Zech. 8:2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy…

I once had a mother write to me upset that in my second grade curriculum it used the word jealous in the definition of envy. She was concerned because God is a jealous God, but envy is a sin.

Her point was that though God was a jealous God, He wasn’t envious. She distinguished between them by saying that God didn’t want what others had. I could certainly agree with that since the earth is the Lord’s and all its fullness. Everything already belongs to Him. That’s where the jealousy comes in. Jealousy is believing that what someone else has belongs to you. If it all belongs to God, then when it’s given over to another god, He can be jealous for it.

He doesn’t want to see us with another that will only serve to destroy us and keep us from the only true love we’ll ever know.

Emmanuel, our God with us, wants to be your one and only. I hope there’s nothing else you wanted for Christmas but more of Him.