Few years ago on live broadcast with a New-Age teacher and author Eckhart Tolle, Oprah Winfrey said, "I took God out of the box because I grew up in the Baptist church and there were rules and belief systems and doctrine. I happened to be sitting in church in my late 20s. I was going to this church where this great minister was preaching about how great God was and how omniscient and omnipresent and God is everything. Then he said, “The Lord Thy God is a jealous God.” I was caught up in the rapture of that moment until he said jealous. Something struck me. I was thinking, “God is all. God is omnipresent. God is all and God’s also jealous? God is jealous of me?” Something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit because I believe that God is love and that God is in all things, and so that’s when the search for something more than doctrine started to stir within me. I love this quote that Eckhart has where he says, “Man made God in his own image, the eternal, the infinite, and unnamable was reduced to a mental idol that you had to believe in and worship as ‘my God’ or ‘our God.’”
"Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." Exodus 34:14
Often times people struggle with some verses in scripture and this is one of them. I have heard absurd premises from Christians in their attempt to justify the verse above in context of their own carnality. Jealousy is seen as a bad trait, Yes for humanity it is. It has led to deaths, broken homes and immense sufferings.
Why Is God Jealous Over Humans?
Here is where the real question lies. The objectivity of God's jealousy over man. The world of science, Arts & entertainment is shaped by three words:
1. Patent: Inventors and designers file for patents. A patent protects inventions with a new or improved function. This includes machines, processes, or chemical compositions, or the design for some product.
2. Copyright: Can be sought for by authors, artists, choreographers, architects, and other creative professionals. While an idea cannot be copyrighted, the tangible form of an idea can be. This includes ORIGINAL WORKS of authorship, photographs, sculptures, choreography, architectural works, sound recordings, motion pictures, and other creative works. A copyright is valid for a lifetime.
3. Trademark: Protects a name, word, slogan, symbol, DESIGN, and/or image identifying a business or brand and distinguishing it from others in the same field. Certain legal rights are put in place to protect those invention from abuse and theft. It enhances the rights of a person by providing legal evidence and public notice of ownership. It is proof enough of a nationwide EXCLUSIVE RIGHT to the mark and allows the holder to sue an infringer if the case calls for it.
If you pick up any gadget with a symbol of an apple partly bitten, you know immediately that it is owned by Apple Inc. In 2016, FBI sued Apple because it refused to unlock an Iphone found on the spot of a terror scene. Guess what? Apple won the case in court and refused to crack the phone open. Why? They own the product and they have unrevockable legal rights over it. They have terms and conditions (exclusive) on their products that no one else does.
By Creation and Salvation we are God's invention, art & property. Therefore, just has Apple can be crazy about its product and can determine how that product should function and can be used. So also, the Eternal God can be jealous over us because we are sculpted by His art (Eph 2:10), invented by His design (Rev 4:11) and authored by His Spirit (Gen 2:7). As His technology, He has patents on us. As His art (shaped in His own image and Identity) He has trademark on us. As His story, penned by His Spirit (our story began when He breathed into us), He has copyright over us. It is both legal and binding.
You mean mere mortals can claim autonomous rights over their products but God cannot? Is that not rather duplicitous? Let us discern what is right. I speak to those who have understanding.
"As His technology, He has patents on us. As His art (shaped in His own image and identity) He has trademark on us. As His story, penned by His Spirit (our story began when He breathed into us), He has copyright over us. It is both legal and binding."
Should You Be Jealous over your partner?
Absolutely No! Why? He/She is not your product. You can't say God is a jealous God and that is why you are Jealous. This is so because in your relationship with your wife/husband you have to keep the terms and conditions of the inventor. One of the conditions of the inventor says you can't be jealous.Why? Because you didn't create your partner. Remember, God has exclusive rights over your partner and you. Last time I checked, Iphones don't determine its terms and condition, Apple Inc does. Iphones cannot sue Apple Inc, it has no basis, but it complies to Apple codes and algorithms to avoid malfunctioning. You can care and be concern about your spouse but by virtue of creation God has a legal right over you guys. Well, if you can create (not procreate) a being you can also have exclusive rights over your creation. But God is the only one that stands in that capacity.
What's God's Jealousy About?
God's Jealousy over us is perhaps one of His remarkable attribute. It is Jealousy that has kept Him faithful to His Love and mercy over mankind. Apple's jealousy kept that Iphone from being unlocked (defiled) by FBI agents. God's jealousy is not selfish or harmful but it seeks to protect the works of His hands. If God is not Jealous over us, there is no basis for Salvation plan. It was because of that massive wave of His Jealousy that His love never left us in darkness. As a songwriter said, "No darkness you won't light up, mountain you won't climb up, coming after me. No lies you wouldn't tear down, walls you won't kick down coming after me."
His persistent love is not to cage us but to set us free from the harm we are capable of doing to ourselves. It is not His jealousy that harms us but hiding away from His jealous love does. His jealousy sets us free from captivity but the jealousy of men clips our wings and prevents us from true freedom. God's jealous love is the only liberating thing you could ever know.
It's in this context Paul said, "For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God Himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband--Christ." 2Cor 11:2. A divine Jealousy to get the product (mankind) to remain pure & true to His maker in love. If this is that kind of Jealousy you have over your spouse, then it is no longer you who is jealous over your partner but the divine in you showing that earnest interest of commitment to your spouse. To protect him/her and to bring him/her back to Himself (God) even when it is not pleasing to you personally.
Conclusion
I doubt pretty much that Oprah Winfrey knew God's Jealousy on this level. It is my desire for her and everyone else who disbelieve, that God's jealousy prevails over them. Every Jealousy leads ultimately to death, the death of the person jealousy is expressed over. But God's Jealousy didn't lead us to our death, rather it led to His death on a cross for us.
Be grateful for His jealousy over you, for without it we cannot find forgiveness and love before Him. God so love the world because He has a commitment of Jealousy towards us. Selfless and undying love, unyielding and unstoppable. That is why He will never leave or forsake you. Therefore He says, "They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me." Jeremiah 3:1 KJV
"But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the LORD their God and to David's descendant, their king. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the LORD and of his goodness." Hosea 3:5 NLT
Find comfort in His wonderful Jealous love over you.
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