The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth his wrath for his enemies.
Nahum 1:1-2
The book of Nahum, as with many other prophets’ books, is a book of judgment. God is not pleased with His people and He gives them some reasons in this book. But He starts out by saying “God is jealous.” That got me to thinking – why would God Almightly be jealous? What would He have to be jealous of? The Bible tells us many times (at least 10 times, if I counted right) that God is a jealous God. So what does that mean?
God’s jealousy is not like our petty jealousy. We might get jealous over something that someone else has or over something that someone else gets to do. We often get jealous over small, petty things. God is not like that. The first of the Ten Commandments shows us what God’s jealousy is like: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Matthew 22:37 tells it like this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 also tell us the same thing. It was said many times to the Israelites in the Old Testament, and it is said several times to Christians in the New Testament. We are to always put God first, and love Him with everything that we have. Anything less is not acceptable.
That is where God’s jealousy comes in to play. When we are not serving Him and loving Him with our whole heart, we have let something come between us. God does not want things to come between us. Whatever we have in our lives that causes us to not love Him with our whole heart needs to be eliminated. Let us not forget that God is a jealous God.
Justified Freely 
Posted by Ann on September 24, 2011 at 10:59 am
Thanks, Ben
I find forgetting His jealousy is easy at times depending on where / what I’m focused on. Sometimes it’s the painful reminders that cause me to reevaluate … sometimes it’s the gentle nudge of His love and forgiveness.
I am thankful that His grace still abounds. Lord, I give you me … again.
Blessings,
ann
Posted by justifiedfreely on September 25, 2011 at 6:16 am
Sometimes we are motivated by fear, and sometimes we are motivated by love. Both are good as long as they bring us back to Jesus. I too am thankful for His grace!
Posted by Debbie on September 24, 2011 at 5:57 pm
Loved Ann’s comment. 🙂
And this post! Praying that we not provoke Him to jealousy today, but stay true to Him and His ways.
God bless you, Ben, and all you give us to think and pray about!
Posted by justifiedfreely on September 25, 2011 at 6:17 am
I don’t want to provoke Him to jealousy, but I know that I do. And I probably do often. We should all desire to stay as close to Him as possible!