Questions asked during India visit
Question No.4
If it is wrong for Christians to wear jewelry, why does Ezekiel 16:11-12 say that God decked Israel with ornaments and bracelets?
The counsel of God is perfect. What God requires of us is and will always be right. However, time and again man always drifts from the original plan or perfect will of God. An example of this is how man started engaging in divorce. Divorce was never part of God’s perfect will but because of the hardness of man’s heart He permitted it (Mat.19:8). When God permits something, even a vain thing that is unprofitable to man, it is in hope of something better to come, and also for eyes of man to see and learn. “For the creature”, Paul writes, “was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Rom.8:20). It is for this reason that although God knew about the imperfectness of the Old Testament Law He still let it take full course. He permitted the Law of Moses so “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom.3:19). The Law was to show man that even when he knew the good thing to do he was insufficient to perform true righteousness (Rom.7:19).
Another example of God permitting something which is not His will can be found in the life of David. He had many wives. We know that God was never the author of polygamy. For “they twain shall be one flesh… they are no more twain, but one flesh” (Mat.19:1-8). But, how could God say to David, “And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom…and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things”? (2 Sam.12:8-9). Does this sentence mean God sanctioned the polygamous marriages of King David? How about the scripture which says that God had put a lying spirit in Ahab’s prophets (2 Chro.18:21-22); would God lie?
It is important to know that God is everywhere and sovereign and therefore, whatever He permits the free-will of man to do, even when it is a terribly evil thing, that is by implication His cause! Is it any surprising then that in Isaiah He declared saying, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (Isa.45:7)?
In Genesis chapter 35 we read about God telling Jacob to go to Bethel. Jacob knew that the gods and type of garments his family wore weren’t pleasing to God. So he commanded them saying “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments” (v.2). Surely a spiritual person is able to discern the perfect will of God. When Jacob’s family heard the instruction, they did more than they were told for “they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand , and all their earrings which were in the ears” (v.4). Why did they put off the earrings if there was nothing wrong with wearing them? And would all Israelites follow the example of Jacob’s family through time? Not so. Later there was a nation of Israel which time and again got attracted to the vain beauty of pagan nations. Their hearts coveted after that and yes God gave them the vanity they desired but with consequences! Yes, God can permit an undesirable thing but there will always be consequences which follow.
Here is another case: wasn’t it considered a curse for women to lead people? “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isa.3:12). But was it not God who raised Deborah, a woman, to lead the nation of Israel? Does that mean God is pleased with women being in leadership or being preachers? Many who are blind to the simple truth of Scripture would say so, but Deborah herself knew better for she said to Barak, “I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman” (Jud.4:8-9). The sins of Israel were many and God permitted that.
In the time of Ezekiel, the infidelity of Israel against God’s Law was thus illustrated: “I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head” (Eze.16:11-12). But what resulted from this beauty of Israel? The scripture continues: “But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was”(v.15).
In the New Testament Christ came to restore man to the perfect will of God. All those who walk in Grace, given to us through Calvary, have left “shadows” of the Law behind them and are entered into the Light of God’s Truth . We don’t take pleasure in carnality. We are the Bride of Christ “whose adorning [is] not that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold” (1 Pet.3:3). We surely can never hide in shadows of the night like prostitutes and thieves when the Day-star has dawned upon us!
Be assured that if the family of Jacob, upon conviction of the Word they had received about some holy place they were to go to, gave up their earrings and garments, Eve who was in Eden, in the very presence of God, a pure daughter of God, would have never perforated her nose or ears to try to look beautiful! If the Fall had not occurred Eve would still have been alive today and there certainly wouldn’t be any paint on her lips or eyebrows!
You still with all that didn’t even answer the questions!#!!
Amen.
God bless you so much.
How convenient that you skip verse 14. Where God literally declares he made Israel beautiful after adorning her with those gifts. “You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. 14 And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.”… yet you twisted it into what? Here, lemme quote you guys “the infidelity of Israel against God’s Law was thus illustrated”. That’s how you described it. Not to mention you then somehow say that those gifts resulted in Israel’s idolatry when the passage makes no such connection. This is not an example of God giving Israel an undesirable thing and consequences following it. This is a metaphor of God making Israel beautiful and them falling into the idolatry of the Canaanites. In fact verses 11-14 blatantly make it clear that jewelry is not bad in anyway as God himself used it to “adore” Israel and make it beautiful. And again God himself is quoted describing it so.
Dear R,
Thank you for your reply. Yes, it is God who had beautified Israel with ornaments and that is brought out in verses 12 and 14 of Ezekiel 16. Please note that verse 12 which brings out this fact (re-emphasised in verse 14) was quoted in the article. Kindly read through the article again. Here are three questions you may want to respond to : Why did Jacob’s wives take off earings when the family was about to go and present themselves before God? (Gen.35:4). Do you believe that it is God who gave multiple wives to David ? If yes, according to 2 Sam.12:8-9, can believers practise polygammy? Is it God who anointed and raised Deborah, a woman, as a person of authority (a judge) in Israel? If yes, does God allow believers to let women occupy positions of authority as preachers in the church ( see 1 Cor.14:34, 1 Tim.2:12)?
Pastor Phiri, nothing can be more plainer.
I had a problem with the topic of women apparel, jewelry and makeup. The problem was NOT that I opposed it. I agreed with it. I was lacking a way to back it up with scripture. It became even more difficult with Ezekiel 16 saying that God adorned the women with jewelry. I sent you a message asking you to address this subject. You replied with a link that was addressing this subject.
I had hardly read the subject when while I was preaching on obedience reading in 1Sam15:22-23 today, it dawned on me that ever since the fall of man in the garden of Eden, a lot of things have been added upon us human beings. I found myself telling the brethren that before the fall mankind was naked and without shame. After the fall mankind needed a covering. With time it’s no longer a covering. It’s many things. It’s fancy clothes, jewelry, make-up, tattoos, earrings all over one’s body and so on and so forth.
I said to them, it’s God’s permissive will (Romans 1:18-32). Cain knew exactly what God wanted. But like Saul, he did what he preferred as excellent. I’ll stop here. Thank you brother Phiri. God bless you.
I found this article while trying to find others that compiled Israel’s comparisons to or promises described with nature, such as the land flowing with milk and honey, etc. I’m actually having a hard time finding one.
I thought to respond to this article though as I believe it is written with human reason to justify a scriptural position. One thing of note as I began to look up scriptural references is that the KJV is being used, which is widely considered accurate given that the translator only had one copy of scripture to translate from, but when it comes to detailed study is not as good of a reference material. I’d liken it to something closer to the NLT, which can be used for illustrative purposes and simpler language, but may lose some of the more literal meaning and intent. This is evident in the first reference to Romans 8:20. More scholarly translations, even the NIV, says that creation was subjected to futility, a term that could be used in a similar way to vanity, but many people hear vanity and don’t think of being vain but of dress specifically. To broadly lump vanity then into fulfilling the law of Moses is somewhat of a misnomer.
Drawing a parallel to things God has not explicitly condemned in scripture does not make them good or bad either. As the pastor sort of points out by referencing 1 Peter 3:3, though strangely enough not 1:Peter 3:4, it is the hidden person of the heart which is precious in the sight of God. Just as strange though is leaving out the first half of verse 3, “Your adornment must not be merely the external—braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on apparel.” If as a body of Christ we are being taught that our adorning should be more than what we wear or how we beautify ourselves, then surely this passage is not speaking of subtraction.
I think the overarching thought of the article is that we are to put God first and that vanity should not get in the way of that, but vanity is not the same as valuing beauty, it’s what priority it is given and how it either exemplifies or diminishes one’s character.
The interpretation of Genesis 35 is also a stretch and seems to point to a bias to make a point. God told Jacob and co to remove the foreign gods among them, purify themselves, and change their garments and to go to Bethel to make an altar. First of all, they removed all the garments they were wearing, accessories included, which hardly seems like it needs additional exegesis. 2nd of all, if they removed them, even though they were not graven images, it’s possible those accessories were tied to them in some way.
The presentation of Ezekiel is also wildly inappropriate. This chapter describes God coming across a bloodied Israel that he took in so that it could live fully. He restored until it “grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine jewelry, your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.” (v. 7b) The first half of this chapter is God nurturing Israel and treating it as a man would treasure a woman that he values. The article asks what resulted from this beauty of Israel, but that is the wrong question, and one which verse 15 doesn’t even answer. The question should be, “What did Israel do with these gifts from God?” Only then does verse 15’s statement apply that Israel trusted in its beauty. It took the purity of the gift of its beauty and squandered it, rebelling against God and turning the gifts into something self-serving.
Overall I’d say this article seems to be using scripture for either a personal sentiment or struggles to define exactly how to interact with what kind of instruction to give to women, whose beauty is God-breathed but is left for us to interact with in our fallen state. There is no reason to attack something as trivial as earrings in this way.