Oprah Winfrey Believes That God is Jealous of Her

Upon typing out such a title a writer surely wishes to be able to follow up by stating that they were merely engaging in hyperbole or otherwise engaging in malarkey making.
However, not only does Oprah Winfrey believe that God is jealous of her but this realization was the very concept from which her new enlightened spirituality was born.
Oprah Winfrey stated:1

I will say I was one of those people who used to go to church every-I grew up, as I was sharing with the last caller, you know, in the South and so going to church every Sunday, Sunday School, Baptist Training Union, Wednesday night prayer service, the whole thing, choir, all of it.
And when I moved to Baltimore, I was in my 20s, and I remember sitting in a church, you know, one of those big churches where you have to get there at, you know, 6:30 in the morning to line up for 8 o'clock service, and the minister was preaching about-it was a really good preacher-and he was preaching about how God-"the Lord thy God was a jealous God and the Lord thy God would condemn us for whatever," and I remember I-I had a spiritual aha!
There. And I was in my late 20s, and I suddenly thought, "How can this God who is all loving and all powerful, why would God be jealous of me?"

Note the specific point which caused her spiritual aha!; it was an utter misunderstanding of the Bible.
Whether the preacher misrepresented the Bible is not clear as all we know is that he stated, "the Lord thy God was a jealous God and the Lord thy God would condemn us for whatever" and in any regard, we are all responsible for honest biblical skepticism such as that exercised by the Bereans who were praised for doing so (Acts 17:11).
Note Oprah's interpretation of the preacher's words as she asked herself, "_why would God be jealous of me?" Whence did she get the idea that God is jealous of her?

Consider the instances of references to God's jealousy (as found in the King James Version). We actually find that four different words are translated as "jealous."

In its first appearance, "jealous" is translated from the Hebrew word, zeloo which sounds very much like zealous. Indeed, zeloo (Strong's # G2206) is primarily defined as, "to burn with zeal" and also, "in a good sense, to be zealous in the pursuit of good_to be the object of the zeal of others, to be zealously sought after."

The first instance of the term zeloo is in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments (see Exodus ch. 20), in which God states, "I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Since God had stated that "against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment" (Exodus 12:12 NKJV) in the Decalogue He states, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me_I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God" (this is reiterated in Deuteronomy 5:7-9).

Next, consider those texts that employ the Hebrew term qanna' (Strong's # H7067). Gesenius's Lexicon states that it is, "used of God as not bearing any rival." It appears in the following texts:

Exodus 34:14, "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God."

Deuteronomy 4:23-24, "Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, [or] the likeness of any [thing], which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee. For the LORD thy God [is] a consuming fire, [even] a jealous God."

Deuteronomy 6:14-15, "Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which [are] round about you. For the LORD thy God [is] a jealous God among you."

There is also the very similar Hebrew word qana' (Strong's # H7065) defined as, "to envy, be jealous, be envious, be zealous_to excite to jealous anger." This term appears in the following:

Joel 2:18, "Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people."

Zechariah 1:14, 8:2, "Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy_.Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous.."

Ezekiel 39:25, "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name."

The fourth term is qannow' (Strong's # H7072) and is simply defined as, "jealous" as found in the following:

Nahum 1:2, "God [is] jealous..."

Joshua 24:19-20, "And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he [is] an holy God; he [is] a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods_"

Note that being jealous is not, necessarily, a negative thing. I may be jealous of my neighbor because she has a more impressive vehicle than I. But I could also be jealous for my wife if I find that she is getting inappropriately friendly with another man.

God does not base His, what we anthropopathically refer to as, emotions upon bio-chemical reactions in His brain, upon misconceptions, or misreading situations. God experiences perfect emotions (see the essay On God's Odd Attributes).

As another example, anger can be very negative when expressed for the wrong reasons and toward the wrong person. Yet, there is such a thing as "righteous anger" which is an appropriate anger expressed for appropriate reasons towards appropriate personages or situations. Getting angry at a blind person who stepped on your toes is unrighteous anger while anger expressed towards oppressive regimes is righteous.

This is the very point: the contextual conclusion is that God is not jealous "of" anyone or anything but is jealous "for" us. God is not jealous of Oprah Winfrey rather, God is jealous for her.

Oprah should have asked her pastor of what he spake and then conducted a Bible study such as was done above. Had she done so, she would likely not have abandoned the Jesus of the Bible, the God of the Bible, the Christianity of the Bible and the Bible itself in order to concoct the pseudo-gospel according to Oprah. She has not rejected God; she has rejected her own misconception of God and replaced her misconception of God with an even more misconceived God who is also of her own making.

1. 1. Best Life Series of worldwide webcasts: "Finding Your Spiritual Path," January 14, 2009, Copyright 2009 HARPO PRODUCTIONS INC.