The other day I said who God was, but I left out some other terms. Why? Because we consider these negative for whatever reason.
God while being love is also:
- Jealous
- Angry
God is jealous because He loves us. When one thinks of jealousy, it is in relation to wanting someone or something that another has. God does not want anything we have because He does not need it. God is jealous because we are typically worshiping a false idol.
Doesn’t that make God want something that something else has, such as our attention? The answer is no. God does not need our attention, but desires it because He loves us and wants us to be saved. When we are focused on something else, we usually end up taking the wrong path. Remember what Christ said about the wrong path:
Matthew 7:13-14 New International Version (NIV)
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
God is an angry God again because He loves us. You may think that is weird, but people in today’s age think anger is a bad emotion. Anger is only a bad emotion when you let it rule your life and end up doing something wrong.
In ancient times, the Israelite’s would continually sin and follow leaders who sinned. God would put up with it for only so long, then punish them so they would learn. Many of today’s people think that punishing people let alone an entire nation for doing something wrong is wrong. The people would learn their lesson and call out to God and He would save them. This was repeated over and over and over.
So do not think of anger or jealousy from God in a negative way. Instead be grateful that He gets angry and jealous to teach us a lesson so we might be saved.