By Water & Blood

Questions on Exodus 39: What does “a jealous God” mean?

What is “a jealous God”?

The law holds the place of a husband, and the people that of a wife. The Master God also taught us this, saying through Isaiah, “What is this bill of divorce of your mother?” and through Jeremiah, “As a wife rejects her consort, so the house of Israel and the house of Judah have rejected me, says the Lord.” And again: “If a man sends away his wife, and she goes and becomes another man’s, will she return again to him? Will not that woman be utterly defiled? Yet you have played the harlot with many shepherds and returned to me, says the Lord.” And the Apostle also says that “the law rules over a human being as long as he lives. For a married woman is bound by law to her living husband; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband, so as not to be an adulteress if she becomes another man’s. So also you were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might become another’s—his who was raised from the dead.” For this reason he names himself a jealous God: using human names, yet frightening them and compelling them to be sober. For just as a husband who has a careless wife, advising her, says, “I am jealous; I cannot bear to see you conversing with another man,” so the Master God, wishing to free them from superstition, called himself not only jealous but also “a consuming fire.” That such jealousy is of affection God himself has shown through Ezekiel, saying, “Therefore my jealousy shall depart from you”—that is, when I loved you, I used jealousy; but when I rejected you I also quenched the jealousy. He has shown this also through another prophet: “I will not visit upon your daughters when they play the harlot, nor upon your brides when they commit adultery.” Jealousy, then, is a sign of love.