Why did Jacob ask his family to give up their jewelry before dedication at Bethel?

Looks like this isn't going to be an active thread.

Daryl,

Well, maybe it won't be a hot button issue, but I do have something to say about this.

I think the whole issue boils down to the influence jewelry has on those around us, an influence that we may not be aware of. Let me illustrate with a story.

Some years ago I took a class in masonry it a local community college. In the class we were assigned to a partner for our activity part of the class that was to be done in the work yard. I took the class thinking that someday I might be able to use the skills around my home, but I soon figured out that I was no mason. Still, I stayed with the class and finished it.

The partner I was assigned to was a fellow by the name of Saul. I never knew his last name, but I really like him. He was an older fellow and a lot of fun to be around in that he was a kindly fellow and also full of good humor that we all enjoyed.

One day I was talking to Saul as we were working in the activity yard and I happened to mention that I have a cousin who teaches in the medical school at Loma Linda University. This brought a most interesting story out of Saul. Now as I relate to you the story he told me, do bear in mind that Saul was a nominal Catholic so far as I know. Here is the story he told me.

Some years before Saul had been a member of a nudist club located in the hills somewhere to the south of Loma Linda University. As it happens, one day one of their club members was injured somehow (he did not tell me the exact nature of the injury or how it happened), and so much injury occurred that they felt that if they waited for an ambulance to come get him to take him to a hospital, he would die before it got there. So, a group of them grabbed their friend and put him in a car and they headed to the emergency room at Loma Linda University Medical Center. When they got there, all of them carried their friend into the emergency room and handed him over to the doctors there to save his life. I don't recall whether he told me just how long they waited, but I got the impression that they waited until their friend was out of danger and then they left and returned to their nudist club facility.

Now, here is where things got very interesting to me as he was relating the story to me. He told me that after they left, they talked among themselves about the experience they had at the medical center at Loma Linda. They had all arrived wearing their birthday suits as they came into the emergency room. They expected to receive a very negative reception because of their condition, and yet, he said that they were extremely well treated. They wondered among themselves about the excellent, respectful treatment they received in spite of their lack of clothing. As they discussed this among themselves, they appreciated the good treatment, but they could not understand it. After puzzling over this for a while, they finally settled on a reason as to why they thought they had been so well treated.

What he said next really shocked and amazed me and I have never forgotten it. I also do not understand it, but here is what he said. They decided that the reason they had all been treated so well was that none of the people working in the hospital were wearing jewelry!! They had indeed noticed the lack of jewelry AND they somehow, for reasons I cannot fathom, they connected this with the treatment they received. To this day I do not know why they connected their treatment with the lack of jewelry on the workers, but that is the truth of what he told me. To me it makes no sense. But there it is.

After the class was finished at the end of the semester, Saul later took a job at a local hardware store and I sometimes ran into him when I went shopping there. I often enjoyed visiting with him for a few moments when I went there and I always forgot to ask him about that incident and learn more about their reasoning behind their thinking that day. Sadly, a few years later he was missing from the store and when I asked about him, they told me that he had passed away from cancer. I wish I had known and could have visited with him one more time before he passed away, but it was too late.

But this story illustrates that even things as simple as lacking jewelry on a person does convey something to those around us. And conversely, one can logically conclude that wearing it conveys a message to those around us. People may react to things about us in ways that we cannot possibly understand, and it may have an influence that we cannot possibly fathom, but just the same, that influence is there and we cannot avoid it.

And just maybe that is why Jacob asked them to remove it. Not that wearing pretty things is always wrong, but having jewelry on us may convey a message that we belong to the world and its ways of thinking and acting, which is something that God wants us not to be. His family was wearing these type of things, so maybe it spoke to those around them and to God about their commitment to him. Jacob wanted them to make a full commitment to God. Removing the jewelry was a part of making that commitment.

Something to think about. Right?

Adornment, logos, titles, all say look at me - symbols of pride & covetousness.
But Godly sobriety, discretion, kindness - are symbols of self sacrifice, of Jesus, Who can be trusted.
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My father told me an interesting story years ago. I do not recall all the details, but here is what I do recall.

There was a man in the community whose wife was an Adventist and he was thinking about joining the church. Well, time went on and he came down with cancer. The church pastor with the elders and deacons were all called to pray for his healing, my father being among them (he was not the pastor). They prayed and anointed him and my father said that immediately normal color came back into his skin, which had been a deathly color before. Then after this happened, the pastor told this man that if he really wished to have life with Jesus, he needed to take the ring off his finger. He thought for a few seconds and then answered, "NO!" My father said that as soon as he said that, the normal color in this man's skin immediately drained away from his skin and the deathly color that had been there before came back. He died 2 days later.

My father always thought that if the man had said yes, he would not have died from the cancer. Based on what he told me, I think his conclusion was correct. We either hand all over to God or we don't. That may be hard to swallow, but with God its the only way.

When I was a missionary in Africa I recall a certain African church member wondering why male SDA missionaries wore shirts with colorful ties, golden tie clasps and cuff links, gold watches, preaching vigorously that African females could not wear anything that looked like gold.

Did she have a point?

I understand that the Amish will not wear buttons on their clothes because buttons are ornaments that attract attention.

Where is the "golden" line?

Yes Wendell, too often we are presumptuous & churlish in the face of God's life-saving miracles & mercy.

Give us quail!

_____________________

Adventists could learn a lot from their humble African brethren,
and from the Amish.

____________________

I once attempted to do some literature work in Amish territory in Michigan. It seemed like our Bible Story was way too modern for their taste.

They were very kind and willing to help me get some cheap gas for the car since I was doing missionary work.