Is God an Egomaniac? Part 3

Here is another example of how certain passages in the bible when interpreted wrongly can lead to bad conclusions

Oprah Winfrey stumbled over one of these expressions and walked away from traditional Christianity. She described being in a church service where the preacher was talking about the attributes of God, His omnipotence and omnipresence. She mentioned that the preacher said,

“The Lord thy God is a jealous God,” [quoting Deuteronomy 5:9,] she adds, “I was caught up in the rapture of that moment until he said, “jealous.” And something struck me. I was 27 or 28, and I was thinking God is all, God is omnipresent, God is . . . also jealous? A jealous God is jealous of me? And something about that didn’t feel right in my spirit because I believe that God is love, and that God is in all things.”

You see, the jealousy of God for the worship of his people is not marginal in the Bible. For example, in Exodus 34:14, God says, “You shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

In other words, God made us so that He would be our highest value and greatest pleasure, and when our hearts go after other things as more valuable and more pleasurable, then He is jealous of our affections. And if we don’t repent and return to Him, He gets angry, “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:24).

So the jealousy of God is virtually the same as the heart of Jesus when he said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” In other words, “I am jealous for your supreme affection.”

So then, is God an egomaniac?

End of Part 3