Jealous God

I just made a realization today about how awesome the first commandment is. When God says "You shall have no other Gods before me," He is not being a proud, demanding, selfish jerk, He's showing us how much He loves us. Often, our relationship with God is compared to a marriage, other times it is referred to more like a parent/child relationship. Either way, loving a jealous God finally makes sense to me.

As a wife, I imagined how I might feel if a man, other than my husband, wanted me to be his wife. Now, at first it might be flattering knowing that my husband has such a great wife that someone else wants me, too. But what if my husband told this other guy, "Sure! We can share her! I'll have her on even days, and you can have her on odd days."?! I'm pretty sure I would be outraged and hurt. By handing me over to someone else, my husband would show me that I'm not worth as much to him as I may have thought. Most things, if you truly value them, you keep to your self, safe and protected.

As a daughter, I can imagine someone saying to my parents "She's such a great daughter! Can she be our daughter too?" Again, I'm sure I'd be flattered and pleased with myself at being such a wonderful daughter. But, if my parents were to give me up to some other person, I'd feel so much less special. I'd feel like they didn't love me enough to want to keep me as their own. I know I am special to them and they love me because they claim me as their child. They don't say that I'm theirs only when I'm doing something that they're proud of; I'm theirs even when I do things they are not proud of.

Luckily, God is the same way, but even better. He's loved us from the start, before we were even born, before our parents even thought us up! He loves us and claims us as His, regardless of the things we say or do. He loves us so much, that he wants to be our one and only Father (or husband, depending on which comparison you're going to run with).

The difference is, God is perfect, all-knowing and all-powerful, and everything that he allows to happen in our lives is for our own good. Our parents or our husband may do things or say things because they feel it is for our own good (or because they're so frustrated they don't know what else to do or say). God knows exactly what to do and when to do it, what to say and how to say it, so that you will eventually become closer to Him. How amazing is that?! Someone who could have anything He wants at any time, loves me (you) so much that He wants to be my (your) only desire! I love this song by Sidewalk Prophets that explains the purpose of the "things" we go through in life, so that we learn to focus on our God, our One True Desire.

AMEN!