To Beard or Not To Beard... To Shave or Not To Shave...

After watching a Youtube video about beards, I have to say that as a man that wears a beard, I have to disagree with what was stated and done in this video. I have decided not to name the person who put this video together, but it can be found on Youtube and has two men trying to teach Biblically why men should have a beard and why they shouldn't shave or trim it. What I saw in this video was men who have turned their beard into an idol. You could see the pride all over their faces and in their talk about it, and this is very wrong. A whole lot of attention given to a beard instead of our Heavenly Father, Yahweh! Concerning the reference to 2 Samuel 10:4 as support for his teaching is really not adequate and doesn't consider what Torah actually says. In 2 Samuel 10:4, David's servants were publicly humiliated by Hanan because he thought that they were spies. These pagans either shaved them with a hairstyle that would have been common for an Ammonite man or shaved them in such a way that made them look rediculous and then cut off their garments to expose their buttocks and genitals. An outrageous act that would humiliate the manliest of men. When David told them to wait till their beard grew back, it was possibly so they wouldn't look like one of the Torahless pagan Ammonites when they went out to battle. The other references didn't add any truth, just a bunch of ear tickling and didn't prove anything.



If we look at the Torah, we find in Lev. 19:9-37 what is called the "Sundry Laws".. Notice the "bookends" inserted periodically within this section of Torah. "I am the Lord" or "I am the Lord your God".. or as I like to render it as "I am Yahweh" or "I am Yahweh your Elohim".. Notice at the end of verse 25 this "bookmark" is inserted and then begins a new discourse in verse 26 concerning not eating blood, practicing divination or soothsaying, rounding off the side growth of your head, the edges of your beard, cuts in the flesh and tattoo marks "for the dead". Then the "bookend" again. So, everything contained within these "bookends" pertains to the same thing. It is all about not being the same as the pagans that they walked amongst. It is about being set-apart or holy in the sight of Yahweh, not as one of the common people of the area which were Torahless Pagans. Some will argue the "bookend" position and say that the trimming of the hair or beard doesn't fall into the "for the dead" designation, however Torah doesn't leave us without a definitive answer. Deuteronomy 14:1 cannot be any clearer about this.. "You are the sons of YAHWEH your Elohim; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead." This verse should end the discussion completely! Let's see why Yahweh tells us this. In verse 2 He tells us... "For you are a holy people to YAHWEH your Elohim, and YAHWEH has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." It seems very clear to me that all of the Instructions in Torah are in opposition to the practices of the pagans. And to be a Son of Yahweh, I should obey and not be in accord with the "peoples who are on the face of the earth". I am to be peculiar and separate, especially in the areas that my Father in Heaven has shown me in His Word. Now, with all of this being said, I will agree with the statement that "if you can grow it, do it", but I think that it is clear that it is only a Sin, if we shave, trim, tattoo, cut our flesh etc. "for the dead". If we look into historical evidence, we find that these pagan practices were practiced then and even now..

Now, to be clear, I am not knocking down the act of growing a beard, because Torah also teaches a man should not be effeminate Deut. 22:5 and Shaul (Paul) speaks against it in 1 Cor. 6:9... A beard quickly delineates between male and female. The act of purposely making yourself effeminate by dressing in womens clothing or wearing your hair like a woman is really what is the problem that Torah and Paul are dealing with. If someone can't grow a beard or chooses to shave is not a sin. My problem is not with a man having a beard or shaving, but with the twisting of Scripture to make it into something that Yah never intended... An object of display, spectacle, or an idol which would draw attention to us instead of Yahweh and His Word... I just think that we shouldn't put so much time into such a potentially vain thing, instead put our energy, effort and attention into study, witness and worship... Maranatha, John Dandridge