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Are You Wearing God's Jewelry Or The Devil's?

When you think of a chain, what immediately comes to mind?
An image of Beauty or Bondage?
Let's look into the Scriptures and see how the Word of God deals with this topic of interest.

Proverbs 1:9 - "For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck."

In the Israelites' mind, a gold chain around one's neck was considered to be the highest badge of honor.

In this particular verse, Solomon reserves this honor for the child who respects, obeys, observes, and lives up to the commands and godly instruction of his parents.

Here we get a clear-cut view of the great price that God places on children honoring and obeying the commands of their parents. When they do, the Lord God places a "chain" of honor about their necks. In other words, He dresses them with His grace and divine favor, distinguishing them from all others as being very special indeed.

Psalm 2:3 - "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."

In this particular situation, we see a group of rebels who consider any restraints on their lustful and licentious lifestyles to be likened unto "chains" of great bondage.

This Psalm is referring to those who refuse to come under the government of the Messiah. They do not want to come under His rule; they want to set up their own dominion over the world.

God's Law is pictured here in two ways.
First of all, it is compared to the yoke placed on the oxen in plowing and referred to as "bands."
Secondly, it is likened to "cords" - the twisted ropes which bind the oxen to the plow.

Both images reflect the concept of a willing service or submission to another.

These rebels do not look at the Law of God as an instrument of liberty. Rather they have been perverted in their thinking by demonic forces to believe that any form of restraint or authority is a "chain" that only binds and inhibits.

2 Corinthians 3:17 - They are certainly not familiar with the Scripture that states - "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

God is the Master Deliverer. He liberates men through His Law.
Satan is the Bondage Maker. He brings mankind into Bondage through their so-called sinful liberties.

How do you look upon the "bands" and "cords" of God's restraints and commands over your life? Do you consider them as an elegant "Chain of Beauty" or a "Chain of Slavery"?

Ecclesiastes 7:26 - "And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her."

What a graphic picture is presented here of the adulterous woman! Her "hands as bands" are compared to "chains." In her warm and fond embrace, she entangles or wraps her victim's emotions and affections in "chains of darkness." She entices him with the bait of pleasure and leads him down the path to Hell. Nothing is more ruinous and dangerous to a man's soul than her subtlety and enticements.

The only way to escape her "chains," "snares," "nets," and cunning, emotional games is to walk holily, blamelessly, and soberly in this present evil world, while keeping the body and its passions and affections under absolute control to the Word of God.

Isaiah 58:6 - "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?"

Injustice is a "chain" that God hates.

In this verse, we see that He didn't accept any "fast" from His people that did not first of all deal with any and all oppression of their fellow man.
All mistreatment or violence had to be done away with.
All unjust ties had to be loosed.
All yokes of slavery had to be undone.
And all oppression had to cease.

The only "fast" that the Lord God did recognize was the one that brought liberty to those who were broken down and subjected to harsh treatment. Those "chains" of oppression had to be broken before they would ever be received back into God's Favor once again.

Psalm 116:16 - "O LORD, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds."

Here Death is pictured as a "prison" with pain and disease being its "chains" or "bonds."

David was exuberant at the freedom he felt. He once was bound, but now he was free. He once was fettered by the "sorrows of death," but Jesus set him free.

He could not help but totally surrender his all-in-all to the Lord in gratitude for his deliverance. God's mercies toward him caused him to outrightly and boldly declare - "O LORD, I am Thy servant..."

Have you ever neared Death's Prison? Have you been fettered by its "chains" of disease and pain, only to have Jesus set you free? Do you join in with David in unreservedly confessing that you are God's servant - ready to do His Will?

As we have already seen, there are chains which are honorable and chains which are dishonorable. There are those which reward and those which bind. Some are of man's own making, while others are conjured up by Hell itself.

In the following Scriptures, however, we see that God also has "chains" which typify His judgment falling upon the evildoer.

Isaiah 28:22 - "Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth."

This group of people whom the Prophet Isaiah was addressing were "mockers." In the midst of a foreboding threat of God's fiery judgment, they continued onward in their ridicule and mockery of the messengers of the Lord. They made fun of any and all reproofs from God's Word as well as any divine warnings.

Given a space to repent, if they did not turn from their prevailing sin of mockery, God threatened to send a "consumption." He also warned them that their "chains" - "bands" - or judgments would grow more severe.

Lamentations 3:7 - "He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: He hath made my chain heavy."

Here is another illustration of the Judgment of God being likened to "chains" - heavy "chains."

Jerusalem was in a very oppressed and distressed state. The city was surrounded on every side by enemy troops. There was no possible way of escape. Like hard-core criminals, God's people were loaded down with "heavy chains" of oppression.

Jude 1:6 - "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

Lastly, we see a picture here of the fallen angels who forfeited their original rank and dignity as angels in heaven. As a result of their rebellion against the Almighty, they were destined to "everlasting chains" under the fiery judgment of God. They wait in "darkness" or dark prison-like cells for the final judgment when their eternal doom will be given.

The question we must ask ourselves today is - Whose jewelry are we wearing?
Are we wearing the "gold chain," typifying God's approval on our lives?
Or are we wearing the "chain" of the devil that brings our souls into slavery and ultimate spiritual ruin as a result of our Sin - adultery, the sin of mistreating our neighbor, etc. ?

If we are wearing God's "chain," is it one that is honorable or dishonorable?
Is it one that we are receiving because of our obedience to the Law, or one that we wear because we are "mockers" of any words of restraint or correction and resultantly, find ourselves under the judgment of God?

God has a "chain" for you today.
So does the devil.

Whose are you going to wear?



May God Bless His Word.
Connie

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