Leviticus 6:8 ¶ And the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 9 Command
Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is
the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the
morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. 10 And the priest shall put on his linen
garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the
ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he
shall put them beside the altar. 11 And
he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the
ashes without the camp unto a clean place. 12
And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put
out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt
offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace
offerings. 13 The fire shall ever be
burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.
Let’s clear up one piece of nonsense that Fundamentalist
control-freaks are notorious for with regard to the word breeches.
Breeches were
underwear worn under the garment. As we saw back in Exodus;
Exodus 28:42 And thou
shalt make them linen breeches
to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach:
Loins and thighs are
references to the parts of the body that contains the reproductive organs and
organs of waste elimination. On the outside of the body it is the area where a
sword or dagger is hung.
Genesis 35:11 And God said
unto him, I am God Almighty: be
fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and
kings shall come out of thy loins
Song of Solomon 7:1 How
beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter! the joints of thy thighs
are like jewels, the work of
the hands of a cunning workman.
Judges 3:16 But Ehud made
him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under
his raiment upon his right thigh.
Pants wearing didn’t become common in Europe until the 8th
century AD, after the fall of the western part of the Roman Empire.[1] The
first recorded wearing of pants was for the horse-riding Scythians of the 8th
century BC. The Romans regarded wearing pants as a sign of being barbarians due
to the horse-riding hordes that constantly threatened the empire.
This verse is often used to justify the thought that women who
wear pants, pantsuits, or slacks are sinning against God or being rebellious.
Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman
shall not wear that which pertaineth
unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all
that do so are abomination unto
the LORD thy God.
Your convictions that you, ladies, or your wife, gentlemen, should
only wear a dress are fine but don’t impose them on others as a sign of
righteousness. The loose-fitting garments that all people wore at this time
would not be accepted today for Christian men. Garments specifically worn by
women are noted in the Bible.
2Samuel 13:18 And she had a garment of divers colours
upon her: for with such robes were the king’s daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her out,
and bolted the door after her.
Song of Solomon 5:3 I have
put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I
defile them?
Isaiah 3:22 The changeable
suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins,
23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and
the hoods, and the vails.
They
also wore vails for modesty at certain times.
Genesis 24:64 And Rebekah
lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. 65 For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.
Ruth 3:15 Also he said,
Bring the vail that thou hast
upon thee, and hold it. And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her: and she went into the
city.
Sometimes
they were worn by prostitutes as a sign showing their profession.
Genesis 38:13 And it was
told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his
sheep. 14 And she put her widow’s
garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and
sat in an open place, which is
by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given
unto him to wife. 15 When Judah saw her,
he thought her to be an harlot;
because she had covered her face.
They
wore headdresses and makeup depending on their status.
2Kings 9:30 ¶ And when Jehu
was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of
it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a
window.
Jeremiah 4:30 And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself
with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou
rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they
will seek thy life.
There
were things required of all.
Numbers 15:38 Speak unto
the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders
of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the
fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: 39
And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and
remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not
after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: 40 That ye may remember, and do all my
commandments, and be holy unto your God.
And
there were restrictions.
Deuteronomy 22:11 Thou
shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together. 12 Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four
quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.
My point is that there would have been distinctions between the
dress and appearance of men and women of all classes. Using underwear worn by
the priests as an article of control and domination over women in the assembly
of God’s people today strikes me as a wicked thing. How people have twisted the
Bible when they have an agenda to push is amazing. It is modesty that we must
insist upon. Skin-tight, form-fitting polyester slacks on either sex is not in
keeping with how a Christian should display themselves in the world. Modesty is
the key.
In verse 11 the ashes of the offering are carried to a clean place
as Christ’s body was laid in a new tomb unused previously.
Matthew 27:57 ¶ When the
even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also
himself was Jesus’ disciple: 58 He went
to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be
delivered. 59 And when Joseph had taken
the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had
hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre,
and departed.
Verse 13 speaks of a flame that does not go out, much like our
salvation and eventual union with Christ.The flame and passion in our hearts
for Him must never allowed to go out or the Holy Spirit be quenched as we often
say in reference to a fire being put out.
1Thessalonians 5:19 Quench not the Spirit.
Here, in this passage that would be written down sometime between
1200-1400BC we have an archetype that would be copied in many cultures and in
many religions later on. The First Persian Empire, the Achaemenid, of around
500BC had its eternal flame, the Atar, representing “divine sparks” in
Zoroastrianism. There was the sacred fire of Vesta in ancient Rome, the sacred
fire of the Celtic goddess, Brigid, in Ireland and on and on. They all came
much later, Satan’s counterfeits, as that is one of his primary vocations,
counterfeiting what God has done already.
We have an “eternal flame” burning at many monuments and
gravesites of notables in the United States, a reflection of something that God
originally put in place for a very different reason. Scholars have noted how
ancient religion was characterized by the worship and veneration of the dead.
We can understand this by how the sons of God who came to earth and lived as
men were remembered and how the heroes of history like Noah and Seth would be
remembered in the popular mind. Christian authorities like Augustine of Hippo
noted that the gods of the ancients were once heroes, perhaps the mighty men of
renown of Genesis 6. Part of ancestor and hero worship was the family’s sacred
fire to be attended and not allowed to die.[2] So, when
you think that Americans would never engage in idolatry and paganism just think
of the many so-called eternal flames we have burning to commemorate our dead
heroes.
[1] LiveScience, “Explained: Why We Wear Pants,” July 16, 2012. https://www.livescience.com/34077-wearing-pants-horse-riding.html
[2] Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (1864, repr. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006), 37.
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