The Biblical Case for the Beard, Part 2

A Sermon,

Preached on the Second Day

In

SANTA ANNA

May 26, 2008

Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. (Lev 19:27)

Near the close of the last part, I said that, for the true Christian, obedience is not something that is open to debate, and obeying the Word of God is not simply another lifestyle choice. I said that in this world today, when so many professing Christians have fallen so far from any knowledge of Biblical truth, that for a man to grow a beard for conscience and for obedience sake is nothing less than a revolutionary act. That obedience should be considered revolutionary is less a commentary on the quality or merits of true Christians as it is a commentary on how far professing Christendom has fallen from the truth faith once delivered unto the saints.

Having shown the blatantness of the command, and having given a historical foundation and context for the wearing of the beard, and having shown the origins and pagan nature of the shaving of the beard, we will now move forward in answering objections raised against the obligation in the commandment.

First let us note the unequivocal nature of the commandment. Here we have Moses, speaking to the Israelite people concerning their holiness. Note the introduction to the 19^th Chapter:

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God” (Lev 19:1-4).

Please note that Moses is speaking to all of the people, to the whole congregation. He is speaking to them about holiness (separation from the world around them), and he is giving them instructions about how to live. Note that he is NOT speaking to the priests particularly here, but to the people. Let's do a quick review of the instructions in this chapter. I think you will agree that all of these commandments are MORAL and not ceremonial:

1. Obey and honor your parents and keep the Lord's Sabbaths (19:3).

2. Do not worship or make idols (19:4)

3. Voluntary peace offerings should be made according to the will, and not by obligation. Such peace offerings ought to be killed during the day, and the meat (after the fat and the best parts had been given to be offered) ought to be eaten on the day they are killed, or the next day, but never on the third day. If they are eaten on the third day, they are not accepted of the Lord. (This was a sign of grace, and a reminder that salvation is of grace and not of works. This was also because corruption and spoiling would have begun by the third day, thus the meat would not have been safe to eat then. This instruction is not ceremonial in nature, because it is covered in its proper place in the instructions to the priests and to the people. Here the instruction is included in a chapter of overall instructions for right and holy living (19:5-8).

4. When a harvest is made of a field or vineyard, 100% of the crop should not be harvested. Some should be left so that the poor may glean from the harvest. Generally with a grain crop, the corners of the crop were left to be gleaned by the poor (19:9-10).

5. You should not steal, defraud, or lie to one another (19:11).

6. You should not swear falsely by the Lord's name, or do any thing that would profane or reflect negatively on the name and authority of the Lord God (19:12).

7. You should not defraud or cheat your neighbor. If you hire a man to work, you should pay him immediately and not hold his wages without his consent. Gill comments that unless a man agrees to be paid by the week, or by the month or year, then he should be paid daily for his work (19:13).

8. You should not curse the deaf or put a stumblingblock before the blind, but you should fear the Lord God. This is generally understood to mean (also) that you should not curse or speak ill of him who is not there to hear it and defend himself, nor should you do harm or plot against him who is not there to see what you are doing (19:14).

9. You should judge righteously. You should not treat the poor differently than you would treat the rich. You should always judge righteous judgment (19:15).

10. You should not gossip, or tell false tales. You should never stand as a witness falsely against your neighbor, especially you should not witness against him in a case where his life is at stake – unless you are certain that you are not going to be guilty of his blood (19:16).

11. You should not hate your brother in your heart, and you should rebuke your neighbor privately if he is in sin, that he might not suffer for that sin absent the rebuke (19:17).

12. You should not take revenge against any of your own people, nor hold any of their offenses against them in your heart, but you should love your neighbor as yourself (19:18).

13. You should keep all of God's statutes and ordinances. You should not let your cattle blend with other breeds of cattle (they should remain purebred). You should not sow your field with different kinds of seed. You should not wear garments of mixed materials. All of these were types of the necessity of SEPARATION and were understood to be that by all of the early Church. This meant that all sorts of hybridization, miscegenation, and mixing of any kind were unlawful. The children of God also were not to mix with the children of the world, nor to intermarry with them, nor to have any fellowship or communion with them (19:19).

14. If anyone was to lie unlawfully with a bondwoman who is betrothed but not yet given (by her master) to a man nor given her freedom, she is to be beaten and scourged but not killed – which would normally be the case according to the law if she were married or given to a man. Since she is not free, she belongs to her master and therefore should not be killed. The man who commits this sin shall bring the trespass offering to the priests where it is to be offered to the Lord, and then his sin shall be forgiven him (19:20-22).

15. When you move onto new land, and you plant all manner of trees for food, you should not eat of the produce from the trees for the first three years. During this time, the fruit or produce from the trees is considered “unclean”. In the fourth year, all of the produce (100%) is to be taken as the “firstfruits” and offered to the Lord (this is a part of the Levitical sacrifice, and is abrogated), and only in the fifth year are you to eat from your trees, or the fourth year post-sacrifice (19:23-25).

16. You shall not eat anything with the blood in it, neither should you use enchantment or witchcraft, neither should you observe times. The observing of times meant the use of superstition, or superstitious adherence to times, dates, false “holy days”, etc. (19:26).

17. You should not round the corners of your heads, nor mar the corners of your beard (19:27).

18. You should not make any marks in your flesh for the dead, nor should you print any marks upon yourself, such as tattoos, etc. (19:28).

19. Do not prostitute your daughter or make her to be a whore, lest the whole land be given over to whoredom and be full of wickedness (19:29).

20. You should keep the Lord's sabbaths, and have reverence for His sanctuary (which would be His dwelling place (19:30).

21. Look or turn not to them that have familiar spirits, do not seek them out or give them any credence. Do not seek out wizards, because by them you will be defiled, and we only have one God, the Lord God (19:31).

22. You should stand up when an elder or wiser man enters the room or approaches, and show honor to those (in the congregation) who have reached an old age, and fear God. It is the Great I AM That commands you to do so (19:32).

23. If a stranger (a foreigner) resides in your land, you should not vex him or be evil or mean towards him (19:33).

24. But those foreigners that live among you as one of you should be accepted by you as one of yourselves. Be kind to them because you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt (19:34).

25. You shall do no unrighteousness by way of measurements, by cheating in height, depth, width, weight, or any other measure (19:35).

26. You should have just weights and measures, a just measure of dry goods, and a just measure of liquids (19:36).

27. Therefore you should observe and keep all of the Lords statues, rules, regulations, commandments, and obligations – to do them properly (19:37).

Ok, so you can see from this that these are laws of morality and of right living. These are not, then, ceremonial or sacrificial laws, which were all done away with the Levitical priesthood, and with the carnal sacrifice, and with the Temple worship. These laws, commonly called MORAL laws, are to be kept in perpetuity because they are the commandments of God for right living. They all represent how God would have His children to live separately from the rest of the world. By observing and keeping these laws, the children of Israel would show themselves to be a peculiar nation unto God, and that they love the One, True God of the Bible.

You will also note that the commandment concerning the beard - that it is not to be shaved off or unduly trimmed (it should not be trimmed for cosmetic reasons) - is nestled here among these other laws concerning the holiness and separation of Israel. The law exists to cause Israel to be different and separate from the pagans and the nation around about them.

So now let us look to the most common objections made against this commandment of God that all righteous and Godly men should keep a full beard. I will offer a reply to each objection after I have listed the most common objections. The first two apply to the category of “non-Biblical objections”. I have explained the proper nature and response to these in more depth in my sermon series on the woman's headcovering:

1. Some will say that to have a long and full beard today is not practical, nor is it seemly. The world does not approve of the long, untrimmed beard, and therefore people will not accept it and “evangelism” will be harmed.

2. Some will say that growing of the beard draws attention, which is not good, and that it becomes difficult for the bearded man to find work, or to keep a job, etc.

3. The most common objection is that which we have already addressed. Many (in fact most) modern professing “Christians” believe that anything in the Old Testament does not apply to them. They will say that keeping the Old Testament law is “legalism”. They will make no attempt, as did the early Church, or all of the Church throughout the ages up until a very short time ago, to delineate between the ceremonial or sacrificial law, and that law which is called MORAL and thus is applicable to all people at all times.

4. Some will argue that the obligation concerning the male beard applied only to physical Israel, and not to the Church, which is exempted from any laws not given to the Gentiles outside of Israel.

5. Some will argue that the law concerning the beard applied only to the priests, and therefore does not apply today; or that, even if the law did apply to the layman, it was ceremonial in nature, and not moral.

These objections will cover almost all of those which are most likely to be heard. Here, then, are my responses to these objections. As I have mentioned, the first two objections are the non-Biblical objections. They are generally to be rejected out-of-hand because they appeal to the carnal flesh, and to comfort, approval by the world, etc. for their weight.

1. To say that having a beard is “unpractical”, “unseemly”, or that it hurts evangelism, is to say that no man will be attracted to Christ by an exhibition of Christ's character. As we have seen in the Christophanies in the Old Testament (particularly in Isaiah), and by way of histories, Jesus Christ wore a full and untrimmed beard. This beard was plucked out by his enemies in order to shame him (Isaiah 50:6-7). The adherent to this argument, then, would have to believe that Christ Himself is a detriment to evangelism, and that obedience to His Word actually harms the message of Christ. This is patently ridiculous. We do believe that true Christianity is quite different, and in most ways opposed, to modern apostate “Christianity”, but we do not believe for one second that obedience to God is any hindrance at all to true and Biblical evangelism.

2. To the argument that the beard makes one a gazingstock, and that it draws unwanted attention, or that it hinders a man in finding work, we must most vehemently agree with the first proposition, and just as vehemently disagree with the second. First, that a man is made a gazingstock when he keeps a full beard, we wholeheartedly agree. In an apostate world, we can expect that the obedient man will likely stand out. While most of the men of the world grow more and more effeminate and woman-like as the days go by, we must agree that to maintain the outwards symbols of masculinity, and to wear an outward sign of obedience to the commandments of God, and to openly rebuke and refute the modernist apostate system, will certainly draw attention. It is for this reason God Himself has said that those who obey Him will be a gazingstock (Heb. 10:33), and will be reviled by the world. We do completely disagree, though, that the beard is any hindrance to the obedient man. While it is true that a full and Biblical beard is likely to keep the honest Christian man from working in dishonest, industrial, corporate, or commercial work – we believe that it is definitely in the Christian man's interest NOT to work in these fields. Rather, a Christian man ought to live peaceably, work with his hands, and, when he is forced by circumstances to work for others, to seek honest labor for an honest wage. We are certain, though, because of our belief in the absolute sovereignty of God, that if we seek first the Kingdom of God, all things that are necessary for us will be added to us, according to God's riches in glory.

3. To the argument that all of the Old Testament is done away in the Christian dispensation, and that all of these laws are all “Old Testament laws” which the Christian is under no obligation to keep or obey, we must humbly disagree. In these moral laws we find a dissertation on how we are to be obedient to Christ's royal law. In them we find the directions on how we are to love one another, and how we are to love God. Christ commanded us to love one another, and to love the Lord our God... well, we show that we love our neighbor when we do him justice, when we seek his good, when we do not steal from him or lie about him. We show that we love our neighbor when we leave a portion of our crops to be gleaned by the poor, and when we obey God's commandments concerning how we are to justly treat both our brethren, and the stranger who lives among us. We show that we love God when we do not have, make, keep, or worship, idols. We show that we love God when we obey His statutes, and when we do that which He has commanded. We show that we love God when we keep ourselves Holy for Him, and when we are kept Holy by His power. Separation, then, and all the Godly signs of separation, are God's way of signing His own name upon His elect. The argument that, because Christ came and died, that it is acceptable to murder, or to dishonor parents, or to keep all of our harvest for ourselves, or to neglect the sabbath, or to bear false witness against our brother, or to deal unjustly with a neighbor, or to curse the deaf, or to lay a stumblingblock in the way of the blind, or gossip or tell false tales, or to hate your brother in your heart, or to take revenge against him, or to prostitute your daughter, or to seek out wizards and enchanters, etc... to argue that these things are all now permissible, is just a stupid and ridiculous argument. If the argument is made that a man need not wear a beard, and that it is acceptable for him to shave his face – because all of these Old Testament requirements are done away in Christ, then the adherent of this position is claiming that Christ came in order to multiply offenses, and to create monsters instead of disciples, an argument to which Paul said – God forbid! If we confess that Christ came to make disciples, and that the word “disciples” means “disciplined ones”, then we must admit that there are rules of behavior for them who bear the name of Christ, and that by obeying Him, we show that we are His.

4. For those that argue that these laws only apply to physical Israel, would they advocate a system of Gentile religion that allows men to cheat and to steal? To bear false witness? Just go down these lists of laws and ask yourself what system of religion would possibly throw all of these out? How wicked a system would that be? Would the adherent to this argument say that the Christianity that they espouse is “moral”, when it allows all of these moral laws to exist for physical Israel, but abrogates them for Spiritual Israel? Would it be right to call the Church “spiritual” if it advocates the violation of these spiritual ordinances?

5. Some argue that the laws mentioned here in Leviticus the 19^th chapter apply only to the priests, or that they applied only to the ceremonial law. Well, we have already shown that this is not the case. In fact, only in two places in this chapter is there even any crossover to the sacrificial element of the law, and those places are only where there is a moral element to the sacrificial law. We know that this section is not given to the priests because the introduction is addressed “to the Children of Israel”. Moreover, we see that in Chapter 21, a chapter that is specifically addressed to the priests, this same commandment is given particularly to the priests: “They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh” (Lev 21:5). So it cannot be that the 19^th Chapter, which is specifically given to all of Israel, is to be directed to the priests alone, when in a later chapter, addressed to the priests, the commandment is given separately to them. The laws given here in Leviticus the 19^th chapter are MORAL and not ceremonial or sacrificial. In the two areas where the moral discussion deals with the children of Israel as they intersect with the Sacrificial law, the Church has held that that which is moral is to be kept and obeyed in perpetuity, and that which is sacrificial or ceremonial is to be abrogated and is done away in Christ.

So we are left with this... are we to be obedient to the moral laws of God – those laws which are timeless, which reflect the goodness and character of God – or are we to follow the pied-pipers of religious modernism, syncretism, and worldliness into the abyss of damnation and judgment? Certainly a fair and honest reading of the 19^th Chapter of Leviticus ought to ring in the hearts of God's true children as a challenge for upright and moral behavior. Certainly a fair and honest reading of this Chapter ought to challenge us to honor and reverence our elderly and our wise, to rightly treat our neighbors, to honestly and uprightly deal with our brethren, and to honorably and rightly obey and reverence our fathers and mothers. Certainly a fair and honest reading of the 19^th Chapter of Leviticus would lead us to be better Christians, more perfectly separated from the wicked world around us. Certainly a fair and honest reading of the 19^th Chapter of Leviticus, if the Lord will lead us to obey the commandments that are given us here, would lead us to walk closer with a Holy and Righteous savior. Growing a beard will not make us righteous, but when a righteous man obeys his Creator God, that God is glorified by it. Growing a beard will not make a man wise, worthy, or saved. But when a wise, saved man grows a beard in order to obey and honor a worthy Saviour, that worthy Savior is glorified thereby.

I pray that we all will grow more willing, day by day, to obey such a Good Savior – our Jesus Christ – who has so benefited us by His Word, and by His sacrifice on our behalf. May we each grow more willing, and may we each die to our old carnal self more and more each day.

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

 
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