“Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” Proverbs 27:4 NIV
History is full of stories of atrocities perpetrated out of jealousy. Anger and fury (wrath) when improperly expressed have done significant damage to relationships and individual lives but jealousy is much more insidious. Jealousy goes beyond reason and finds its source in a place of sickness which results in us upset by another’s happiness. There is a jealousy which we find God positively expressing in scripture, such as ‘God is jealous FOR our love.’ This verse represents a ‘jealous OF,’ which is born of envy and comes from a dark place. We all know of Herod who wiped out innocent lives in an attempt to kill the newborn Savior. We also know that Herod’s hands were covered with innocent blood. Paranoia and jealousy over his right to the throne of Judea caused him to murder his brother-in-law, his wife, uncle, and two of his sons. Jealousy combines with other dark fears and sin to drive us to places of behavior we would never dream possible. Satan was jealous of God and ended up leading a rebellion that saw him and a third of the angels cast out of heaven. Today, identify the places of jealousy or potential jealousy in your story and allow God’s Spirit to rid them out. #BeTheEdge
“For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.” Matthew 27:18 NIV
