A Necklace or a Tattoo?
So Proverbs is a book of wisdom poured out mid-way through the Old Testament; the twentieth book of thirty-nine. It has tons of poetry and interesting images, metaphors, and commands. I’m an English teacher. I can totally rock out on this stuff (someone’s got to, right?) So check out this gem.
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” Proverbs 3:3
The first thing I notice is that the author says to not let love and faithfulness leave – interesting since they are simple nouns that are not human, so how can they take an action like leaving? It sounds like instead of them leaving us, we are the guardians of love and faithfulness as sensitive objects, and we’ve been charged with their welfare. Relationships thrive through love and faithfulness.
Next, this verse provides two powerful images. One is of a well-fastened necklace of love and faithfulness; I imagine it as a two-sided pendant. Love is on one side and faithfulness on the other. But even with a good clasp, necklaces fall off. The necklace is often tugged, which can weaken links, or in moments of duress, we may even pull the necklace off and discard it. The image of a necklace and it’s hanging around our neck, close to both our mind and heart, is both beautiful and powerful. However, this verse offers a second image for the importance of caring for love and faithfulness.
The second image is writing it on our hearts. Tablets are mentioned at other times in the Bible (see Exodus 31:18 and Exodus 34:1). They both involve God and Moses as God was giving the Ten Commandments to the nation of Israel. These are probably the two most famous sets of tablets ever. Tablets of paper and electronic tablets cannot be the reference here as both are not invented until WAY after the writing of Proverbs. Here the heart is synonymous with a tablet. Writing on a tablet is like engraving or chiseling. Both of those require applied force, clear direction and sometimes repeated goings over. The writing would be permanent – a tattoo of God’s direction on our hearts. That’s beautiful.
God isn’t asking us to guard things that are not already echoes of who He is. The psalmist explains that here.
“Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” Psalm 36:5
In this image, the love and faithfulness of God towards us is unmeasurable – they go higher than we can see or imagine. It’s no wonder that the wisdom of protecting love and faithfulness is provided in two clear images in Proverbs 3:3. Whether we wear love and faithfulness around our neck or write love and faithfulness on our hearts (and the verse commands we do BOTH!) we are bound to impact God’s kingdom in huge ways!
