A chain is a very handy tool. It can be used to drag a stuck car out of the mud or drag heavy logs out of a forest.
The first mention of chains in the Bible is not about securing loads or being used in punishment. The first mention of chains in the bible is about decoration. Pharoah put a gold chain around the neck of Joseph as a token of status, power, wealth, affection or some combination of all of these. (Gen. 41:42)
Modern ships today use massive chains connected to anchors to secure themselves to the bottom of the ocean when they are not in port.
Chains are also amazing as an illustration of relationships. A chain is ALWAYS about relationships. We are connected to others who pull us and those we pull. One link does not make a chain. It is only when many individual links are combined that a “chain” is formed.
Though they have great strength to pull chains are incapable of pushing. Their influence is through following the lead of others and then pulling still others along.
Chains can also bind.
Acts 20:23 "the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.”
Acts 26:29 “And Paul said, ‘I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains."
Acts 26:31 “and when they had gone aside, they talked among themselves, saying, ‘This man is doing nothing deserving of death or chains."
Phil 1:13 “so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ;”
Col 4:3 “meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains,”
Col 4:18 “This salutation by my own hand--Paul. Remember my chains.”
- Tim Orbison