The transliteration for the Greek word Jealous in the context of Numbers 25 when speaking of Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, the priest, is Kawnaw which is to be zealous. His complete commitment to the holy character of God and himself among a holy people drove him to make decisions for God that were rewarded.
Jealousy is amalgamated with envy in our modern language. According to the context, we should determine if jealousy and envy are different or they are used to speak of the same direction of the emotion. When being used the same, they are always negative. Depending on the context, jealousy alone can be defined as zealous for protecting one's property and relationships and, in the case of Numbers 25, standing for God's holiness when someone else is challenging your right to those things.
Sadly, many people who claim Jesus as Lord spend more time hiding out from the world rather than being a light that they don't show any of God's jealousy. They don't take a stand against unrighteousness. They claim, "well, God's going to do what God's going to do." They may even say, "It will turn out exactly as it is supposed to." That is not what happened in Numbers 25. It reads as if Phinehas stepped in and "tuned back my (God's) wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them so that I did not consume the people ...in my jealousy." Phinehas' zealousness for God moved God to end a plague among the people due to their sin of intermarrying and idolatry. Our jealousy that is God's can move him to act in ways different from He may have. Paul uses this term in Romans 11:13-14 when he desperately wanted to win God's people Israel back to Him by causing godly jealousy for God by reaching out to the Gentiles.
We can read many places where those who stand zealously for God change or thwart what God was going to do or was doing. It doesn't mean God's moral character changed; He acted on conditions He has set for mankind, especially His people Israel in Biblical history. Examples are Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19:1-28; Ninevah in the book of Jonah, though Jonah, for whom the book was titled, was not zealous for God. Jeremiah 18:7-10 God speaks in general about conditions he offers Nations that sin and follow with repentance, or a Nation (Israel) who he planted and covenanted with, He'd plant, but if they turn against Him he will repent concerning the good He promised them.
God gave Israel many conditions for His blessings in Deuteronomy 28 and curses. Israel, in general, continued to show they'd prefer the curses. Yet, there were men and women, and some of those women later would become proselytes of Israel and be named in Jesus' lineage, who were jealous with God's jealousy and stood at the cost of rejection, the loss of things temporary, and also relationships, and in Hebrews 11, the cost of their lives.
Being jealous with God's jealousy is to pray continually in a world diametrically opposed to all things righteously. Prayer will allow us to be open to acting when the Holy Spirit leads, without fear or timidity, but with a sound mind. Speaking out is necessary; if you don't, it may leave people thinking you agree with their unrighteousness. From Genesis to Deuteronomy, we meet many who zealously acted on God's behalf. I mentioned a few, but I can add Noah, and Lot, who the Bible calls "righteous Lot." Phinehas' actions' were applauded by God and then rewarded.
Today we have been frightened into silence. Many are cowardly quiet and show no jealousy for the things our world disregards against God's holiness. This is a huge Nation, and I am sure there are those taking a stand against injustice, which God hates, that we may not know about; unrighteous laws that change marriage to include same-sex and allow for the death of a baby in the womb, growing in its season. Those who take these stands are attacked unrelentingly by our Media, on Social Media and now even find that our justice system has been turned against them.
When we stand against these things to stand with God, jealously, we are applauded by Him and eventually rewarded. It may lead to tough times, but if you read Hebrews 11, God sees and remembers the good works that come from being, as he says, he or she "was jealous with my jealousy among them..." That's no envious matter!
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