July 28, 2015
Lasting a Lifetime
On a recent shopping trip to
the metro area I was taken aback by so many young women sales clerks covered in
tattoos, piercings and multicolored hair. If left unattended the piercings could
eventually grow back together and the hair color grow out, but tattoos last a
lifetime. I can’t help but wonder if heavily tattooed individuals won’t in some
respects be trapped in an age-type time warp and mindset that they can never outgrow.
Many of us like to reminisce with the music of our generation, but I can’t
imagine being stuck in a certain generation with permanent clothing, hairstyles
and social experimentations. “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings
about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of
repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction
about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and
eternal judgment” (Heb 6:1-2 NIV).
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Gail;
-----This is hard for us to imagine because God grows to maturity those who walk in the light living in the Lord.
“6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 discretion will watch over you;
understanding will guard you.” (Prov 2:8-11)
-----It isn’t that injecting some ink into your skin is evil. Poking holes into yourself and cutting scar patterns into yourself is a bit more problematic because of the injuries necessary to produce the results. But the Bible does not condemn scarring and piercing any worse. In fact, when twice the Bible gives the imperative to not scar and tattoo yourself, it directly specifies scarring and tattooing for the dead. Lev 10:28, “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you;” Deut 14:1, “You are the sons of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead.” The only other time the Bible forbids these is in instructions for the priests. Lev 21:5, “They shall not make tonsures upon their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.” However, this imperative is stated in the clear context of defiling themselves for the dead, “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them that none of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people.’” (Lev 21:1) It is that doing these things on account of the dead is problematic to God.
-----I wonder why. When I was a young brat, seven, eight, nine, something like that, my dad bought this pictorial history book from Time/Life called the Epic of Man. In it was a picture of some poor lady’s head all plastered over. It had been uncovered from the very ancient levels of Jericho. I used to stare and stare and stare at that head in bewilderment, “Why would folks plaster some dead head and stick it in their living room?” It was a curiosity all my life. Then, a couple years ago, I was introduced to Jasher, a very, very early written, Biblically respected Hebrew history book. It related how the people, soon after The Flood, from a little before the time of Abraham, would sacrifice a first-born, cut off the head, write the first-born’s name on a gold or copper strip, place that under it’s tongue, dry the head, plaster it over, and then place it in a niche in their house. Then whenever they were deeply perplexed or in despair about some “what to do”, they would go ask this head of their first-born, and it would advise them from beyond the grave. According to the timelines in Jasher, this was being done only a few hundred years before Moses penned these laws from God. The folks around the area in Moses’ day took this stuff seriously. They stuffed babies in clay jars and built them into the foundation corners of their homes. No wonder God told the Israelites to totally destroy the Canaanites and to not mark themselves on account of the dead.
-----Why do we want tattoos today? Or piercing? Because they are visible presentations of some effect we wish to portray? The problem is in that we portray ideas amongst one another which then take root as common thought. Maybe a small majority of those portrayed ideas should not be portrayed. God wants our portrayed ideas expressed in the kind, gentle, peaceable, honoring, and forgiving, forbearing behaviors learned from Him. He would like these to be commonly held idea. That we might want a tattoo or earring because it is pretty seems to be an unrelated matter.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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