Is Bling Bad?

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Ex 33:5 For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.'" 6 So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

 

Take off your ornaments? What is bling bad?

 

The Israelites are about to break camp on their initial excursion to the Promised Land, but God has told them they have a problem. They are a stiff-necked people, which is another way of saying they are proud.

 

Pride needs to be dealt with in our relationship with God! He tells the people that He will not do anything concerning them until they remove their jewelry. Jewelry must be bad then, right?

 

Wrong

 

It’s pride that’s bad, and the removal of the jewelry was only an outward showing of an inward necessity concerning their relationship with God ….namely humility.

 

There was to be no “self-adornment” on this journey to the Promised land. No hint of pride. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

 

This removal of articles of self-adornment is the same reminder we get in 1Pe 3:3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward--arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel--

 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

 

So it’s okay to have bling, but true bling that brings glory to God, shines from the inside of a humble spirit.

 

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word