There are various elements that justify the jealousy of God, including: His exclusive right to worship and glory, the sanctity of His name, and the sanctity of His people.

          a- God’s exclusive right to worship and glory

      The otherness of the LORD and His exclusive divinity restrict the right to glory and worship to Him alone. In other words, because the LORD is holy and there is no other God beside Him, therefore He alone must receive glory and reverence. The host of heaven and the children of men must not worship anything in creation or ascribe glory to it. For “I am the LORD; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols”, declares the LORD in Isaiah 42:8.

     On the Island of Patmos, John saw in a vision the LORD God seated on His throne in heaven, and then he heard from God’s heavenly ministers a testimony to His exclusive right to glory and honor. John tells us, “Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads”(Revelation 4:4); “and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind [...] and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever,  the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:6, 8b-11).

     Anyone therefore who exalts himself before the LORD, who ascribes glory and honor to or sets his affection on anything or anyone in creation, violates the honor of the Lord and provokes Him to jealousy (cf. Revelation 2:4-5). For all glory, honor, affection, thanksgiving, worship and praise belong to God alone.

     All must ascribe to the Lord the glory due Him by walking in His way and submitting to His will, as Moses commanded the people of Israel, saying,“You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him” (Deuteronomy 13:4). This commandment is universal. For God created all things and people, and for His glory they were made. He must be honored, worshiped, served, and obeyed by all people; we must all love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. For He alone is God (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4). 

     The Life of all men, and especially of God’s covenant people, must revolve around the LORD their God. In other words, they must live a God-centered life. For He alone is worthy of worship, honor, glory, praise, service, trust, thanksgiving and love. Those who are faithful, that is, those who ascribe to the Lord the glory due Him, reap the harvest of joy, peace, and life. But the ungodly incur destruction, for their pride provokes the Lord to jealousy and wrath. 

     The second element that justifies God’s jealousy is:

          b- The sanctity of His name

     God’s name is representative of His person and essential character, and must therefore be hallowed; it must be praised and revered by all. God’s name is worthy of all honour, worship, praise and thanksgiving. It must not be profaned, neither by His covenant people nor by those outside His covenant, for it is holy; it must not be associated with idol worship or treated as a common thing; it must not be spurned or defiled, but revered and hallowed (cf. Matthew 6:9). All must ascribe glory to the name of the LORD.

     The LORD is very zealous for the sanctity of His name. He warns against the desecration of His name, saying in Exodus 20:7, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” In Leviticus 19:12 the Lord commands, “You shall not swear by My name falsely, and so profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.” 

     These two verses underscore two attitudes that violate the sanctity of God’s name, namely, taking God’s name in vain and swearing by it falsely. God’s name must not be associated with false worship or practices that violate His holiness and will. And whoever swears in the name of the Lord must not break his oath, lest he bring dishonor upon the character and deeds of the Lord and provoke His wrath. 

     Moreover, the Lord Christ not only teaches His church to pray that God will hallow His own name (cf. Matthew 6:9), but He also commands us in Matthew 5:34-37, “Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is His footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” For the life of believers in Christ, i.e., their walk in holiness, is what is needed to bear witness to their trustworthiness and the purity and truthfulness of their intentions. They need not improve their integrity by uttering an oath. Rather, they ought to be imitators of Christ the Lord, who is “not Yes and No, but in Him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him” (2 Corinthians 1:19c-20a).

     God’s name must not be associated with things or practices that go against His nature, character and will; for such an association violates the sanctity of His name. Moreover, to utter the name of the Lord in a contemptuous way, to speak irreverently of Him, or to speak words against Him violates the sanctity of His name (cf. Leviticus 24:10-16;  Ezekiel 36:20).Very often the sinful conduct of God’s people causes those who do not fear Him to speak of Him with contempt or irreverence. For instance, God’s holy name was desecrated in times past because of Israel’s sinful conduct: the nations among whom God scattered Israel in judgment violated the sanctity of God’s name; they treated His name irreverently because of Israel.

     Therefore, on multiple occasions God intervened for His undeserving people, He rescued them from the hands of their enemies in order to protect the sanctity of His name. Moved by zeal for His name, the Lord came down with great wrath against the nations who treated His name with contempt. 

     The third element that justifies God’s jealousy, besides His exclusive right to glory and worship and the sanctity of His name, is:

          c - The sanctity of His people

     God’s people are His treasured possession, His bride – chosen and set apart from the world for His glory. The Lord deeply cares for the sanctity of His chosen ones. Therefore they must keep themselves pure, free from defilement, lest they provoke the Lord to jealousy and wrath. For He desires them to be holy, undefiled; He does not tolerate evil within or among them. Because of His zeal for the sanctity of His old covenant people, the Lord commanded them that those who spoke irreverently of His name or despised His Law be cut off from His people. He ordered that those who sacrificed their children to Molech or approved of such an act be put to death(Leviticus 20:1-5); mediums, necromancers, along with those who turned to them (Leviticus 20:6, 27), or cursed their parents (Leviticus 20:9), anyone who was “found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he [treated] him as a slave or [sold] him” (Deuteronomy 24:7) were to be put to death; the sexually immoral (cf. Leviticus 20:10-21; see also Leviticus 18:6-23, Deuteronomy 22:22-24), idolaters (cf. Deuteronomy 17:2-7), false prophets (Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 18:20; see also Ezekiel 13:9), murderers (cf. Deuteronomy 19:11-13), a stubborn and rebellious son (cf. Deuteronomy  21:18-21), and fornicators (Deuteronomy 22:20-21) were to be cut off from the people as well. They were to be purged from the land. 

    To preserve the sanctity of the rest of His covenant community, God commanded that all workers of evil be put to death so that their evil would not spread among His people. For by following in the footsteps of evildoers, the people would defile themselves. The execution of the guilty, as commanded by the Lord in these verses, if implemented, was meant to create holy fear for the Lord in the heart of the rest of the assembly, so that they would not follow the example of those who rejected Him and spurned His Law. 

     God’s people ought to be holy, for the Lord Himself is holy. His jealousy for them is an expression of His deep desire to ensure and maintain their sanctity. For He is exceedingly zealous for the sanctity of His people. Because He loves His people zealously, the Lord cannot bear to see them stray from Him or defile themselves; He cannot tolerate seeing His people living in sin or being caught up in false teachings or idolatry(cf. Revelation 2:14-16, 20-23; Revelation 3:1c-3, 16-18). For these things profit them nothing, but profane and ruin them.In Ezekiel 20:7 the Lord restates by His prophet the command He gave Israel in the wilderness, saying, “Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.” To preserve their sanctity, God commanded Israel to get rid of the idols they worshipped in the land of Egypt. 

    The Lord’s zeal for the sanctity of His people is intended to ensure their protection and blessing and to assure them a dwelling in the bosom of the Lord their God. When God’s people defile themselves, they forfeit God’s protection and blessing and are cut off from Him; they cannot enter His rest when they defile themselves(cf. Psalms 95:7-11). Thus the Lord commands them not to associate with anything or anyone that can defile them and to purge the evil from their midst. 

     2 Corinthians 6:14-16b reads, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.” As spiritual houses in which the Spirit of the Lord dwells, believers in Christ must keep themselves undefiled, unstained from the world.

     Paul supports what he asserts in vv. 14-16b, namely, that those who belong to God must be spiritually separated from the world, by reiterating God’s words to His old covenant people, by which the Lord makes it clear that spiritual purity is required for life in His presence and the establishment of sonship(cf. Matthew 5:8). Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6:16c-18, “as God said, “I will make My dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.” Then in 2 Corinthians 7:1 he writes, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

     In 1 Corinthians 5:9 Paul also commands the Corinthian believers “not to associate with sexually immoral people”, that is, “anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a one” (1 Corinthians 5:11). In 1 Corinthians 5:13 he commands them, saying, “Purge the evil person from among you.” Then in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 Paul urges them, saying, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, Whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

     InRomans 6:12-13 Paul exhorts the readers to pursue moral purity, saying, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” Then inRomans 12:1-2 he writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 13:13-14, “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

     The Lord Himself declares in Matthew 5:48, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:14-19, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on Him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” 

     In Ephesians 4:22-24 Paul urges the believers in Ephesus to walk in holiness,“to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” In Ephesians 5:2-5 he writes, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” (See also Colossians 3:2, 5). 

     The author of Hebrews commands the readers in Hebrews 13:4-5, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Paul writes to Titus in Titus 2:2-8, “Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”

     God’s people are to pursue that which is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise (cf.Philippians 4:8); they must not defile themselves with worthless idolatry and the passions of the flesh. For they are God’s possession, set apart for His glory. “He chose [them] in [His Son Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world, that [they] should be holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1:4). Therefore they must walk in holiness. For precious in the sight of the Lord is the sanctity of His chosen ones. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you.” 

     John writes in 1 John 2:15-17,  “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

     All these NT commandments, like those of the OT, are meant to ensure the sanctity of those who are members of the household of God. God commands His people, “Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. Keep My statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you. [...] You shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine” (Leviticus 20:7-8, 26).

     Thus God’s exclusive right to worship and glory, the sanctity of His name, as well as the sanctity of  His people justify His jealousy – a jealousy that can lead to divine wrath when violation occurs.

The wrath of God denotes His righteous indignation toward anything that violates His holiness and anyone who transgresses God’s ethical standard of purity. While every sin is ultimately an offense against God, the desecration of His name, the usurpation of His glory, the unfaithfulness of His covenant people, as well as any violation or harm directed against them, constitute a direct attack on God Himself. 

     God cannot tolerate evil of any sort, for it contradicts His holy nature and character. Therefore He manifests His wrath against any such violation. The psalmist writes, “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts” (Psalms 7:11b-13). 

     God’s righteous indignation towards His covenant people stems both from His holiness and His steadfast love for them and is manifested when His people fail to honor His name, when they violate His Law and do not give Him the glory due Him. In other words, God’s jealousy for His people can stir up His holy and wrathful reaction when His people are unfaithful to Him, when they violate the terms of His covenant. God’s wrath against those outside His covenant love however is rooted in His holiness and is manifested when they scorn His name, glory and honor and violate His Law or covenant people. In either case, the expression of God’s wrath is not arbitrary, for the Lord seeks to protect what belongs to Him; He is jealous not only for His name and glory, but also for His people. 

     Therefore He is provoked to wrath when His glory, name or people are violated. The Lord unleashes His wrath upon those within the covenant community who are unfaithful to Him; He rises up in anger against all those who dishonor His name or ascribe His glory to idol(s);  His hot indignation burns against those whose oppress or harm His people. Put simply, the dishonoring of God’s name and the usurpation of His glory, the unfaithfulness of His covenant people, as well as their oppression by others, can cause God’s righteous jealousy to give way to His holy anger.

a~ The dishonoring of God’s name and the usurpation of His glory

     The Lord zealously protects His name from blasphemy and His glory from all usurpation. For the sake of His name, He commanded Israel in the wilderness, saying, “Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner, as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death” (Leviticus 24:15b-16). 

     God’s name must be honored by all people. His hot anger is kindled against all those who do not revere His name, whether they belong to His covenant people or not. In Malachi 1:6-9 the Lord uttered a profound indictment against the priests who served at His altar, saying, “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ By offering polluted food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted You?’ By saying that the LORD’s table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God, that He may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will He show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts.”

     The priests in the temple profaned the name of the LORD by offering animals with blemish as sacrifices on His altar. Therefore the Lord rejected His people, saying in Malachi 1:10, “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.”

      Israel was not the only one who profaned the name of the Lord in times past – for the name of the Lord was often irreverently spoken of by the nations because of Israel. For Israel’s unfaithfulness to their God from the time they left Egypt throughout their history aroused the Lord’s anger and He delivered them many times into the hands of their enemies. But their enemies did not recognize the hand of the Lord in the affliction of His own people, but viewed the Lord as a powerless God who could not save His people. They did not acknowledge they were mere instruments in the hand of Almighty God who sovereignly controls all the affairs of mankind. Israel’s enemies credited their victory to their military strength and did not honor the name of the Lord who gave them success by delivering His own people into their hands. Rather, they profaned the name of the Lord by speaking contemptuously of Him. Therefore the Lord rose in anger against them and consumed them, because they did not hallow His name. His jealousy for His name led Him to act with wrath against the nations and with compassion for His people. 

     For instance, in the days of Ezekiel, the nations among whom God scattered His people in judgment for their sins and idols spoke irreverently of His name because of Israel. Therefore the Lord was provoked to anger, and for the sake of His name, He declared by His prophet, saying in Ezekiel 36:17-21, “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before Me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. So I poured out My wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned My holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of His land.’ But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.”

     The nations profaned the name of the LORD by concluding that He was not powerful enough to prevent the deportation of His people from the land He gave them. The Lord then promised the restoration of His people to their land. However, lest Israel should think that it was for her sake, the Lord spoke through His prophet, saying in Ezekiel 36:22-24, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate My holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.” 

     It is worth noting that while God’s intervention in the context of this prophecy means the restoration and salvation of His people, for the nations that profaned the Lord’s name, it is a destructive judgment. God’s jealousy for His name will cause Him to act out of compassion toward His people, but in wrath against the nations that treated His name with contempt.

     The Lord also spoke of the future destruction He will bring upon the nations in the day of His wrath for the sake of His name, saying in Ezekiel 39:1-7, “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. And I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel. Then I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the LORD. And My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.” In Ezekiel 39:25 the Lord declares, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for My holy name.” 

     God’s wrath can also be stirred up when His glory is usurped or spurned by sinful humanity. Nahum 1:2 tells us, “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries and keeps wrath for His enemies.” Other passages of Scripture relate instances where the Lord struck down or inflicted great punishment on those who usurped or spurned His glory.

     In the days of the prophet Samuel, “When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon” (1 Samuel 5:1-2), thus spurning the glory of the LORD God of Israel. Convinced that their victory over Israel that day was the fruit of their military might rather than the work of the Lord, who in His anger against Israel had delivered Israel in judgment into their hands, the Philistines ascribed the glory due the LORD to Dagon their god. Therefore the Lord struck down Dagon and inflicted its people with deadly tumors (see  1 Samuel 5).

     Daniel 4 narrates the story of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who failed to give glory to God and credited his military success and the greatness of his kingdom to his prowess and own strength. Ascribing to himself the glory due the Lord, Nebuchadnezzar said in Daniel 4:30, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” Then the Lord severely punished him for his pride and humbled him. Daniel 4:31-33 tells us, “While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.” 

     Daniel 5 relates the demise of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, who spurned the glory and holiness of the LORD by entertaining his lords, wives and concubines with the vessels that were taken out of the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. 

     Acts 12:20-23 recounts King Herod’s sudden death, when the Lord struck him down for usurping His glory. It reads, “Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.”

    Scripture also recounts the stories of many other men and nations whose fall or total destruction occurred as a result of their pride and refusal to give glory to God (see Numbers 16 about Korah’s rebellion; Isaiah 23 & Ezekiel 26-28 about Tyre; Jeremiah 48 & Isaiah 16 about Moab). Furthermore, it foretells the future everlasting misery of those who, in their pride, refuse to give glory to the Lord in this life. Isaiah 23:9 states, “The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.” The Lord Himself declares in Isaiah 13:11, “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.”

     Thus the day is coming – the day of gloom and darkness – when the Lord will unleash His wrath upon the proud, those who spurn His glory and majesty. “The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up – and it shall be brought low” (Isaiah 2:11-12).

     The LORD’s jealousy sets off His wrath whenever His name is profaned and His glory usurped or spurned; for He is zealous for His name and glory. But the Lord is also jealous for His people. Therefore He is also provoked to anger, not only when His people become unfaithful to Him, but also when they are oppressed by their enemies.

b~ The unfaithfulness of God’s people

     God’s people are individual members of His body, united to Him, sealed in His covenant love, just as a wife is united to her husband by the covenant of marriage. Thus they must remain faithful to Him, as a wife is to remain faithful to her husband. God’s covenant relationship with His people requires their wholehearted commitment, affection, love and exclusive loyalty to the One who chose them. They must order their lives in a way that accords with God’s ethical standard, for they owe Him perfect submission and complete faithfulness. 

     When God’s people become unfaithful to Him, when they offer their allegiance to and set their affection on something or someone other than God, they outrage His glory and honor and consequently provoke Him to wrath. According to the terms of His covenant with them, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Therefore, when they whore after false gods, when they give their worship to idols, they stir God’s jealousy. And if they persist in their whoring, God’s fierce anger is kindled against them and He consumes them in His wrath. For instance, in Hosea 2 the Lord brings a charge against Israel in which He commands her children, saying, “Plead with your mother, plead – for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband – that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst” (Hosea 2:2-3).

     The unfaithfulness of God’s people to Him violates the terms of His covenant with them; it is in fact a betrayal of God’s covenant love, a betrayal that calls for the punishment laid out in the covenant (cf. Deuteronomy 28:15-68) – which (punishment) is designed to impress on the consciences of God’s people His intense hatred of spiritual adultery and to stir those who have erred to repentance and faithfulness. Because He is zealous for His people, the Lord eagerly pursues them in wrath to stir them to turn from their wicked ways and idols and to return to Him, who alone is worthy of their love and worship, who alone can ensure their well-being. 

     During their wanderings in the wilderness, Moses envisioned Israel’s unfaithfulness to the LORD their God – an unfaithfulness that would stir the Lord’s righteous indignation – and He spoke these words, “[The LORD] found [Jacob] in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the LORD alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and He suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat – and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.”

     “But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. They stirred Him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. “The LORD saw it and spurned them, because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said, ‘I will hide My face from them; I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. They have made Me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation” (Deuteronomy 32:10-21). 

     Speaking of God’s judgment of His people for their unfaithfulness, Jeremiah the prophet also writes in Jeremiah  1:16, “And I will declare My judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking Me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.”

     When the Lord spoke by His prophet Ezekiel of the destruction of Jerusalem – for the people had abandoned Him to pursue the sinful passions of their wicked hearts – He declared in Ezekiel 5:13, “Thus shall My anger spend itself, and I will vent My fury upon them and satisfy Myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD – that I have spoken in My jealousy – when I spend My fury upon them.” 

     Thus God’s jealousy for His people can set off His wrath when they give their love and worship to idols. The NT tells us, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that He has made to dwell in us” (James 4:5).  Decrying Israel’s unfaithfulness to the LORD God and recounting God’s judgment of His people when they provoked Him to jealousy with their idols, the psalmist writes, “He drove out nations before them; He apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies, but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. For they provoked Him to anger with their high places; they moved Him to jealousy with their idols. When God heard, He was full of wrath, and He utterly rejected Israel. He forsook His dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where He dwelt among mankind, and delivered His power to captivity, His glory to the hand of the foe. He gave His people over to the sword and vented His wrath on His heritage” (Psalms 78:55-62). 

     For their own good, God desires His people to be faithful to Him and to love Him with an undivided love. Like a husband who cannot tolerate a rival, God cannot let His people honor, serve and worship another god. God’s jealousy for His people sets off His wrath when they forsake Him. He pursues them in judgment when they walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and do not heed His call; for He desires their well-being. Because they are His treasured possession, they must not pursue things that can defile or destroy them, namely, idolatry and the passions of the flesh. Therefore He lovingly chastises them with a rod of iron when they forsake Him and go after those things, for He desires them to share His holiness. But although the Lord brings painful afflictions upon His people to discipline them when they forsake Him, He never utterly destroys them, nor does He break His covenant love with them. For His judgment is stirred by His righteous jealousy and steadfast love for them. As Hebrews 12:10 puts it, “He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.”

     Moreover, after the judgment, the Lord always restores His people; He does not hide His face from them forever. Throughout their history, God’s old covenant people provoked Him to jealousy with their abominations and the Lord unleashed His wrath upon them. But after His judgment, the Lord had compassion on them. For instance, because of Judah’s sin, the Lord sent Nebuchadnezzar to make the land of Judah desolate. God’s temple was also destroyed and many people were deported to Babylon. When some of them returned to Israel after 70 years of exile in Babylon, they undertook the reconstruction of the temple that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; but they encountered opposition from their enemies. Then moved with compassion for His people, the Lord declared by His prophet Zechariah,“I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; My house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.  Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem” (Zechariah 1:16b-17). In Isaiah 54:7-8  He declares, “For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid My face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you” says the LORD, your Redeemer.”

     So because God is jealous for His people, when they whore after false gods, they provoke Him to anger. But God’s jealousy also leads to wrath when His people are oppressed by their enemies.

c~ The oppression of God’s people 

     There is a deep bond between God and His people, a bond of love that uniquely characterizes this relationship. This love is divine, unconditional, everlasting, rooted in God’s own nature and essential goodness. It fuels every plan and every work of God for His people, namely: their election, redemption, instruction, discipline, affliction, restoration, preservation, etc. God’s love for His people is pure and selfless. For it zealously seeks their well-being, both physical and spiritual. God’s jealous love for His people sets off His wrath whenever the well-being of His people is threatened; His holy wrath is kindled when His people are oppressed. 

     One of the many instances where God’s zealous love for His people led to His wrath was in connection with Israel’s enslavement by Egypt. Psalms 78:44-51 summarizes the plagues that the LORD God sent upon Egypt for the sake of His people Israel. It reads, “He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams. He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. He gave their crops to the destroying locust and the fruit of their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost. He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts. He let loose on them His burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels. He made a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.”

    Thus, moved by His jealous love for His people, the Lord unleashed His wrath in defense of His people from oppression by Egypt. As the Lord Himself said concerning Israel, “He who touches you touches the apple of My eye” (Zechariah 2:8c). God jealously cares for His covenant people as one cares for his own eye; He protects them from oppression because they are His treasured possession. On the one hand, God’s zealous love for His people moves Him to act out of compassion towards them; but on the other hand, He acts in wrath in defense of His people against those who oppress them. For instance, concerning Israel, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath” (Zechariah 8:2). 

     The Lord being jealous for His people with great wrath denotes His intolerance of their oppression and His wrathful vengeance upon their foes. In Zechariah 9 the Lord promised to judge the nations that afflicted His people Israel, saying to Israel in Zechariah 9:11-15, “As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double. For I have bent Judah as My bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword. Then the LORD will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning; the Lord GOD will sound the trumpet and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour, and tread down the sling stones, and they shall drink and roar as if drunk with wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar.” 

     God’s jealousy for His people moves Him to deliver them from oppression and to avenge any wrong that hampers their physical well-being. Moreover, because the Lord treasures the spiritual health of His people, He pursues with wrath those who cause them to stumble. Thus in Matthew 18:6-7, the Lord warns those who cause His disciples to fall into sin, saying, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!”

     So even though temptations are divinely preordained, those who devise such wickedness, especially against God’s children, would be better off dead – for the Lord will by no means let those who unsettle His children go unpunished. On the contrary, because of  His zeal for His children, He will inflict unbearable suffering on their tempters; His jealousy for them will cause Him to unleash His wrath upon these foes.

     Jealousy is not an isolated quality of the Divine, but an aspect of His transcendent beauty. For the LORD is a God of beauty – a beauty that springs from the perfect harmony that characterizes all His attributes. For there is a stunning interconnectedness that characterizes all of God’s attributes. Rather than conflicting with each other, God’s attributes extraordinarily inform each other and are inseparable. And the harmonious interaction between God’s jealousy and His other attributes is profound.

God’s jealousy should not be considered in isolation from His other attributes. For all of God’s attributes are interconnected aspects of His being, and they mutually interact with each other; they each reveal something about the others. The correlation between God’s jealousy and His other attributes is very profound. For instance, God’s love informs His jealousy. Unlike human jealousy, divine jealousy is an expression of love. If the Lord does not love someone, He will never be jealous for him. For His jealousy is exclusively set on the object of His love. God’s love for His people is perfect and holy, and His jealousy is just and protective. It is God’s jealousy that preserves His people from spiritual harlotry, lest they defile themselves and incur ruin and destruction.

     No man is pleased when his wife betrays him. Rather, he is jealous when she gives herself to the embrace of another man. How much more would the thrice holy God – in Whom is no darkness – be jealous for His beloved, compared to a mere man who is inherently evil? God’s jealousy for His people reveals how much He loves them. It is an expression of His commitment to His people, a commitment that is seen in every plan and action He undertakes to prevent their ruin and ensure their well-being, both physical and spiritual. 

     God’s jealousy is therefore protective, not arbitrary. This is clearly expressed in this warning stated in Deuteronomy 4:23-24, “Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which He made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

     God’s jealousy is a reflection of  His deep commitment to the spiritual health and physical wellbeing of His people. Because it is rooted in His love, God’s jealousy fuels both His commitment to protect His people from idolatry and His engagement to restore them to His bosom when, as a result of their sin, they have been expelled from His presence and severed from His blessings. Throughout her history, Israel provoked the Lord to jealousy with her idols, then the Lord punished them and temporarily withdrew from them. Yet the same jealousy that led the Lord in times past to unleash His holy wrath upon His people because of their faithlessness (cf. Ezekiel 5:13) will stir Him in the day to come to restore them to health and prosperity, and to resettle in their midst. For “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain”(Zechariah 8:2-3)

     God’s jealousy for His people endures, as does His love for them. Because God loves His people in spite of them, even when they are unfaithful He remains faithful and true to His covenant love. Yet He does not tolerate sin in them nor their unfaithfulness. For His love is not a license to sin. Rather, His people must keep themselves unstained from the world, they must purify themselves from idols and put to death the desires of the flesh, lest they provoke the Lord to jealousy, and He afflicts them in His wrath. 

     God’s jealousy also nourishes His mercy towards His people. For He zealously pursues them when they stray from the path of righteousness, in order to bring them back to Himself through repentance, so that they may receive His mercy and escape the deadly consequences of their sins. The Lord desires His people to experience the fullness of His blessing and to live under His protection; He desires them to have joy, peace, and life in abundance, which come from a relationship with Him. Therefore He goes after them to save them from anything that might hinder His purposes for them. 

     God’s holiness – which is a reference to both His otherness and His moral purity – also informs His jealousy. The otherness of God makes Him zealous for His name, glory, and people. As the supreme Being, set apart from the universe that He created, God alone is worthy of praise, thanksgiving, glory and worship, and His name must be honored by all. And because the LORD is “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13a), He zealously protects His covenant people from anything that can defile them and purges every evil from their hearts. For He Himself is holy. In Exodus 34:12-14, the LORD commands Israel concerning the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, saying, “Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).”

     God desires His people to be holy, for “I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). He cannot tolerate anything that violates His holy nature or defiles those covenantally united to Him. 

     God’s faithfulness also informs His jealousy. As a covenant-keeping God, God desires His people to be faithful to His covenant relationship with them. When they turn away from Him and give themselves to idols, they violate their sacred union with Him, they profane His temple (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19) – just as an unfaithful wife defiles the marriage bed. Therefore in accordance with His faithfulness, the Lord jealously pursues them and restores them to Himself(cf. Zechariah 8:2-3; Hosea 1:10); He takes action to ensure their restoration to health and fellowship with Him. 

     God’s jealousy and His covenant faithfulness is what urges Him to uphold and preserve His covenant people (cf. Hosea 11:8-11). Despite their weaknesses and shortcomings, not one of them will be lost (cf: John 6:39). On the contrary, because the Lord is faithful to His covenant and jealous for His people, He will establish them; His purposes for them will be accomplished and His promises to them fulfilled;“for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:34c). According to His faithfulness and jealous love for His people, God Himself will bring about their faithfulness to Him. “They shall go after the LORD” (Hosea 11:10a).

    There is also a correlation between God’s jealousy and His wrath. For any manifestation of God’s wrath is a response to the violation of His name, glory, Word or will by sinful humanity. In other words, because of the zeal of the Lord for His name, glory, Word and will, His wrath is kindled whenever these are violated. Thus the Lord Himself declared by Moses in Deuteronomy 32:35a, “Vengeance is Mine, and recompense.” 

     The Lord promised to avenge Himself against His enemies in the day of His wrath, saying in Zephaniah 1:17-18, “I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of His jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end He will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.”

     Paul writes in Romans 1:18 concerning those who suppress the truth, i.e., the Word of God, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”  The author of Hebrews warns the readers of God’s wrath against those who practice sin and spurn the grace of God, saying in Hebrews 10:26-31, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

     God’s wrath is also kindled when those He jealously loves are harmed; His jealousy for them leads Him to act in anger against their foes. For instance, the Lord promised His people in Isaiah 49:26, saying, “I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” Paul exhorts the believers in Romans 12 not to repay the wrongs done to them, but to entrust themselves to the Lord – the Avenger of wrongdoings. Reiterating God’s own words from Deuteronomy 32:35a, Paul writes in Romans 12:19, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

     God’s words in Zechariah 1 underlines the interconnection between God’s jealousy for His people and His wrath against their enemies. Here the prophet is ordered by the angel of the LORD to “Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.” (Zechariah 1:14c-15). 

     God’s jealous love for the house of Israel caused His wrath to be kindled against the nations because they cruelly oppressed His people. The Lord had used the nations to judge His people because of their unfaithfulness to Him. But the nations exceeded His instructions and treated His people with excessive cruelty. They failed to understand that God’s judgment was intended to discipline, not to destroy His people. Therefore, in Zechariah’s second vision, the LORD revealed to His prophet how He was going to avenge His people. The prophet wrote in Zechariah 1:18-21, “And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! “And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”  Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.  And I said, “What are these coming to do?” He said, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.” 

     The Lord also declares in Ezekiel 36:5b-7 concerning the nations who oppressed and treated Israel with contempt,“Surely I have spoken in My hot jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, that they might make its pasturelands a prey. Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I have spoken in My jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer reproach.” 

     Thus because of His jealous love for Israel, the LORD pledged in His jealous wrath to reverse His judgment, so that the nations that seized the land of Israel will themselves bear the reproach they had brought upon Israel.

    The Lord’s jealousy is consistent with all His other attributes and is exceptionally beautiful like the others. It should normally captivate our whole being and shatter every strain of rebelliousness, pride, and faithlessness from our hearts. For it is not selfish or arbitrary, but protective, holy, righteous and good. God would not be God if He were not jealous, and humanity would be lost forever, were God not a jealous God.