Does God envy?

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souldiver

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In the Bible, it says:

Exodus 34:14
Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Isn’t jealousy a form of envy? I know envy is one of the 7 deadly sins.
 
souldiver said:
In the Bible, it says:

Exodus 34:14
Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Isn’t jealousy a form of envy? I know envy is one of the 7 deadly sins.
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And in Exodus 20:5, it says, “For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God”.

I, personally, do NOT look at God’s jealousy and man’s jealousy as even being anything remotely alike.

Man’s jealousy is sick, petty and disgusting.

God’s jealousy, in my viewpoint, is that God will stop at nothing for the salvation of ALL.

In other words, God will NEVER give up on anyone.
 
Jealousy and envy aren’t exactly the same. The difference is kind of subtle, but you are envious of something someone has that you do not, but you are jealous over something you have but may lose.

I am envious of my best friend’s new car
I am jealous that my best friend now hangs out all the time with someone else.

God is not envious of a false god, but he is Jealous that he may lose man’s love to a false god.
 
Stephen_says said:
Jealousy and envy aren’t exactly the same. The difference is kind of subtle, but you are envious of something someone has that you do not, but you are jealous over something you have but may lose.

I am envious of my best friend’s new car
I am jealous that my best friend now hangs out all the time with someone else.

God is not envious of a false god, but he is Jealous that he may lose man’s love to a false god.
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👍
 
souldiver said:
In the Bible, it says:

Exodus 34:14
Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Isn’t jealousy a form of envy? I know envy is one of the 7 deadly sins.
Click to expand...
Strictly speaking, no He isn’t. He couldn’t possibly be envious, because He has everything. This is an image used by the Scriptures, especially (I think exclusively, but I would have to check to make sure) in the Old Testament, to emphasize to the People of Israel that their worship must be directed to God alone, not to other (nonexistent) deities.

The Bible frequently uses anthropomorphic language to speak of God; for example, when it says that God gets “angry” or that He “repents” of His actions. We are not to take that completely literally, because God cannot experience passions, nor can He “change His mind.”

(It is not that God is cold and feelingless; it is that He already has in Himself what we experience as a passion. When God appears to “change His mind” it is because we see the effect of His action over the course of time. God, however, sees everything in an eternal present.)

I like Stephen says’ interpretation, as well, although God does not experience jealousy as a “feeling.” Rather, he wants us to worship Him alone, because He knows that is what is best for us.
 
He’s jealous in the sense that a man might be jealous of his wife - that is, as far as he’s concerned, she belongs to him and nobody else.

God’s jealous for us. As far as He’s concerned, we belong to Him and nobody else.

Which means He doesn’t want us running after anything else than Him, because He knows that sooner or later it will destroy us.

Envy is different - that’s resentment that we haven’t got something that someone else has. In God’s case it’s all His anyway, so there’s nothing for Him to be envious about. I suspect if anything He gets a bit cynical about people’s claims to ownership - my dog, my boots, my house, my kids, my God.

In the end, when we die, we’ll find out we never owned any of it. It was all a temporary gift, and we’ll be judged on what we did or didn’t do with it, while we had access to it.
 
Jealousy and envy are different. And God’s jealously is not sinful jealousy, for we owe Him in justice and in charity all that we are and all that we have–we are mere stewards of ourselves and of all our possessions. God bless you.
 
souldiver said:
In the Bible, it says:

Exodus 34:14
Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Isn’t jealousy a form of envy? I know envy is one of the 7 deadly sins.
Click to expand...
It’s logically impossible for God to be jealous because that would mean that God’s act of existence can be effected by his creation which implies potency in his being. To behave with Jealousy is an imperfection.

God’s will for us to worship him alone is like a jealous husband analogously speaking.
 
God wants our love for Him to be undivided–and it is right and just that we comply with His wishes. In this respect, God IS a jealous God, but as I said before, His jealously is not the sinful jealousy that we human beings suffer from–His jealously is not selfish (sinful). God bless you.
 
ready said:
God wants our love for Him to be undivided–and it is right and just that we comply with His wishes. In this respect, God IS a jealous God, but as I said before, His jealously is not the sinful jealousy that we human beings suffer from–His jealously is not selfish (sinful). God bless you.
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I also believe that God’s jealousy is nothing like the petty jealousy that us humans have.

I believe that “God’s Jealousy” is a way of saying that there will be nothing that stands in God’s Way in reconciling All of God’s creation to God.
 
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