"God is a Jealous God..."

[Paul A. Kaiser]

If being jealous is wrong how is it that God calls himself "a jealous God"...?

This was brought up in another thread... See Here

How would you answer this question according to what is taught in Scripture?

[rsanford]

I guess I'll bring over my answer from that thread here so it's.. umm... well....present... o.0

From what I can recall, The use of jealousy God is using is slightly different then the current definition we have now.
People raise false gods and worship them. God is the one TRUE God, and He Desires us to worship Him "above all other gods" He doesn't desire us to follow other gods, just Him alone because the other gods are false.
We can see the similarities to our form of jealousy.
When someone is jealous, they want to be the one getting the attention, not others.

Thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife, house, etc... seems more directed towards our form of jealousy and desires. We want those objects and attention for their value. For the glory of having said objects.

God desires us to follow Him and only Him so that we do not follow a false god into death. We desire material things so glory.
Hope that made sense...

[muleslax]

Thank you for answering this question!