And Jealousy Rears It's Ugly Head

Exodus 20:17, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor." Many people look at this verse, one of the '10 commandments', and brush over it. "Oh yea, don't be jealous." We tend to see it as a good rule to live by, but really not anything important to pay attention to. I include myself in this generalization because I've done the same thing. Our culture even tells us that it's OK to be jealous and envious of others (which should actually not be that much of a shocker). I mean, there's even a phone called 'The Envy'. We certainly don't view it as the commandment, or even the sin that it truly is.

So if it's not that important, then why did God say it? Why is it included specifically with 9 other commandments carved literally in stone? Was it an afterthought, like a post script (P.S.)? I don't think so. God knew the destructive nature of envy and jealousy. He knew what would happen if the Israelites allowed themselves to covet, not only their neighbors material things, but anything that belonged to their neighbor. See, jealousy is born out of resentment; when we see that someone else has something, be it an material (like an iPhone 4) or otherwise (like a good grade, promotion or title) and we feel discomfort, displeasure or even anger at the fact that we don't have it. We begin wishing that person was out of the picture, that we would have it. When we think and wish that, we begin look for ways we can hurt that person, whether in word or action.

Honestly, jealousy can (and often does) lead to murder. Really. People get killed because of jealousy all the time, especially in the area of money. Jealousy is no laughing, or light matter. It's a serious warning, a serious commandment & serious sin, and we all, myself included, need to view it as such. Every junior high student is welcome to join us at Crash tomorrow night as we read 1 Samuel 17 & 18, and see how jealousy began to consume King Saul, and ask ourselves, "So, how do we counter jealousy?"