Saturday, September 12, 2020

Leviticus 6:8-13 comments: of breeches and eternal flames

 

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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