Observation: The Lord declares that part of his name and nature is "jealous". This is not the definition of 'jealous' that means envious, but rather it means that he allows no room or space for competition. The Lord is the one and only god, and as such he will claim absolutely all worship and honor and adoration. There is no room for an "and" deity. There is no "distant second" thing to also be honored. Yahweh is all there is; he claims all rights of lordship.
Yahweh declares himself "jealous" to make it clear that he stands alone as the Lord of the universe, and that he will respond and take action against anyone who chooses to worship something else. Worship of other gods will never be taken lightly or excused.
Application: It is often easy to take individual passages of the bible out of context, interpret them based on our understanding of limited words, and derive a misunderstanding of God's nature. This is a great example. It is possible to see that the Lord declares himself "jealous" and come up with the idea that ... the Lord acknowledges other gods exist and wants to ensure no one honors them ... or the Lord has petty feelings about how we act toward other things in the world. These just are not true. Instead, what is true is that the Lord is all-sufficient for us, and provides all meaning and joy and love in our lives.
This is clear when one understands the Lord in the context of all that is in the bible, and not just one parenthetical clause in Exodus. Yahweh - the great I Am - is all-sufficient. His greatest command is to love him and only him (and then by extension of that honor, love others as his creation whom he loves). These facts are repeated over and over, and declaring himself "jealous" of any worship to other gods only demonstrates how much he cares about our worship of him.
The Lord is all that I will ever worship. I wish I were better at caring about nothing else on earth, because I know that - while I do not 'worship' anything else - I care too much about earthly things. It is good to learn that God has an emotional response when I place too much importance in my life on anything that isn't him.
Prayer: Lord, you are all that I worship, and the center of my love. I wish to focus on you more and more, and I would always only want you to feel positive toward me. Amen.
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