Tiny Devotional for Friday, 08-27-2021

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, I bought some more Nutella.

Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood,
But who can stand before jealousy?
Proverbs 27:4, NASB



SHOCK TIME!!!

We’re dealing with jealousy today, and it DOESN’T have some cool, calm, spiritual meaning, wafting on the breeze. Nope, jealousy is what you experience when someone else wins a relationship you think is rightfully yours. And, if memory serves, it’s not casual dismay over your loss; it’s a desire to obliterate by murder.

It’s not envy or coveting. Those things involve wanting what someone else has, and perhaps intending to take it. 

Jealousy references in the Bible are: 

  • when a mate commits adultery; 
  • when Israel turns aside to worship other gods; 
  • when the preachers of Christianity started winning converts.

Two conditions are necessary. I mentioned one: someone else wins a relationship you believe is rightfully yours. You’ve been ROBBED!

A second is that the person who leaves is a willing participant. That adds a profound sense of betrayal to the mix.  

In biblical times, if a stronger person of influence wanted what you had, they just took it. Anger and regret would result, and sometimes war, but not jealousy. Today, the power-play isn’t a part of our culture, for which we should be grateful. Today, the single factor resulting in jealousy is the willingness of the person who leaves one relationship for another. That makes the solution to jealousy quite easy:

Don’t enter into a relationship with unfaithful people.

That can be hard, because they can look FABULOUS, but they will break your heart, every time.

Isn’t it great that God doesn’t follow that rule?


Peace be on your household.

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