Why Is God Jealous of “Other Gods”?
God’s jealousy is described in Deuteronomy 32:16: “They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.” He says He is the only God (Isaiah 44:6-8), so why is He jealous of “other” gods? Just five verses after that Scripture, we see it more clearly: “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God…” (Deuteronomy 32:21). There is no contradiction. This reveals something essential to understand: it is not whether the idols qualify as real beings, but whether God’s people are faithful to Him.
It is about the heart. "I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols..."
It is not about various real gods competing for our attention. To suggest the idea of gods being jealous of each other may give credibility to polytheism. Yet when it comes to God’s jealousy of other gods, I think the best way to explain it is that people have created gods of their own imagination. Jeremiah 9:14 says that the Israelites “walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim” and Isaiah 44:13-19 shows the foolishness of worshipping a created object, in comparison to the Creator, the one true God (verse 6). As a side note, followers of other religions are actually worshipping demons, according to Deuteronomy 32:17, Psalm 106:37, and 1 Corinthians 10:20.
Along with that, non-believers often ask about our definition of God. Does the term simply mean any higher power? Angels have greater power (2 Peter 2:11), and yet they are not “gods.” The best way to describe God is that He is the Creator (Genesis 1:1-31; Isaiah 40:28; Hebrews 11:3). One Hindu explained that in his culture’s view, “gods” include even people, apparently because we have some level of power. He said, “That is why we say ‘Namaste,’ a greeting to the god in you.” With that insight into their culture, we should be careful to describe God as the one Creator of the universe.
Another point worth mentioning is that jealousy is not envy (a common mistake; the words are not interchangeable). While envy is related to wishing we had the same thing someone else has, jealousy is rooted in emotional attachment in relationships. God wants a relationship with us, and therefore He will be jealous of anything (whether living or non-living) that we give more devotion and attention to than Him.
God is the Creator of all life, and therefore has all power. So, He has no competition, and yet His jealousy is rooted in a desire for a relationship with us.