“The Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. And when she had been defiled by them, she became disgusted with them…. I will set My jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in wrath. They will remove your nose and your ears; and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and your survivors will be consumed by the fire” (Ezek 23:17, 25).
Ezekiel 23 describes Israel’s “love” (Ezek 23:5, 9, 22) for the gods of the Gentiles as “adultery,” a word which appears twenty-one times in this chapter (and only twenty-six more times in the rest of the book). Because Israel’s relationship with God is portrayed as that of husband and wife, her lust for other lovers had completely and thoroughly provoked his “jealousy” (Ezek 23:17). The Torah clearly states that, when it comes to the spiritual loyalties of his people, the God of Israel is a jealous God (Exod 20:5; Deut 4:24; 5:9; 6:15).
The extent of God’s jealousy is a testimony to the extent of his love.
Though we typically think of jealousy as a negative trait, in its theological sense it highlights just how much God desires a deep, personal, and exclusive relationship with his people. The extent of God’s jealousy is a testimony to the extent of his love. And because God’s jealousy can never turn into apathy, we know that the God of Israel will never stop wooing and pursuing the affections of his people. When he says, “I do,” he will without question because he really means it. For this reason, the book of Hosea assures us that God will find a way to make this marriage work (Hosea 3).
As counterintuitive as it may sound, we must be thankful that our God is a jealous God because it means he loves us with every fiber of his eternal being. God’s jealousy not only testifies to the fact that he desires us to love him with all our hearts (Deut 6:5; Rev 2:4), but paradoxically, the very jealousy that reveals how much he loves us first and best also becomes the empowering motivation for us to love him in return.
“We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
