The Jealous God

The Old Testament often speaks of God as 'el qanna', the "jealous God." In fact, Exo 34:14 says that His name is "Jealous": "Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Qanna', is a jealous God."

Many Christians find the idea of a "jealous God" disturbing. The problem is two-fold, both having to do with semantics.

First, the adjective conjures up for most of us images of social and emotional anomaly, of overindulgent suspicion, of distrusting possessiveness, insecure yearning or resentful rage. But this is not how the word was always understood. Anyone familiar with Old English literature will be acquainted of this. The English language has refined itself over the years so that today we have at our disposal three different adjectives to denote 'zealous,' 'envious' and 'jealous' that the word 'jealous' singlehandedly used once to denote. This is the sort of thing we have with the Hebrew adjective qanna'. It is capable of meaning all three shades of emotions. Our perplexity dissipates considerably if the Hebrew expression is translated "I am a zealous God," though the object of this zeal will now need to be defined.

We protect what we care about.
A person who lacks such a passion
we call a wimp.
The Lord is no wimp!

Second, we often forget that 'jealousy' also denotes a healthy, necessary kind of passion that makes a person assert and demand his right to what is properly his. We protect what we care about. A person who lacks such a passion we call a wimp. The Lord is no wimp! By the use of this adjective the Old Testament portrays the Lord as a God who is passionate about protecting his integrity. All the occurrences of qanna' as a description of God can be traced back to the Second Commandment: "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 . . ." (Exo 20:4-5; Deut 5:8-9) . Because God is so unlike anything He has created, it is impossible to make a physical representation (an idol) of Him that truly and adequately represents Him in all the glory that He is. Any idol we make will remain a mis-representation of the Lord, a slur on His integrity. The Lord is not the kind of god who cares so little about His integrity that He would allow His worshippers to misrepresent Him as mere creatures or some fanciful figment of the imagination. His jealousy is, therefore, that divine passion that desires the truth about Himself to be properly known and represented.

Incidentally, note that this commandment is also closely related to the Third Commandment that prohibits taking the Lord's name in vain. To do so is to commit verbally what the Second Commandment prohibits physically/ graphically. And in an obverse sort of way, it is also the basis of the commandment not to bear false witness against our neighbours. Though usually translated as "bearing false witness against your neighbour," the Hebrew preposition is neutral and its thrust is that we should not bear false witness concerning our neighbours. Just as God is jealous and passionate that He should be known in truth so He desires and commands that we make it our responsibility that our neighbours should be spoken of truly. Slander and falsehood should never touch our lips.

These truths are immensely comforting. Just as the Lord is passionate about the truth about Himself being known, He is passionate about knowing us truly. Therefore, He will not misrepresent us on the Day of Judgment. No matter how we may be badly misrepresented in life, there will come one day when He will make known all that is true about us. And, after that, comes the joy for which we all long, we will know God truly.

Just as the Lord is passionate about the truth
about Himself being known,
He is passionate about knowing us truly.
Therefore, He will not misrepresent us
on the Day of Judgment.