You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous [El Qanna], is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you.

Exodus 34:14 (NLT), name added

El Qanna: Jealous God

The gods people worship today don’t have faces like they used to, but the more I learn about the gods of ancient nations, the more familiar they seem. People worshipped their gods to gain power, wealth, and pleasure; gods of war and gods of harvest and gods of fertility – all the things people still seek after today. We think that because these gods no longer have faces – are abstract, invisible – they are not gods. But has our own God not shown us that something does not have to be seen to be real?

Though we don’t call them by their names, the ancient gods have never really left us. We as human beings still fall into their worship today. They are all the things that pull our eyes away from the one true God, El Qanna, who is jealous for our gaze. His jealousy is the kind that seeks not only His own good, but ours as well. Those other gods decay, and they destroy us. He does not.

Thought seed: What is God jealous of in my life?