A Different Shade of Green

We were walking in the park. I noticed that the trees were green. The grass was green. The algae on the lake was green. I began to ponder how some fruit and herbs are green; some animals and insects are green; some flower stems are green and some precious stones are green. I thought about how they were all green and beautiful and different.

I then remembered a shade of green that people do not refer to as beautiful. Perhaps you have heard the phrase that he or she is green with envy or jealousy.

It is referred to by Shakespeare in reference to jealousy. The Greeks believed that jealousy was accompanied by an overproduction of bile, lending a pallid green cast to the victim. Ovid, Chaucer, and Shakespeare followed suit, freely using 'green' to denote jealousy or envy. Perhaps the most famous such reference is Iago's speech in Act 3 of Othello: O! beware my lord, of Jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on.

God is jealous. Read Exodus 20:3-5. The 5th verse specifically states that God is a jealous God. In the Old Testament God pictures His love relationship with the nation of Israel as a husband who loves his wife (Jeremiah 3:1; Hosea 3:1). God loves Israel just as a husband loves his wife. If a man becomes jealous because another man is pursuing his wife, few people would say the husband is sinning. That is the meaning of God’s jealousy over us. When we go after other gods, He is jealous like a husband. His jealousy is different. This is a warning to not worship other gods. To say that God is jealous over us, is to say that God has great passion or He loves us.

God's jealousy? It's a different shade of green.