I just want to take this little bit at a time. That way the words will really sink in. So when ever I read something from the bible during a study, I ask myself "What does this really mean." So what does it mean to be worth more than jewels? Well, clearly jewels are very valuable but lets see how valuable they are back then. The bible seems to mention the word Jewels 15 times. I looked at all these verses and these are the ideas that came from most of them:
-honor the lord with your wealth
-Jewels are compared with wisdom in the Proverbs a couple of times
-proverbs 3:13-18 is that mother talking again to her son, telling him about wisdom being "her" and jewels could never compare
-Song of Solomon talks about physical beauty of a woman in relation to jewels and at times about the passion he has for his wife; He speaks passionately about the jewels which adorn her (now, she is not actually wearing anything at all...he's talking about her pure beauty to him)
-Zachariah compares the Lords people to jewels.
-Then we come to the negative verses about jewels fading away, a symbol of sexual immorality in revelation, they will one day be worth nothing at all.
So there are two very different sides to the passages on Jewels. One is talking comparing us to jewels and the other talking about jewels will parish but we will not. So clearly, when comparing a wife to jewels, it's pretty big. She's pretty important and cherished. And because of this, her husband loves her so much. The heart of her husband trusts her.
I think of the story of Ester a lot when I think about the relationship between a husband and wife. Xerxes or King Ahasuerus made his first wife Vashti, leave because she made him look like a fool in front of pretty well the kingdom. So the King was in search for another queen. Esther happened to make the cut but not just because of her beauty; because she strove to please the king. It says, the women adorned themselves in all the kings jewels as they could keep what they took but Esther, she wore what Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the ladies, suggested what the king would like in Esther 2. Esther, not even his wife yet, submitted herself and adorned herself to what would please her future husband. So that's before she's married to him. Now to the good juicy part of the story:
So Haman convinces the King that the Jews need to be slaughtered all over the land and it is pretty much up to Esther to stop this massacre from happening. It is really a perfect example of submission. Submission isn't having a man rule over you as a wife. It doesn't mean you have no authority as a wife. It doesn't mean you have to be kept silent in your home because what ever the husband says goes. This is so often the misconception, that women become voiceless when people hear that word SUBMIT!!!! It's not that at all. Read Esther if you don't know the story. Does she keep silent? By no means! She actually bursts into the royal place where the King and other men of authority in the country were meeting. Her act of submission was that, she knew she had the heart of her King. She knew that "...and husbands love your wives like Christ loves the church" was true (even though they didn't have that particular scripture back then but what is true of God in the beginning is true now and will continue to be as well) She knew her husband loved her like crazy. She also knew that he would listen to what she had to say because why would a wife say something if she didn't really mean it?
I used to argue with Dan about everything. All the little details of the day; like many women, if things didn't go in the way I had expected them to, then I would say a little quip or make a fuss or change my attitude into something negative, setting the mood for the whole family. I decided one day after reading a chapter in "Created to be his help meet by Debi Pearl", to only say things that I really wanted to deal with. To this day the only time I will bring something "confrontational" up is when I really feel like it needs to be addressed. I'm not going to bring up petty things that won't bring glory to God or honor to my husband anymore because I know what it does. It creates unnecessary conflict for the sake of me being right. Now he know; Amy must mean what she's saying because she only says things that are truly important. So I think in some cases when it might sound petty, he asks himself "why is she saying that if she doesn't just always spew what's on her mind". I know I can trust my husband will listen to my requests because I'm not flippant with what I ask him. He loves me all the more because of it because there are no arguments any more.
This is what Esther was doing. He husband had so much confidence in her and trust in what she was saying that he could say to himself "she's not just bursting into this meeting for no good reason. There must be a good reason for this outburst and because she was bold enough to do that" he says "I will give you anything my queen, to you and half the kingdom."
She is more precious than jewels.
Wow, all that for 2 lines of scripture! What a rant. But it was great to write about.
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