeal for us. We love him because he first loved us. We are passionate for him because he was and is passionate for our salvation and our fellowship. We give ourselves because he gave his Son. We seek his glory above all else because we know that in doing so we conform to him in his zeal for his great name.