Why Is God Jealous? Understanding Godly vs. Sinful Jealousy

When you think of some of the defining attributes of who God is, what words come to mind? You probably think about God’s love, mercy, grace, omnipotence, justice, holiness, righteousness, or something along those lines. Did you think about how God is jealous?

You know what’s odd to me? If you run in Christian circles long enough, you’ll hear people talking about the different names of God in the Bible: Jehovah-Jireh “the Lord provides,” Jehovah-Rapha “the Lord heals,” El Shaddai, “God almighty,” El Elyon, “God most high,” and others like these. 

Do you know the name that rarely makes the list? El Qanna, “Jealous God.”

Do you know why? It sounds negative. Ooh, that’s bad press. We don’t want a jealous God. We want a mighty God, a healing God, a merciful God, a provider God. But a jealous God… we’d rather not talk about that.

Jealousy appears to be God’s forgotten name. And I think it’s because thinking of God being jealous makes us uncomfortable.

Believe it or not, we want God to be jealous. Jealousy is good when focused on the right thing. The problem is that we often get jealous of the wrong things, so jealousy gets a bad rap. So today, I want us to get a little uncomfortable. Let’s talk about God’s jealousy and why I believe many people misunderstand it.

Why Is God Jealous?

The Bible is abundantly clear that God is jealous.

Exodus 34:14 says, “you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

In other words, “the Lord (Yahweh) whose name is Qanna is El Qanna.” He is Jealous.

And unlike some of the other names of God that only appear once in the Bible, this description of God appears many times.

The 2nd Commandment says we should not make any idols. Why? Because, God says, “I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exod 20:5-6).

In addition, Deuteronomy 4:24 says, “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

Furthermore, Deuteronomy 6:14-15 reiterates, “You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— ¹⁵ for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”

I could quote more verses, but I think you get the point. Do you see the theme here? God is jealous.

What do we do with that? Is it a bad thing? Does this mean that God is not good? Absolutely not!

In the Old Testament, in Hebrew, the word jealousy is “qanna” (קָנָא) and it is typically translated two ways: “jealous” and “zealous.” The word literally means to become red.¹

Both of these words in English, jealous and zealous, come from the same Greek word in the New Testament, “Zelos” (ζῆλος). Which is also translated jealous or zealous in our English Bibles.²

In English, we have two words that mean what this one word means. Being jealous often has a negative connotation, while being zealous can be more positive. 

The more I studied what jealousy means, the more I realized that I often confuse it with envy. I almost use the two words interchangeably. Jealousy and envy are closely linked, but there’s a distinct difference biblically.

I like to think of the difference between jealousy and envy like this:

• Envy is wanting what someone else has.
• Jealousy is wanting to protect what you have.

Do you see the difference? Envy says, “I want my neighbor’s wife.” Jealousy says, “I don’t want my neighbor to take my wife.” Or, since it’s about protection, it could also be, “I don’t want my neighbor to harm or dishonor my wife.”

Jealousy often involves anger towards someone because they are a threat to take what is yours. This is why an overly jealous boyfriend will start a fight with another guy who talks to their girlfriend. It’s why someone who thinks they deserve a promotion at work (like it belongs to them) is jealous of the person who gets the promotion that should have been theirs. 

So, while it’s kind of nerdy to get into the language, what we see clearly is that the word Qanna or Zelos in the Bible can be used for something either positive or negative. 

Righteous jealousy means you are passionate about defending the honor, integrity, and purity of what is rightfully yours to protect.

When we are unrighteously jealous, we are wrongfully hostile towards another person because we desire to protect something that is not rightfully ours, or we are paranoid that something we have will be taken away from us, so we become overly protective.

I can be wrongly jealous of my wife, and hate any other guy who ever says hello to her. Or I can be righteaously jealous for my wife, because she and I shared in the covenant promise of marriage where I belong to her and she belongs to me. So, if another man were to try to take my wife from me, I am justified in righteous jealousy for her affection. And if someone were to try to harm her, I am justified in righteous jealousy to fiercely defend my wife from attack.

We have to understand this to understand how God is jealous.

The question of whether his jealousy is good or bad depends on what he is jealous for. 

God is not envious of other gods. He is not wishing that he possessed something that they have.

God is not unrighteously jealous. He is not desiring to protect anything that doesn’t belong to him. He is not paranoid or losing anything or being overprotective.

God is righteously jealous for two things: his glory and his people.

God is the creator of all things, the almighty God. He rightfully deserves all glory and honor and praise because by definition he is the greatest. There is nothing higher or more worthy of glory than God. So it is right that he be worshipped, and wrong that anything else attempt to usurp his seat of honor.

God is passionate that those who belong to him, his covenant people, worship him alone, like a husband is rightfully jealous for his wife getting romantically involved with another man. In fact, God’s jealousy is often described in marital terms in the Bible. God burns with righteous anger towards those who dishonor him and lead people to abandon their relationship with him and chase after other false gods. 

This is why God’s jealousy in the Bible is constantly directed towards the worship of false gods.

We don’t like talking about God’s wrath. It’s a lot easier to talk about his love. But God is angry towards those who hurt the ones that he loves. And he fiercely defends his glory because he alone, as the almighty creator of all things, deserves it, not anyone or anything else.

In fact, while God’s jealousy should cause those who reject him to fear, God so fiercely loves his children, that his jealousy should be a great source of comfort to all believers.

God is jealous for you. You are his and he will protect you and defend you. As Jesus proved, he will lay his life down to save yours. It’s beautiful when you think about it. God has a jealous love for you, his treasured possession. 

This is the picture of God’s jealousy that we see in the Bible. God passionately defends his glory and the treasured people of his possession.

If God is jealous, when should we also be jealous?

If jealousy is sometimes righteous and good, as God proves since he cannot sin. When should Christians, be jealous? 

Look at Numbers 25, and let’s examine a shocking story and example of the righteous jealousy of Phinehas. 

Phinehas is the grandson of Aaron, Moses’ brother. Like his father Eleazer and his grandfather, Phinehas was a priest. 

Where we will pick up in the story, the Israelites have been freed from slavery in Egypt and have been wandering in the wilderness for nearly forty years. They are on the cusp of entering the promised land just before Moses’ death. And their faith in God continues to be tested.

¹ While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. ² These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ³ So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. ⁴ And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.” ⁵ And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

⁶ And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. ⁷ When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand ⁸ and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. ⁹ Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. (Num 25:1-9 ESV)

You may be thinking, “Oh my goodness, Phinehas just committed a double homicide! I thought you said this was a good example of jealousy!”

Hold on, let’s think about this. 

Phinehas was a passionate young man who was jealous (or zealous) for God. In his role as a priest, he executed this man who directly defied God, following God’s command to execute the chiefs who had married foreign women and worshipped their gods. 

And as the entire tribe of Israel mourned the judgment of the Lord in the form of a plague that had killed 24 thousand people, this Israelite man had the nerve to take a Midianite woman into his tent right in front of them all while people are outside dying. 

If you look at v.14-15, we learn the man’s name was Zimri, and he was a chief’s son. And the woman’s name was Cozbi, who the daughter of a Midianite chief.

What Phinehas did was right. He defended God’s honor and did what God had commanded him to do, and God blesses Phinehas for it. 

¹⁰ And the LORD said to Moses, ¹¹ “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. ¹² Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, ¹³ and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’” (Num 25:10-13)

Because Phinehas was jealous for the Lord, God spared the people of Israel. Phinehas had godly jealousy to protect the purity of the Lord’s covenant people against the worship of false gods.

Disclaimer: There is a right way and a wrong way to apply this passage. It doesn’t mean that we should all run around with spears skewering everyone who defies God. This is a rare case where God directly commanded judgment to be served. Phinehas had a righteous jealousy for God, and we should too.

Furthermore, we are living in a different period of redemptive history. The Old Testament is filled with foreshadowing of the future coming of Christ who would cover the sins of the people.

In my study on this subject, I came across a book by Erik Thoennes, a theology professor at Biola University, called Godly Jealousy. As far as I can tell, it is one of the few books on the subject. Apparently books on God’s jealousy must not sell very well.

Thoennes explains, “Phineas is a type of Christ. When Israel sinned, he shed the blood of a sinner to save Israel from God’s wrath. He was jealous for the Lord. Jesus also burned with jealousy for the Lord when he flipped over the tables in the temple. But unlike Phineas, killing the sinner, Jesus shed his blood in place of the sinner. He took God’s wrath on himself because he was so jealous for God’s glory and his covenant people!”³

We don’t need to run around lancing all the sinners today, because Christ has already been pierced, shedding his own blood to cover our sins. We don’t spear sinners because Jesus was speared in our place.

So instead of killing the enemies of God, we should be zealous to pray for them and preach the gospel to them. 

This is the righteous jealousy that all Christians should have. Like Phinehas, we passionately defend the Lord, but now, in light of what Christ has done, we no longer need to shed any more blood. So we passionately preach, pray, and love our enemies as Christ commanded us to do. 

When Does Jealousy Become Sin?

We find a sad picture of sinful jealousy in 1 Samuel 18. The shepherd boy David has just killed the giant Goliath leading to Israel’s shocking victory over the Philistine army. David is suddenly the most famous hero in Israel.

Rather than rejoicing in David’s success and Israel’s victory, King Saul—a mighty warrior himself—begins to burn with jealousy, especially when he hears the new hit song in the land.

⁶ As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. ⁷ And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
⁸ And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” ⁹ And Saul eyed David from that day on.
¹⁰ The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. ¹¹ And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice. 
¹² Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul. (1 Sam 18:6-12)

The jealousy in Saul’s heart consumed him. It drove him crazy. As he wandered and raved in his palace, David was sitting there, the golden boy, playing his guitar without a care in the world. Everyone loved David. He was the talk of the land, and surely it was only a matter of time before he was after Saul’s throne. 

Do you see the problem? Rather than rejoicing in the miraculous victory that God had given to Israel, Saul is paranoid that David is going to take his kingdom, which was ultimately God’s kingdom anyway.

Saul burned red with jealousy. He probably had that song stuck in his head on loop, “Saul struck down his thousands, and David his tens of thousands…”

Finally, he snapped and tried to pin David to the wall with his spear. And remember, Saul was a mighty warrior too. He was still feared on the battlefield with a weapon in his hand. Yet, David evaded his spear throws twice! It only made Saul more furious. 

This is the kind of jealousy that we think of the most because it is the most familiar to us.

Sinful jealousy results in anger, resentment, paranoia, suspicion, hostility, bitterness, and envy toward another who threatens to take or harm what is yours. Saul believed David was a threat to take his kingdom, and it drove him mad.

Unrighteous jealousy is a sin that must be put to death. If we allow it to burn it can lead to all sorts of destruction in our lives and the lives of others.

We muct replace it with a godly jealousy, being zealous for God’s glory and doing what is pleasing and good in his eyes. 

We all have some Saul in us. So who is your David? Who are you jealous of?

So how do we put jealousy to death?

James 3:13–18 says, “¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. ¹⁵ This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Jealousy is often bad, but it is good to be jealous for the Lord. Be jealous for his glory and his holiness. Protect and honor his name. 

This is how we fight jealousy. We replace sinful jealousy with godly zeal. Instead of selfish ambition, we pursue holiness, righteousness, peace, gentleness, mercy, and every good fruit that comes from God. We trust in Christ and allow the Spirit of God to shape and mold our hearts to become more like him.

Here’s the point: Be Zealous for God, Not Jealous for less. Be zealous for God. Defend what is good and true and pure and holy. God is the greatest and anything else is a lesser thing. Don’t allow the allure of false idols to overtake your life. 

Sinful jealousy is always idolatry.

• You have made an idol of money, so you are jealous of the person who takes it from you.
• You have made an idol of success, so you are jealous of the person who takes the job that should be yours.
• You have made an idol of a relationship, so you are jealous of anyone who could possibly take that person away from you.

Whatever it is, jealousy is a two-edged sword. It can either cut for righteousness and be a powerful tools for good, or it can cut for evil and destroy you and the people around you.

Be zealous for God, not jealous for less.

If you are struggling with unrighteous jealousy, here are two quick things you can do that can help:

1. Trust God’s plan. If you didn’t get the job, didn’t get the girl, or lost something precious to you, let it go. For whatever reason, God has a different plan for you. Trust that he is in control of all things, and instead of burning with jealousy at the person who took something from you, focus instead on what God wants you to do. Trusting God means learning to be content no matter what situation you are in. 
   
2. Love your enemies. Instead of burning with hatred for the person who took something from you, pray for them. Now, don’t pray, “God smite them with a pox!” That’s not it. Pray, “God, help them to come to know you, and if possible, may I, through this situation, play a small role in that.”

Do you see how this can transform an unrighteous jealousy into a godly zeal? You smash the idol of whatever was taken from you, and replace it with a passion to give God the glory that he so jealously desires and rightfully deserves.

1.  Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 888. ↩︎
2.  William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 427. ↩︎
3. K. Erik Thoennes, Godly Jealousy (Mentor, 2008), 168. ↩︎