Qanna'

Jealously usually carries a negative connotation. It's right there with greed and covetousness. It's bad, and most would consider it sinful. So why does God have this seemingly negative trait?

Exodus 34:14 says, "for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." The Hebrew word for this jealousy is "qanna'," which is only used in reference to God's jealousy. It means to be "hostile toward a rival" or "vigilant in guarding a possession." Both of these things are true of God when it comes to your soul.

God's obvious rival is the Devil. I Peter calls him the adversary, roaming around like a hungry lion. And based on the entire book of Revelation, God is apparently a little hostile toward the devil, considering that God plans on throwing him in an eternal lake of fire. Similarly, in Zephaniah God describes the fires of jealousy that will destroy those who do not obey him. He is also vigilant in guarding his possession. You are his because he made you and he doesn't want to give you up. James 4:4-6 says, "You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy with God. Or do you suppose that it is to no purpose that Scripture says, 'He yearns jealously over the spirit he has made  to dwell in us'? But he gives more grace..."

God wants you desperately. Though humankind gave way to the world back in the Garden of Eden, God still wants each and every one of us. That's grace. That's the gospel. That's salvation. He sent part himself to be the perfect sacrifice so that he could still have us, even in our most imperfect state. He is incredibly jealous of the world's influence and its ability to captivate us. If we fall into the captivity of the world, or even wish to befriend it, we make ourselves a rival of God- one to whom he is hostile. But this isn't a tug-of-war between God and the world. It's a choice you must make. Will you choose to love God and have a part in his victory or choose the world and have a part in his jealous wrath?