Zebra Ministries

Good morning Zebras,

After yesterday’s post I couldn’t get the Israelites and their jewelry out of my head.

I kept asking God which was true, the older commentaries or the notes at the bottom of my Bible.

Were the Israelites told not to wear jewelry for the entire duration of the journey?  Or were they allowed to put it back on and then took it off to donate to the Tabernacle?

Off, on, off or just off?  And does it really even matter?

Finally, in desperation, I asked God, “Is there anything in the New Testament comparable to the Israelites and their jewelry? Something You have told us to take off and not put back on?”  And the answer was, “The old man.”

Ephesians 4:20–24: “But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:8–10: “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

According to Paul, each one of us are told to put off the “Old Man” (or old self as it is referred to in these passages) and leave him, and all his nonsense off for the duration of our journey here on Earth, wearing instead the new creature that we are in Christ Jesus.

I love you Zebras, and I love how God will always answer when we are only seeking to hear truth.

Love,

Jill