Five Days Until Anthem

As we count down to Anthem (5 more days), I've been sending out devotional thoughts to the Anthem team to prepare our hearts for Thursday. Today was a topic we don't think about enough: the jealousy of God. This excerpt is from Charles Spurgeon, considered the last of the great Puritans. They had an awe factor that made them great Christ followers... 

“…jealousy is selected as some faint picture of that tender regard which God has for His own Deity, honor, and supremacy, and the holy indignation which he feels towards those who violate his laws, offend his majesty, or impeach his character. Not that God is jealous so as to bring him down to the likeness of men, but that this is the nearest idea we can form of what the Divine Being feels—if it be right to use even that word toward him—when he beholds his throne occupied by false gods, his dignity insulted, and his glory usurped by others. ...Reverently, let us remember that the LORD is exceedingly jealous of his deity."

Here are some related verses:

Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me."

Nahum 1:2, 6- The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies... Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him."

Exodus 34:14 "Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

Is 48:11 "I will not yield my glory to another"

Isaiah 45: 21-22- Declare what is to be, present it— let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD ? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. 22 "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.