We are children of a jealous God...really.

While living in MA, I met a wonderful Christian woman whom I am so thankful for and thrilled that God led our paths to cross.  She lent me a book about women and their theology and how important it is for women specifically to take theology seriously.  My first thought, even at hearing the word theology, was "UGH." And it may have taken me some time the entire 8 months I was living there, to read through it, but it encouraged me to be more purposeful about studying God's word, not just reading a verse here and a line there, but actually learning. I had successfully developed a routine that included time daily spent with God, whether reading the bible, listening to a radio series, or reading faith based material online.  I lost that routine when we moved home.

I'm frustrated.

And ashamed. To admit that my life in MA was less chaotic.  I didn't know as many people and even though we moved North, life was actually slower, partly due to the small town we were living in.  But, whether chaotic or not, my time spent with God shouldn't fluctuate.  And it has.  Last week, Mon-Sun, literally, I was at a different person's house each day.  And if I wasn't out visiting our wonderful friends (truly I'm blessed to have each of you), I was stressing over unpacking, or home decor (thank you pinterest.)  

Kay.

So midway through the week, I needed a jolt. A shot of God filled espresso.  Something that just kicked me and my priorities in the rear.   Driving to one of our play dates, I turned on the radio.  Music has always been a powerful form of worship for me and in MA there was no Christian radio.  Here we have K-Love, which is an earful of awesomeness.  Baby A really likes when I turn this station on because it causes mommy to sing at the top of her lungs.  Baby A usually replies with "Mommy Coo-Coo" (cuckoo is the correct spelling I believe, don't judge her spelling skills, she's not even 2)

Minutes after flipping to the right station, one of my all time favorite songs began to play, you can listen to it here: How He Loves.  The very first line is "He is jealous for me."  I've heard it a hundred times, but this time, I really thought about that. God, the one and only God, is jealous for me?  And isn't jealousy a bad thing, aren't we taught, by the Bible, not to be jealous?  But God can be jealous for me?

I needed to unpack this. What does God being jealous for me mean?  There is a lot of material online if you google "jealous God."  You can look for yourself if you'd like, it's an interesting thing to study, but I'm not going to go into all of it here, I will just explain to you what I've explained to myself in my own mind, which needs things broken down very simply in order to process.

The first thing I concluded, while tossing it around in my head, while I should have been sleeping, was that when we are jealous, we are jealous OF things.  I'm jealous of your shoes, I'm jealous of your house, I'm jealous of your corn rows.  You get the point.  God is jealous FOR me.  You change that one word and it means something different.  But still, what does it mean?

Exodus 34:14 says, "Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."  Whoa.  Not only is he a jealous God, but His name is Jealous.

As in, "hi, I'm Jealous, nice to meet you."

In that verse, God is speaking to the nation of Israel, when Moses was leading them to the promise land, and they put up false idols to worship, forgetting all God had done for them.  God was jealous.  But not jealous of the false idols,  He was jealous for his people.  The word, as it's used here, from what I can concur, is closer to the meaning of the word zealous, not envy, as our human term jealous means.   And that is where we find another difference, and the easiest way to explain a jealous God. 

God is not envious. 

He is zealous. 

According to dictionary.com, zeal is defined as "fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor."  

God has fervor for his people, an eager desire and an enthusiastic diligence to pursue them.  I don't know about you, but to me, that is just flat out ahmazing.  That the God who is way too big for our pea sized brains to ever fully understand, is fervently and eagerly seeking after us.

He is jealous for me.  And you.

And in return, we should be jealous for him, we should pursue him with an eager desire, an enthusiastic diligence.  

And that is just what I intend to do.  Won't you join me?