If God is omnipotent, what does he have to be jealous of?

Question

I often hear people speaking of "I am a jealous god, thou shalt have no other gods before me." What would God have to be jealous of? According to several theologians, jealousy is a sin (Thou shalt not covet...). How can God be jealous, but then say we should not?

Answer 1

Gods insecure. He needs to listen to some Anthony Robbins self help tapes. He needs to " awaken the giant within. "

Answer 2

Jealousy and envy are two related, but different, emotions.

Envy is desiring something that someone else possesses. You envy someone's car, or job, or girlfriend.

Jealousy is wanting to possess what you already have, to guard it and keep others from it, and is not always negative. A mother hen is jealous over her chicks, protecting them from the fox. When a girl wants to make her boyfriend jealous, she flirts with another man, causing the boyfriend to draw her closer to himself: his jealousy causes him to demonstrate the girl is his, and that he is not willing to suffer her divided loyalty with another.

We often use the word jealously when we actually mean envy. Separating their meanings in our minds is helpful to understand God's jealousy.

God's jealously is expressed in the scripture in the question: He will not be content that we give attention to other gods, because it is a slight to the allegiance owed Him by his creation. It's not so much His omnipotence as it is His absolute holiness that illuminates the meaning behind His statement "You shall have no other gods before me."Since He is our Creator, He has a right to 100% of our worship and adoration. He is a jealous God because He will allow no other (hypothetical) deity, object, person, etc. to eclipse that relationhip. This declaration of God's jealously is connected in an inverse relationship to the prohibition against idolatry: the substituting of something/someone else in the place in our hearts and minds in which God rightly resides.

In the end, God's jealously is not sinful and He is not made imperfect because He expresses it, because it is a burning desire for that which is good, instead of a petty lust for something to fulfill an empty place in the soul. So for us, being jealous for the right things is not sinful, but demonstrates a right desire.

Answer 3

Have you ever lied, stolen, used God's name in vain. These are a few of the Ten Commandments. It's appointed unto man once to die, then judgment. When you die God will judge you by His Ten Commandments. You will be guilty, and if you are guilty, you will be sent to Hell. Jesus came to die on a cross and rise again to pay the debt for your sins, If you Repent, which means to ask forgiveness and turn from your sins, and put your Trust in Jesus Christ, you will be accepted into Heaven. This is the only way.

Answer 4

I don't think jealousy is necessarily the same thing as coveting.

However, if you could just snap your fingers and make everyone love you would you do it?

Honestly, I would think that a world where everyone loves you would get terribly, terribly boring after a while because half the fun of being loved is having to earn the love (or at least feel like you're earning it.)

That's my opinion at least...

Answer 5

He was just trying to put a little fear in you when He said that. He doesn't want you to be led in the wrong direction is all.

Also, if God wants to be jealous, that's his perogative. It's us little peons that have to obey His rules, not the Rulemaker Himself.

Answer 6

He is jealous in the sense that he wants exclusive devotion. He doesn't want his servants to worship anyone but him, and when you think about that's the least we could do is give God our exclusive devotion, he did create us:)

Answer 7

If you got married to the woman of your dreams, and she went flirting and going with other men, would you not get jealous?