Leviticus 19:27–28

They were to be holy, because the LORD was holy. Chapter 19 takes up mainly the side of good. We find what is good and kind and fitting. We find what their conduct ought to be in many details: in their relationships with one another, and in the various dangers they met in their walk, in their everyday circumstances. For they had to do with God, and the LORD was their God.

God gave hair as an ornament and a protection for the head. The Israelites were not to "round the corners of their heads." This no doubt refers to some heathen practice. Others have described one such practice as "cutting the hair in a ring away from the temples." Lev. 19:27.

The Israelites always grew their beards and valued them highly. The law forbade them to "mar the corners of their beards," Lev. 19:27... King Hanun caused a deep insult when he cut the beards of David's messengers. 2 Sam. 10:4.

God forbids not only the eating of anything with the blood. He also forbids enchantments and omen-reading, heathen ways of trimming heads and beards, cutting the flesh and tattooing. All these stand opposed to the LORD.

They must not, like the heathen, make baldness on their head, nor shave off the corner of the beard, nor cut into their flesh, as those did who had no hope. God had no place in their thoughts, and demons ruled those thoughts. God forbade these same excesses to Israelites in general.

All "cuttings in your flesh for the dead" were also prohibited. This is what the pagans did, who have no hope. Such sorrow came out in terrible wailing and wild outbursts. It was unworthy of Israel, and it is even more unworthy of Christian believers (1 Thess. 4:13).

The ungodly nations cut themselves and shaved the front of their head. They did this to show respect for people who had died. This was empty hypocrisy, a show of religiousness meant to draw attention to themselves... It is perfectly right to weep when we feel the loss of someone we love. The Lord Jesus wept in sympathy with Mary and Martha (John 11:32-35). But to put on an outward show is repulsive.

To all this there was one simple but conclusive answer: "You are the children of the LORD your God." This fact changed everything. The poor, ignorant Gentile nations around them might cut and disfigure themselves. They did not know God and were not in relationship with Him. But Israel stood on the high and holy ground of nearness to God, and this one fact was to shape all their habits. They were not called to take up or drop any habit or custom to make themselves the children of God. That would be, as we say, beginning at the wrong end. But being His children, they were to act as such.

Verses 27-28 tell us that our bodies are not our own to do with as we please. This covers shaving for show, cutting the flesh, and tattooing (compare 1 Cor. 6:19-20). All of these only satisfy a person's pride.

The law forbade this practice, and also forbade making any mark in the flesh. It was a common custom among the surrounding nations. They cut themselves for the dead and tattooed their bodies in honour of their gods. The Israelites belonged to Jehovah.

Notice how in this book, when the details of evil are judged, Jehovah puts Himself personally forward as the One whose character at once rejects these things and makes them impossible for His people — "I am the LORD." The people were in relationship with Him — He sanctified them.

The same authority of Jehovah which banned those heathen practices calls for honour to the grey head and the face of the old man, joining them with the fear of "your God." And in a way that strikingly cuts off in advance the narrow and base pride of later Jewish teaching, a stranger living in their land was not only to be left in peace but to be loved as one born among them.

It is God's right to declare how His children ought to behave. It is their high privilege and holy responsibility to seek His gracious approval in everything. "You are the sons of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves." They were not their own; they belonged to Him, and so they had no right to cut themselves or disfigure their faces for the dead.

Verses 27-28 tell us that our bodies are not our own to do with as we please. That covers shaving for show, cutting the flesh, and tattooing (compare 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). All of these only satisfy a person's pride.

These poor, deluded Baal worshippers evidently did not notice Elijah's sarcasm. So they took his advice and cried out to Baal more loudly, cutting themselves with knives and lances. Idolaters really do injure the flesh. They think this is the self-denial that will influence their false god. How different is the true self-denial of a believer! True self-denial makes no show, but involves sober self-judgment in spiritual reality.

The godless nations cut themselves and shaved the front of the head. This was how they showed respect for people who had died. It was empty hypocrisy, a show of religion meant to draw attention to themselves... Cutting oneself, shaving the hair, weeping and wailing can do nothing for the person who has died... It is right to weep at the loss of a loved one. The Lord Jesus wept in sympathy with Mary and Martha (John 11:32-35). But to put on an outward show is repulsive.

Paul says, "From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." The word "marks" is really "stigma." It is a cut made on the body to show that a master owns the servant... He becomes the willing slave of Christ, given over completely to His interests, and content to bear His reproach in this world.