A Charles Dickens Devotional by Thomas Nelson

Author:Thomas Nelson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2011-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

William Shakespeare wrote, in his play Othello, “And oft, my jealousy shapes faults that are not.” So did the young ladies of Chigwell shape the faults of Dolly Varden. Dickens’s use of adjectives in this passage from Barnaby Rudge contrasts Dolly’s positive attributes with the negative ones formed by the envious ladies.

James spoke about envy as he cautioned, “If you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice” (3:14–16 NIV). The Bible holds many examples of evil acts that have resulted from envy. Read about the jealousy between the brothers Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25–27), Joseph and his tunic of many colors (Genesis 37), and King Saul’s jealous anger toward David (1 Samuel 15–21). The book of Proverbs even suggests that envy might adversely affect one’s health (14:30).

Envy is not a product of love, for love “does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV). To avoid self-seeking envy, we must follow our Lord’s example found in 1 Samuel 16:7: “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (NIV).

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