Customs And Morality
- Genesis 24:22, 47 records that Rebekah received a nose ring as part of a customary marriage gift, illustrating that nose rings were an accepted symbol of beauty and honor in ancient Israel.
- Other Old Testament passages also associate nose rings with beauty and blessing, such as Ezekiel 16:12, where God describes adorning Jerusalem with a nose ring as part of a picture of splendor and favor.
- However, nose rings could also symbolize conquest and subjugation; in Isaiah 37:29 (cf. 2 Kings 19:28), God declares that He will put a hook in the nose of the Assyrian king and lead him away, using nose imagery as a symbol of control and servitude.
- These examples show that the Bible records cultural customs and symbols without necessarily making them moral commands for all believers.
- Careful Bible study helps Christians distinguish between ancient customs that reflected a particular culture and God's moral law, which remains binding on His people.
Gospel Over Tradition
- Scripture demonstrates how easily people can transfer spiritual significance from God to the symbols, customs, and traditions associated with His work.
- In Numbers 21:8-9, God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent so that those who looked upon it in faith would be healed from the deadly snake bites sent among the Israelites.
- The power was never in the bronze serpent itself but in God's mercy and the faith of those who obeyed His word. Yet nearly 700 years later, during the reign of Hezekiah, the people had turned that symbol into an object of worship, burning incense to it until Hezekiah finally destroyed it. — 2 Kings 18:4
- This serves as a warning that religious objects, traditions, and customs can become idols when people attribute spiritual power to them rather than to God.
- The bronze serpent was intended to point people to God's saving power, just as Jesus later taught that it foreshadowed His own lifting up on the cross. — John 3:14-15
- True salvation is not found in preserving ancient traditions or venerating religious symbols, but in faith in Christ Jesus, who alone has the power to save.
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