Take off your ornaments

Exodus 33:5b So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.

This was the message God gave Moses for the children of Israel.  As I was thinking about what this meant to them, I began to see a message for me in this as well.  So what ornaments was God referring to?  It probably referred to the gold and silver the Egyptians gave to the people as they were leaving Egypt.  It sounds like the people had taken to wearing a lot of that jewelry themselves.  It represented freedom from slavery and most likely new-found wealth also.  In that day, both men and women were jewelry for appearance as well.  To take it all off meant visually talking away pride in your appearance but also taking away things that kept you tied to Egypt in a sense.  God was telling them to take away all they thought or saw as important so He could work with them in mercy and grace rather than in anger or punishment.  In that I see a powerful reminder that whatever “ornaments” I have that make me feel valuable or useful or that keep me tied to my earthly life need to take second place – to be taken off – in order for God to be able to work in me.