Images and idols
The second Commandment forbids the making of images. It is little known or understood that an image in the form of any creature, from Heaven, Hell, or the sea is an abomination. How many of us have houses full of ornaments, figurines, and sculptures? The Law does not state idols are prohibited, but (brazen or cast 3D) images! One need only ask oneself, did the Israelites make or have dolls or images? Even the brazen serpent was destroyed when it became an idol. King Shelomoh (Solomon) broke this Law when he had images incorporated into his throne and into the sea in the temple.
There are many pretty objects we can use to beautify our homes, and with which children may play other than images. Have more babies so little girls can learn how to be mothers on the real thing. Are your images so important to you that you cannot get rid of them? If so, they have surely become idols.
On my return from Bali and later Africa, I brought with me bags full of images. Some I recognized immediately for what they were when I recommitted myself to Messiah at age 31. These were quickly disposed of, including a hand-sized metal crucifix on which hung an image of Yahshua my grandfather had brought back with him from Palestine in World War II. Another was a repulsive Balinese god or demon wrestling a snake which left me wondering what beauty I had ever seen in it. The last image to go by smashing with a hammer was a soapstone sculpture of a pregnant woman I’d bought to commemorate expecting Ranyhyn in Africa. It was discerned to be the image devoted to an African fertility god. Of course. What else would it be? African tribes seldom make images merely to decorate their mud huts. All of these items had curses attached to them.
A woman must not dress like a man (DEUT. 22:5)
It is interesting to note that in Biblical days the only women to wear very short or shorn hair like a man were prostitutes. So too only prostitutes wore their hair uncovered by scarves or other appropriate feminine head wear. Paul writes about this in detail in I CORINTHIANS 11 and it is discussed more fully in Let Her Be Covered.
In the same vein, a man must not dress like or as a woman. Is it permissible for women to wear long pants? I do, but certainly not in some countries. But I believe that whatever is acceptable in a particular country may be worn so long as it is decent, appropriate, and clean–unless you live on the street or some such place (mind you, I lived on the street with three young children for a year and we were never dirty. In addition I’ve been three times around the world including across the Sahara Desert and I managed to wash every day. See Third Trial: Sell All You Have and Follow Me and Ladders, Sand Dunes, Soft Edges, and Prayer)– without enticing the opposite sex to sin. Men also may wear a long dress-like garment or a sarong if that is acceptable garb.
Papua New Guinea is one country in which it is not acceptable for a woman to wear shorts, long pants, or even a swimming costume. Yet the native women often go topless without anyone so much as glancing at them.
In LEVITICUS 19:28 there is a command against the cutting of our bodies or putting tattoo marks on those perfect bodies with which we were created.
I interpret this to mean anything which deliberately pierces the skin: tattoos, earrings and other piercings, injections and immunizations, acupuncture, surgical operations and procedures. The priests of Baal cut their skin. Pagan medical practices were rife with blood-letting, leaching, and drilling holes in skulls to facilitate the release of evil spirits. Pagan religious rituals in India and the Middle East dictate the cutting of the skin.
Far from releasing evil spirits, it is my contention that these practices lead to possession by evil spirits with the cut or hole being a doorway for them. Any implants in the body will ensure the demons residency in that body until the insert is removed. Ask any former Satanist the truth about this. A quick investigation into the history of medicine will also reveal that the modern techniques of surgery are not so modern at all, but have been practised for thousands of years, usually for spiritual, pagan, or religious reasons.
This obviously does not apply to cuts and wounds from accidents, though if they occur frequently I would seek YHWH for a reason or legal right from sin in your life.
Men are admonished not to shave the edges of their beards or their heads (LEV. 19:27).
Priests of Baal shaved their heads and shaved their beards into goatees, that is, a small beard on the chin. Firstly, YHWH’s men are to have beards–all of them, with no exceptions. Only women and children had no whiskers. The men were not to shave at all but to have full beards and short hair. This does not necessarily mean a long waist length beard as depicted in pictures of Moses and Abraham. Men may trim their beards short, but not shave them at the sides or edges nor shave off all their hair.
The only exceptions to this were when a man came to the temple after fulfilling a Nazirite vow (NUM. 6:18, ACTS 21:24), and the ritual cleansing of a leper (LEV. 14:8-9).
In Spirit and in Truth 