When I was young the only people sporting tattoos roamed in biker gangs. Society viewed them as outlaws and misfits. Today it is an artform in America. You're a misfit if you don't have one. Teenage girls walk in public with tattoos etched across their lower back, visible only because they delight in exposing their midriff. It is a universal symbol of cool.
What's even more troubling is that many of these young people claim to be Christians. Perhaps they have never read or considered God's warning to the ancient Israelites in Leviticus 19:28 – "You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you: I am the LORD." Commentary from the Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts:
Inculcating reverence for the human body as the work of God, the Torah prohibits tattooing . . . cutting the flesh and tattooing the skin were closely connected with idolatrous usages among the Canaanites. In their demonstration of grief and bereavement, they gashed and mutilated themselves, offering their blood as a sacrifice to the dead."
Yeshua offered His blood as a sacrifice so you and I might live. As such, we should listen and obey the Word so that we do not offend the One who delivered us from death.
Posted by Jeff King at March 19, 2007 10:21 AM