The Bible frequently describes God as a jealous lover. In his book titled Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan asks the question, "When can jealousy be a good thing?" Here's part of his answer:
In God's case, it's when we're rummaging around the garbage piles of life and avoiding the source of satisfaction. It reminds me of a comic strip I once saw of a dog who had been drinking out of a toilet bowl. With water dripping from his snout, Fido looks up to tell us, "It doesn't get any better than this!" Instead of enjoying fresh spring water, we look for stagnant, crummy substitutes that inevitably fail us.
Copan goes on to comment:
A wife who doesn't get jealous and angry when another woman is flirting with her husband isn't really committed to the marriage relationship … . Outrage, pain, anguish—these are the appropriate responses to such deep violation. God isn't some abstract entity or impersonal principle … . We should be amazed that the Creator of the universe would so deeply connect himself to human beings that he would open himself to sorrow and anguish in the face of human rejection and betrayal.
