Understanding God's Jealousy

I experienced something last week that gave me an insight into God’s statements that He is “jealous.”

My 6 year old daughter and I were in the deep end of a wave pool at a water park, the waves were pretty big, and she was being bounced about. I was moving around, trying to keep close by her in case she needed help, when another adult inadvertently got between us. That aroused a burst of anger in me because I perceived that he hindered my ability to get to my daughter. He quickly moved past, and so did my anger, but the experience left an impression.

God likely feels something like that when things get between us and Him. He wants to be there for us, and must be similarly angered when people/relationships/other things interfere with His access to us. See e.g. Deuteronomy 6:10-19 and Exodus 34:12-16.

Avoidable Difficulty

My 6 year old daughter and I were at a water park last week. She was drifting around in the shallow end of the wave pool, letting the waves push her around, and didn’t realize that she was about to be pushed into an older gentleman.

That could have been easily averted if she would’ve stood up. I told her to get up, reached out, took her hand, and tried to help her onto her feet. She didn’t understand and didn’t try to stand up, so we had a hard time getting her out of the waves’ control. The collision was averted, but it was more difficult than it needed to be.

We adults are probably in similar circumstances more often than we realize. We’re drifting along, about to have a problem, God tries to help us avoid it, but we don’t “get” Him. We don’t respond as He would like us to, and the result is avoidable difficulty.