Our God is a jealous God. Among the ten commandments, God told Israel, “You shall have no other gods before Me…for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:3-5). Unlike the jealousy that a person might struggle with today, God’s jealousy is in no way misplaced or inappropriate; it is instead a desire for His people to worship only Him.
In Numbers 25, many of the Israelites have decided to worship Baal, which is the false god of the Midianites. His people have chosen to place immoral and pagan worship before the true and living God. God’s jealousy becomes anger, and 24,000 Israelites die (Numbers 25:9).
Today God is no less jealous. He wants us to worship only Him, He wants us to only belong to Him, and He wants us to desire Him more than and above everything else. While we will not experience His jealousy and anger the same way the Israelites did, God is just as jealous for our worship and devotion today.
Have we placed anything before God? Is there any physical thing, thought, or practice that we hold up higher than God? In our lives, have we placed God far above everything else?
Matt Langfield