it's OK to be jealous

Today in the One Year Bible, we read about God being jealous. We read this in Exodus 34:1-35:9. And it puzzles most people when they hear that God is jealous, because isn't being jealous a sin? Don't the ten commandments tell us NOT to be jealous of our neighbor's wife or his property?

Well, this is where word meaning becomes very important. See, today we use the word "jealous" to mean "envious." If I go on vacation in the Caribbean and swim with dolphins, and I post pics about it on FB, someone might say, "Don't be jealous!" or you might confess to your friend that you're jealous of my trip. But that's not what jealousy means in the original sense, or in the Biblical sense. That's ENVY. You're feeling envious of my trip, of your neighbor's wife and property. You're coveting them... which means you want them for your own.

God isn't envious. He doesn't wish He had our vacations or our property. Instead, He's JEALOUS. Jealousy is when you have something and you don't want anyone to take it away from you. You jealously guard your wife from admirers. You jealously guard your children from human trafficking. God is jealous in this way - He protects those of us whom He loves from the evil that might come to us.

And He wants US to be jealous in this way, too. Take care of your family, your friends, the ones you love. Jealously guard them. Like He does for us.

In case you're still confused, here's an easy example. There are two dogs lying in your living room. One, named Rex, has a bone that he's chewing on with great delight. The other dog, Fido, is watching him. Fido gets up and tries to take the bone, because he's ENVIOUS of the bone. He covets his neighbor's bone. Rex JEALOUSLY defends the bone, and takes it to his doggy bed, turning his back on Fido so he can't get at it. You see this and give Fido a bone so he'll stop being envious, and Rex won't have to be jealous anymore.

God, thanks for teaching us the difference between jealousy and envy.