wear earrings and adornments?

Reflections on Faith

"Whatsoever things are true … think on these things" (Philippians 4:8)

Question: Does Ezekiel 16:11-14 permit women to wear earrings and adornments?

Response: Dear brothers and sisters in Christ ,

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. 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” (Romans 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” (Romans 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 (Romans 7:19). 

Perfect Will of God versus Permissive Will of God. Struggling with Sin (Romans 7:¹⁸ ¹⁹ ²⁰ ;

…¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. ²⁰And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.…

Look at King David in the Bible. He had many wives. We know that God is not the author of polygamy. Polygamy was started by Lamech.  The fact that polygamy is recorded in association with Lamech's vengeful life is notable in that it characterizes it as part of a life outside of God's design. Polygamy is adultery! For “they twain shall be one flesh… they are no more twain, but one flesh” (Matthew 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 Samuel 12:8-9). Does this sentence really mean that God sanctioned the polygamous marriage of King David? How about the scripture which says God had put a lying spirit in Ahab’s prophets (2 Chronicles 18:21-22); would God lie?

[Micaiah Prophesies Against Ahab,

2 Chronicles 18:²⁰-²²…²⁰Then a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘By what means?’ asked the LORD. ²¹And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ ‘You will surely entice him and prevail,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’ ²²So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours, and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you.”… ]

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 via prophet Isaiah, He declared saying, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (Isaiah45:7)?

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 wouldn’t please 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). But would every child of God follow this same example through time? Not so. Later there was a nation of Israel which time and again would get 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 will always permit things but there are always consequences which follow. 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” (Isaiah 3:12). When Israel was in a backslidden condition, Deborah, a woman rose to lead the nation. Deborah herself knew that this was against normal order when 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” (Judges 4:8-9). The sins of Israel were many.

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).

That was in the Old Testament. But today that “which is in part” has been done away with. Christ came to restore us to that which was in the beginning. Be assured that if the family of Jacob upon conviction of the word they received from Jacob 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 paint on her lips or eyebrows!

It is the same with all those who walk in the Grace God has given us through Calvary. We have left the “shadows” of the Law behind us because the Light of God’s Truth has shined upon us. 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!

"Whatsoever things are true … think on these things" (Philippians 4:8)