Find Hope: Matthew 1-4Sample

Are You a Jealous Person or a Zealous Person?

Recently, I heard some exciting news—my brother-in-law bought a house with a pool near my place! As a father and someone who doesn't have a pool, I was thrilled and eager to hear this. Yes, a pool to swim in but not have to look after! However, my son felt jealous and said, "Why don’t we have a pool?" Before we heard this news, his uncle lived far away, and we didn't have a pool nearby we could swim in whenever we wanted to. But instead of being zealous and excited about this news, he was jealous. He was thinking about what he doesn't have, not what he now does have!

For thousands of years, the Jewish people were waiting for the Messiah—waiting for their new prophesied king. For example, the prophet Micah prophesied that this Messiah, this king, would be born in Bethlehem. Most Jewish people were longing for the Messiah, praying for him, in hopes that he would come and overthrow the Romans and bring prosperity to the Jewish people again.

But one Jew was not praying for the Messiah; one Jew was not zealous for the Messiah, but was jealous of the Messiah. He was troubled by the news of baby Jesus. Who was this Jew? Herod. King Herod. A Jewish man appointed by the Romans to keep the Jewish people submissive to Rome.

Now just stop and think for a moment about the heart of Herod. When Jesus was born, prophecy was being fulfilled; wise men were coming to him to say that the Messiah was born; the king of the Jews was here. This was a moment for Herod to be zealous rather than jealous. A moment to celebrate and move off the throne and allow King Jesus to reign, rule, and bring in the prosperity and peace that everyone wanted.

But instead, Herod, proudly and wickedly, plots to kill and harm Jesus. He plots to stop prophecy. He refuses to let God be God. And he does his best to get in the way of God’s plan.

And look, we condemn and judge Herod; he was an evil man, and yet in many ways, we can be like Herod, in that we get in God’s way. At times, we refuse to give God control and allow him to be the king of our lives. We want to stay on the throne and make the decisions. Like King Herod, instead of being excited about what Jesus is doing in the world and through others, we get jealous and long for more, unaware that our jealousy is killing us.

Today, ponder this: The words "jealous" and "zealous" come from the same Latin root word "zelus." Jealousy is something that erodes your soul, while being zealous is something the Bible commands. However, you can’t be zealous and jealous at the same time. Pray this morning for more zeal and less envy.