{"id":4205,"date":"2025-09-18T22:31:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/?p=4205"},"modified":"2025-09-18T22:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T22:31:06","slug":"my-imaginary-conversation-with-oprah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/?p=4205","title":{"rendered":"My Imaginary Conversation with Oprah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"Oprah has been quoted as having said that her view of God was changed after hearing her pastor refer to God as “jealous.” This is an imaginary conversation between Oprah and myself where I suggest that “jealousy,” when processed from a perspective that accommodates the Hebrew language, isn’t a reason to doubt the Character of God, rather it’s another reason to appreciate the Love of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bruce: <\/strong>Oprah! How are you doing? Man, it\u2019s a treat to be talking with you.<\/p>\n

Oprah: <\/strong>Bruce, I\u2019m doing great! What\u2019s on your mind?<\/p>\n

Bruce: <\/strong>I wanted to ask you about something I saw on the internet where you were apparently put off a little bit by your pastor referring to God as a \u201cjealous\u201d God. Here\u2019s what I heard:<\/p>\n

Years ago I went faithfully, 8 o’clock service, 12 o’clock service. I was a tither. I was making 227 dollars a week, and I tithed 22 dollars and 70 cents every week. But after Jim Jones led the mass suicide in Guyana, I started to feel differently. The church I went to had a really charismatic pastor\u2014you had to show up early to get a seat\u2014and I remember sitting there one Sunday while he was preaching about how “the Lord thy God is a jealous God, the Lord thy God will punish you for your sins.” I looked around and thought, “Why would God be jealous? What does that even mean?” And I’m looking at the people in the church, and everybody’s up, shouting. And I started wondering how many of these people\u2014including myself\u2014would be led to do whatever this preacher said. That’s when I started exploring taking God out of the box, out of the pew. And eventually I got to where I was able to see God in other people and in all things\u2014in graciousness and kindness and generosity and the spirit of things<\/em>1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Oprah<\/strong>. Yes, that started a \u201cjourney\u201d that has me where I am today I terms of my perspective on spiritual things.<\/p>\n

Bruce: <\/strong>Did you ever look that passage up and pop the hood a little bit as far as researching the Hebrew and try to get a better picture of what that verse was saying? The reason I\u2019m asking is because I\u2019m convinced there are a lot of people out there that don\u2019t really \u201cown\u201d their faith. One thing that impresses me about you is that, while you and I are probably sitting on opposing sides of the aisle on several issues, you can explain what you believe and why. My concern is that while you\u2019ve invested some time in formulating what you believe, if your starting point is characterized by information that is either flawed or incomplete, than your conclusions are bound to be inaccurate and I wanted to run some things past you and see if they don\u2019t at least give you some food for thought.<\/p>\n

Oprah<\/strong>: OK. What\u2019ve you got?<\/p>\n

Bruce:<\/strong> Alright, first off: When you compare the English language to the Hebrew, you don\u2019t have access to as many \u201ccolors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oprah<\/strong>: What do you mean?<\/p>\n

Bruce: <\/strong>Well, imagine you\u2019re painting a picture of a landscape. You\u2019ve got all sorts of tones and hues in front of you, but while the \u201cHebrew\u201d brand of paint offers a sufficient number of colors to accurately reproduce the landscape you\u2019re painting, the \u201cEnglish\u201d brand is limited.<\/p>\n

Oprah<\/strong>: So what does that mean?<\/p>\n

Bruce: <\/strong>What that means is that when you see a word like \u201cjealous,\u201d you want to be certain that the English translation captures ever nuance and \u201ccolor\u201d that word possesses in its original Hebrew version. If you don\u2019t do a little research, then you risk making some assumptions that aren\u2019t accurate.<\/p>\n

Oprah: <\/strong>Well, what else could \u201cjealous\u201d mean?<\/p>\n

Bruce: OK, you\u2019ve got four words that are used to describe God as jealous:<\/p>\n

Qana (kah-NAH) 2<\/sup> Qin ah (kin-AH) 3<\/sup> Qanna (KAH-NAH) 4<\/sup> Qanno (kah-NO) 5<\/sup><\/p>\n

Qana<\/em> is all about protection, much like a bird will gather her chicks beneath her wings to protect them from predators.<\/p>\n

The second word, Qin ah<\/em>, is literally, \u201credness of face.\u201d6<\/sup> This is where you\u2019re getting into some passionate zeal, which isn\u2019t always healthy, in light of the fact that \u201cpassion\u201d can be inspired by something not entirely honorable. But that\u2019s not an issue where God is concerned. Do you remember in 1 Corinthians 13:4 where Paul defines \u201clove?\u201d He says, \u201cLove is patient\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Oprah: <\/strong>\u201cLove is kind\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce: <\/strong>Exactly. The next part of that verse says, \u201cLove does not envy.\u201d So connect the dots for a moment. 1 John 4:6 says \u201cGod is love.\u201d In light of the fact that He is the ultimate manifestation of Perfect Love, \u201cenvy\u201d is off the table as far as how Qin ah<\/em> could be anything other than a completely righteous zeal for the love of His bride. Does that make sense? \u201cEnvy\u201d seeks to posses something that is not mine. \u201cJealousy,\u201d in the way it appears in its more noble manifestation, seeks to protect that which is mine. So when you position that adjective as a descriptor of God, you\u2019re not introducing a character flaw, rather you\u2019re adding another color of compassion to the picture of God\u2019s Perfect Love.<\/p>\n

The other two words are Qanna<\/em> and Qanno<\/em>. Both of these words are unique in that they\u2019re only used as descriptions of God. The fundamental meaning of Qanna,<\/em> relates to a marriage relationship \u2013 the kind of feeling a husband has in terms of being the only object of his wife\u2019s\u2019 affection and commitment.<\/p>\n

Again, while we can envision a jealous husband being influenced by feelings of insecurity or overly controlling, such is not the case with God. Qanna <\/em>is a synonym for Qanno<\/em>, although, and while the imagery of a committed husband is an appropriate illustration in both instances, Eugene E. Carpenter, author of \u201cHolman Treasury of Key Bible Words,\u201d adds the fact that God is not only jealous for His bride\u2019s affection, but is also passionate about protecting her from those who would do her harm as is referenced in Nahum 1:2.<\/p>\n

Oprah: <\/strong>So, the bottom line is\u2026?<\/p>\n

Bruce: <\/strong>The bottom line is that God being described as \u201cjealous\u201d needs to be processed from a perspective that takes into account the Hebrew language. When you do that, the end result is not a reason to doubt the Character of God, rather it becomes yet another reason to appreciate the Love of God.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
    \n
  1. \u201cThe Ultimate O<\/em> Interview: Oprah Answers All Your<\/em> Questions\u201d, oprah.com, http:\/\/www.oprah.com\/omagazine\/Oprah-Gets-Interviewed-by-O-Readers\/5#ixzz2UUWMQjN1<\/a>, accessed June 2, 2013<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cBlue Letter Bible\u201d, http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/lexicon\/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H7065&cscs=Gen<\/a>, accessed June 5, 2013<\/li>\n
  3. \u201cBlue Letter Bible\u201d http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7068<\/a>, accessed June 5, 2013<\/li>\n
  4. \u201cBlue Letter Bible\u201d, http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7067<\/a>, accessed June 5, 2013<\/li>\n
  5. \u201cBlue Letter Bible\u201d, http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H7072<\/a>, accessed June 5, 2013<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Oprah has been quoted as having said that her view of God was changed after hearing her pastor refer to God as “jealous.” This is an imaginary conversation between Oprah and myself where I suggest that “jealousy,” when processed from a perspective that accommodates the Hebrew language, isn’t a reason to doubt the Character of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,27,28],"tags":[275,274,273],"class_list":["post-4205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discipleship","category-muscular-christianity","category-self-improvement","tag-jealous-god","tag-jealousy","tag-opray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4206,"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4205\/revisions\/4206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muscularchristianityonline.com\/platform\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}