Building a Case for Righteous Jealousy: Part One

Building a Case for Righteous Jealousy: Part One.  Jealousy, a term of very strong emotion, “as fierce as the grave” (Song of Sol. 8:6), can be legitimate or illegitimate depending upon the nature of the relationship between the subject who desires and the object of desire. For instance, the word jealous appears three times in Genesis. The Philistines were jealous of Isaac’s prosperity from the Lord (Gen. 26:14). Theirs was illegitimate jealousy (envy) because they wanted that to which someone else had a legitimate claim. They desired the fruit of the covenant without joining the covenant. Because they could not obtain that which they desired, “they stopped and filled with earth all the wells” that Isaac was using (Gen. 26:15).

The jealousy of Rachel over her sister Leah’s fertility (Gen. 30:1) was also illegitimate (envy), but the lines get blurry. Because of their father’s (Laban) treachery on the wedding night (Gen. 29:23), both sisters had married the same husband, Jacob. But Jacob—who was guilty of polygamy—was not guilty of unfairness to Rachel in the arena of conception. “Am I in the place of God?” (Gen. 30:2). Rachel’s issue was with God. Because Rachel could not obtain that which she desired (baby), she gave Jacob her servant, Bilhah, “so that she may give birth on my behalf” (vs. 3). Rachel was envious of God’s relationship with Leah, like Esau was to Jacob.

The jealousy of Joseph’s brothers over his dream of elevation was illegitimate (envy) because it was God’s decision to honor Joseph. They took out on Joseph and indirectly punished their father over something that belonged solely to God. Because they could not obtain that which they desired (honor), they sold their brother into slavery (Gen. 37:28) and conspired to lie to their father about a “fierce animal” attack by dipping Joseph’s coat in goat’s blood (vs. 33).

Outside Genesis, jealousy finds its first legitimate expression in Exodus because it operated within the context of a formalized relationship. “I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Exo. 20:5a; repeated with amplification “the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God” [34:14]). God has an exclusive relationship with Israel, to which the people consented and ratified at the base of Mount Sinai (Exo. 19:8). “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exo. 19:5-6). From within that covenant, God’s jealousy was awakened when Israel made for themselves “a carved image, or any likeness that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exo. 20:4). Inside a covenant relationship, because the subject who desires (God) lost the agreed-upon exclusivity of the object desired (Israel), then jealousy was righteous and proper. God is jealous because he is love. Jealousy can be wrathful because love has been spurned. A covenant without loyalty stirs up legitimate jealousy in the offended party. Because God was wronged, his wrath was right. “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exo. 20:5-6).