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feature article...
By Michael Bunker
editor@lazarusunbound.com
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The
Biblical Case for the Beard, Part 1
A Sermon,
Preached on the
Third Day
In
SANTA ANNA
May 20, 2008
Ye shall not
round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners
of thy beard. (Lev 19:27)
When
we want to understand the root of any modern practice, it is
important that we go to the Bible and to history first. By reading
the Bible, and by understanding history, we will be able to see the
root and foundation of most modern heresies and abominations. You
can be sure that if God would have things to be one way, that modern
man (and modern religion) would have it to be another. If God would
have purity, modern man and modern religion would have depravity. If
God would have obedience, modern man and modern religion would deify
freedom. If God would have submission, man will elevate self and the
will.
In
Israel there was no bigger shame, no greater humiliation, than for a
man to be shaved. This point is inarguable. We can prove it from
the Bible, we can prove it from history, and we can prove it from
art. A shaved face was a sign to one and all that a man was unclean,
impure, and shameful. People would cross the street to avoid being
near, or having contact with, a shaved man. The commandment that a
man was not to shave was so blatant and plain in the Torah, that no
decent or honorable man would dare challenge God or the social order
in such a way purposely. Not only that, but it was considered the
ultimate in humiliation to be shaved or to be beardless. If you
wanted to insult or humiliate an Israelite, you didn't kill him or
threaten him. If you wanted to humble, frighten, or embarrass an
Israelite you didn't rape his wife, kill his son, steal his cattle,
or make him a slave. To ultimately humiliate an Israelite, you
plucked out or shaved his beard.
Wherefore
Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their
beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their
buttocks, and sent them away. When they told it unto David, he sent
to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed: and the king
said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return
(2Sa 10:4-5).
About the beards of David's servants, John Gill said Hanun “ordered
them to be shaved off; than which a greater indignity could not have
been well done to them and to David, whom they represented, since the
Israelites shaved not their beards, and were very careful of
preserving them; for had it been the custom to shave, they might have
shaved off the other half, and then they would not have appeared so
ridiculous; and with other people it has been reckoned a very great
punishment as well could be inflicted, and as great an affront as
could well be offered, to mar a man's beard, or shave it off in whole
or in part”.
..
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