Jealousy Is Cruel as the Grave

Hello, my sweet friends.

This one is going to be a little tender, so if there are little ears in the car, you might want to save it for later.

The Song of Solomon is the most beautiful love poem ever written, and right near the end there's a line that stops me every single time.

"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame."

Love is strong as death. And in the very same breath: jealousy is cruel as the grave.

The same breath, friends. Solomon knew they live in the same house.

I get so many letters about jealousy. A husband who reads her messages while she sleeps. Who asks where she was, and then asks again, and then asks someone else. Who sees a man from church say good morning to her and comes home with his jaw tight. And these women write to me and say, Rebecca, I haven't done anything. And I believe them.

Here is what I tell them. Jealousy is not love that got too big. Jealousy is a fire that a man carried in from somewhere else. From his past. From what he did, or what was done to him. Very often, a man who can't trust his wife is a man who knows what he himself was capable of.

You can't put that fire out for him, sweet friend. You can't prove enough. You can't be home enough. All you can do is pray, and keep your own hands clean, and set your heart as a seal.

I've walked this road. I won't say more than that. Some things aren't mine to tell.

Let's pray.

Father, for every woman whose phone is read at night, give her peace. For every man who is burning with a fire he brought into the house, put it out before it burns down everything he loves. Set us as a seal upon Your heart. In Jesus' name, amen.

I'm Rebecca. This has been Midnight Bread. Go be somebody's blessing today.