Gospel of Jealousy

What is it about?

In reading the bible today, one of the more challenging themes is God’s jealousy. Several places in scripture affirm that jealousy is an intimate description of God’s very life, and yet even seasoned readers are often unsure of its content and find themselves lacking a reliable framework for explaining how jealousy might be squared with the many other things which scripture says about God, including his patience, kindness and love. This task is further complicated by cultural attitudes toward jealousy, which leave us unable to distinguish jealousy from envy, and predispose us to think of jealousy in strictly destructive terms. This essay offers an alternative. Section one describes how the priority of God’s life guides us to interpret scripture in ways that reflect the unity, novelty and sovereignty of all God’s work. Section two traces the principled meaning of jealousy by following after the biblical witness. The proper context, focus and goal of jealousy are considered. The result is a compelling picture this affection as part of the loving progress of God’s covenanting work among a sinful people. A third and final section draws on resources within the tradition of Reformed theology to argue that this quality is best accounted for as a redemptive mode of divine holiness._x000D_

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