Watch out for Jealousy!
By Elizabeth Prata
Someone got a raise you thought you should receive. Jealous! A friend got a new dress and it looks good on her. Jealous! Someone has a better relationship with the boss than you do. Jealous!
There are a million ways to sin with the sin of jealousy. Sin is endless and inventive. We could be jealous of someone’s looks, their power, their influence, their speaking ability, their clothes, their car, their house, their kids, their husband… Goodness, I could fill the internet with more ways to be jealous. It is a very old sin and it appears suddenly as an angry flash or simmers in a low burn that settles in with a long lease of resentment that eats away your insides.
We see in the Bible numerous instances of jealousy. None of them had a good ending.
Miriam and Aaron were jealous against their brother Moses (Numbers 12).
In this instance, Miriam seems to be the ringleader. She was jealous that God spoke to Moses and not to her (or Aaron). Barnes’ Notes says,
Miriam, as a prophetess (compare Exodus 15:20-21) no less than as the sister of Moses and Aaron, took the first rank among the women of Israel; and Aaron may be regarded as the ecclesiastical head of the whole nation. But instead of being grateful for these high dignities they challenged the special vocation of Moses and the exclusive authority which God had assigned to him.
She dare not accuse God, so she accused his intermarriage with an Ethiopian woman. This turned out to be a critical mistake. God gave Miriam leprosy. Moses begged, and God changed it to leprosy for a week. I surmise it was a lesson Miriam never forgot.
A tranquil heart is life to the body, But jealousy is rottenness to the bones. (Proverbs 14:30).
Eliab (the eldest) was jealous of his brother David (the youngest) (1 Samuel 17:28-29)
Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger burned against David and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle.” 29But David said, “What have I done now?”
First of all we see in David’s reply that this isn’t the first time his oldest brother had spoken this way to the youngest. Perhaps Eliab was still smarting over David being selected for king over him. Matthew Henry points out the nature of jealousy here:
Consider this, (1.) As the fruit of Eliab’s jealousy. He was the eldest brother, and David the youngest, and perhaps it had been customary with him (as it is with too many elder brothers) to trample upon him and take every occasion to chide him. But those who thus exalt themselves over their juniors may perhaps live to see themselves, by a righteous providence, abased, and those to whom they are abusive exalted. Time may come when the elder may serve the younger. But Eliab was now vexed that his younger brother should speak those bold words against the Philistine which he himself durst not say. He knew what honour David had already had in the court, and, if he should now get honour in the camp (from which he thought he had found means effectively to seclude him, v. 15), the glory of his elder brethren would be eclipsed and stained; and therefore (such is the nature of jealousy)…
Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 413). Hendrickson.
Eliab had thought that a lowly occupation such as shepherding was proper for the ruddy faced runt, while Eliab perhaps intended to gain glory on the battlefield, a nobler pursuit in his eyes. And now here was David intruding on his sphere, which Eliab had thought was all to himself! Jealous! We know the end. David slew Goliath and his stature grew. Eliab’s faded.
Proverbs 29:23– A person’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor.
A most famous instance of jealousy is King Saul against David.
Now it happened as they were coming, when David returned from killing the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with other musical instruments. 7 The women sang as they played, and said,
“Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands.”
8 Then Saul became very angry, for this lyric displeased him; and he said, “They have given David credit for ten thousands, but to me they have given credit for only thousands! Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” (1 Samuel 18:6-8)
In his increasing jealousy-fueled paranoia, Saul tried to kill David numerous times. This is the end result of jealousy. Or, perhaps even further along the spectrum, madness is. Saul in the end tried to commune with a witch and contact the dead. Crazy time.
Sin will always drag you along a path you don’t want to go. If you were shown where unresolved jealousy ends up from the beginning, you would either be horrified and repent immediately, or you would just not believe it. But like leaven that puffs up dough, sin spreads and infuses your soul in ever increasing amounts. Jealousy is one of those sins.
Other instances of jealousy that didn’t turn out well are of course, Joseph and his bothers (they didn’t like hearing they would bow down to Joseph, nor did they like their father’s favoritism). (Genesis 37:11). They had a point with that last one. But that is no reason to attempt murder. See? Jealousy brings a person along. If the brothers were told when Joseph was born, looking at that sweet innocent baby, that one day they would try to kill him, throw him down a well, and later sell him to slave traders, they’d be aghast. But jealousy builds.
The Corinthians. Paul had to speak severely to that group. They were dividing into factions, and puffed up with pride and jealousy, which was causing strife.
And I, brothers and sisters, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but only as fleshly, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to consume it. But even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like ordinary people? 4 For when one person says, “I am with Paul,” and another, “I am with Apollos,” are you not ordinary people? (1 Corinthians 3:1-4).
In my opinion, people think too little of the seriousness of sin these days. All sins. Any sin. Jerry Bridges wrote a terrific book called Respectable Sins. “Have we become so focused on “major” sins that we’ve grown apathetic about our subtle sins? Renowned author Jerry Bridges takes you into a deep look at the corrosive patterns of behavior that we often accept as normal”…
No, while sin is part of our nature, sin is not normal. It didn’t start out that way. In the beginning, all things were “very good.” But disobedience to the Holy God of creation occurred and we inherited sin natures from Adam. Before salvation we sin every day…every moment. We are awash in sin and do not recognize it. But once the Light comes and we see the darkness of our heart, we are grateful for the Holy Spirit’s help in slaying jealousy and other sins that try to thwart our holy walk with God.
Jealousy may be common to the human condition, as we see in the biblical examples, but it is not right. It leads down a tunnel of darkness that could end in murder, madness, or separation from God. At the very least, it hinders our walk with God and destroys earthly relationships.
The good news is as Christians we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us identify its presence in our life, and once detected, to kill it. Step on that spider making a strangling web around your heart, and come back into full light of holiness.
