Jealousy

Jealousy also is one of the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:20), therefore we must flee it. Jealousy causes people to be fiercely protective or vigilant of a person whom they love or the things they possess because they are afraid of losing the persons they love or the things they possess. So a man who is jealous of his wife can even forbid his wife to speak with other men or to go out, because he is afraid that his wife may fall in love with another man, and this feeling does not come from God. Anyone who is jealous of a thing will forbid everybody to use that thing (a car, a tractor, a cell-phone, etc.) because he is afraid that thing may be damaged, stolen, etc.

In the Scripture we have an example of jealousy which shows that jealousy leads people to act wrongly. While the Israelites were at Kibroth Hattaavah it came to pass that God took of the Spirit that was on Moses and put the Spirit on the seventy elders chosen by Moses, and when the Spirit rested on them they prophesied. “However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp’. Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said: ‘Moses, my lord, stop them!’. But Moses replied, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11-26-29 – NIV). Please, notice how Joshua on that occasion was jealous of Moses and Moses rebuked him.

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