Holy Jealousy

Nahum 1:1-8

1:2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

The "avenging" part of this verse is more palatable to our religious sensibilities than the "jealous" part. However, jealousy has gotten a bad name because it's been used indiscriminately. In fact, jealousy is more than a morally legitimate word in love's vocabulary - it is necessity. If promises were made to be faithful and loyal forever, no matter what, not being jealous if those promises are broken is morally reprehensible. Picture this scenario between a married couple: "You say you're having an affair? All right; just let me know if you'll be in late tonight. I'll leave the porch light on for you." It doesn't work that way. In the same way, God's jealousy is His holy passion for His bride.

In the context of Nahum 1, God's passion for His people will show itself by avenging the evil the Assyrians (represented by Nineveh, the capital city) have wrought on Israel. There is an important principle at work here. Sometimes, when God's people are unfaithful to Him, His jealousy for them stirs Him to anger. When this happens, He will sometimes use other nations as His instruments of justice. Unwittingly, Assyria was one of these nations. God used their evil imperial schemes to conquer other nations to punish His people for their unfaithfulness. But Assyria's plans were still evil, so once God used them to punish the Israelites, He then punished the Assyrians themselves. In both cases it was His jealousy at work: in one case against His people with Assyria; in the other case against Assyria - for His people!

The point of this passage is that God is supremely good (see verse 7). He will accept no rivals and will leave no sin unpunished. He will love His chosen ones with a vengeance, and He will wound those He uses to do the wounding. God knows what He is doing! "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13).

Sometimes it is good to pause and consider this God to whom we often speak so glibly in prayer and to be moved to greater wonder and reverence for His holy love. "He is terribly tender and terribly demanding, terribly loving and terribly stern, terribly soft and terribly hard." In other words, God loves us the way we all want and need to be loved.