Leadership and Bare Buttocks
“Hine Ma Tov”
What could a disturbing story in II Samuel have to do with a Psalm on unity? One has oil dripping down the beard and covering the skirts of Aaron; the other has skirts cut to bare David’s servant’s nakedness. The king’s servants had their beards shaved half off in disgrace. Have you ever lifted your brother or sister’s skirt to peek under it? Have you ever cut off half of a person’s honor or damaged their character? Just half.
Has leadership become an enemy to the Body of Yeshua? How often have we usurped our Father’s authority and placed our desires above Him?
Before we get to this blog’s meat, I want to cover a verse that I see being used in error.
Some proclaim that the Holy Spirit teaches them All things, so they do not need a teacher. They get this from several verses. Let’s look at how these passages get twisted before we delve into our troubling tale of shame.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things. . .” (John 14:26, NASB).
“As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for “anyone” to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him” (I John 2:27, NASB).
‘Anyone’ was a word chosen by the NASB version—not a good choice of words here.
John starts this passage the same way Yeshua starts his. Both explain that it is the commandments they’ve had since the beginning. Yeshua says, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John says much about false teachers, and right before he speaks in the verse above, he says, “These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.”
He was letting his audience know that, hey, they’ve had the Torah/Commandments since the beginning. They’re not just hearing the word but abiding in it. (Shema) They know that Yeshua is the Messiah. They see that salvation is not by works. John doesn’t own a New Testament Bible. These people knew and kept the Commandments. If they didn’t need a teacher, why is John even writing them instructions and warning them of false teachers?
The context proposes that John is referring to those who are teaching contrary to what his readers already know to be the truth. His listeners do not need any of these kinds of teachers. Many people twist this and say things like, “The Holy Spirit fell on me and told me this and that, and I don’t need “anyone” to teach me.” Trust me, friends; The Holy Spirit would not tell you to break the righteous Commandments of our Father. And the Holy Spirit would never tell you not to keep His 4th Commandment. “I am the LORD; I change not “(Malachi 3:6, KJV).
Remember when Yeshua said we were to love our enemies? What if they never were our enemies, to begin with?
“It came about after this that the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son Hanun reigned in his place. Then David thought, “Let me show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent word by the hand of his servants to comfort him concerning his father. But when David’s servants arrived at the land of the children of Ammon, the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, their lord, “Do you think that David is really honoring your father because he has sent consolers to you? Has not David sent his servants to you in order to explore the city, to spy it out, and to overthrow it?” (II Samuel 10:1-3, TLV).
“At the beginning of Saul’s reign Nahash attacked Jabesh-Gilead, and when the people of that place asked for terms of surrender, he gave them the alternatives of having their right eyes thrust out or of being put to the sword. The inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead then obtained a respite of seven days and sent messengers to Saul, who assembled an army and routed the Ammonites (I Sam. xi. 1-4, 11).
It appears, however, from I Sam. xii. 12, that Nahash had threatened the Israelites before Saul was made king, and that it was, for this reason, the Israelites insisted upon having a king. According to Josephus (“Ant.” vi. 5, § 1), Nahash was in the habit of putting out the right eye of every Israelite that came into his power.” Jewish Encyclopedia.
Nahash means serpent, bronze oracle– the serpent that speaks. If we listen to his voice, he will damage our right eye. The right eye is the spiritual eye—the eye that sees the good in leadership and our brothers and sisters. The right eye sees the good in the journey, whether it is hard or not. But there is an office in the five-fold that used to be called Seer.
(I Samuel 9:9) “Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he used to say, ‘Come, and let us go to the seer”; for he who is called a prophet now was formerly called a seer.”
Having no right eye means no favorable vision. Samson lost his eyes and his hair. He had baldness and blindness, but later Samson was victorious. The choice given by Nahash was to be destroyed by gauging the right eye or using the sword. Do we use the sword of the spirit wrong at times? Do we use it to inflict pain on our own Bodies?
Hanun, a name that ironically means merciful and gracious, believed the lies these men, filled with fear, told him. He had the remedy in his name to conquer this fear. So what does this son of the King do?
“So Hanun seized David’s servants, shaved off one side of their beards, cut off their garments in the middle at their buttocks, and sent them away.” (II Sam. 10:4).
Unless they were high priests, they would have had no undergarments, just bare buttocks. And the disgrace of one half of a whole beard. These men humiliated the servants of David, and they let them walk barefoot, disgraced. No mercy. No honor for those coming to pay respect. Half a beard. Bare buttocks. SHAME! What does this remind you of? A verse in Psalms is so precious we should meditate on it day and night.
“{A Song of degrees of David.} Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” (Psalm 133, KJV).
The Father spoke to me the other day and showed me how some who are connected to me could not receive my blessings, and when I came to help console them in their darkest hour, they saw me as a spy–a person bent on usurping, stealing, and taking over the family. Like David, this was the furthest thing from my heart. But if you’ve read The Spirit of Leviathan, you know what they accuse us of is what they have in their own hearts. It’s fear-based and causes projection. In psychology, projection refers to placing your own negative traits onto others.
The children of Ammon were the offspring of Lot’s daughter. Lot’s first daughter sleeps with him, and she gives birth to Moab, the Moabites. And the younger one, after getting her father intoxicated, gets pregnant and has Ben-Ammi, which became the Ammonites.
Lot’s daughter was intimate, committing incest with her father due to FEAR. Afraid she would never be able to have a husband. Fearful that the whole earth was destroyed. Instead of becoming intimate with Adonai and seeing what instructions He had for her, she took matters into her own hands. The Father of Glory was merciful enough to bring them out of Sodom and wait for them to get to shelter. He would have also spared them this shame. They knew the Torah and that incest was forbidden.
Apparently, this Ammonite, King Nahash, treated David well. They both had something in common—an enemy named Saul.
Remember, Nahash means Serpent, Bronze, Oracle.
Where have we seen this bronze serpent before? And why did the bronze serpent come about? Wasn’t it due to the people grumbling and complaining against their God and His leadership?
“Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.”
The Bronze Serpent
The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it, he will live.” And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard, and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived” (Numbers 21:5-9).
Who intercedes for them? Leadership.
David wants to show kindness to Hunan. Have you ever had your kindness mistaken for evil plots and schemes? King David’s servants were falsely called spies who were bent on usurping a city, a people, a person grieving.
Remember what Korah said in Numbers 16? Korah says all the people are holy. He says, ‘Why do Moses and Aaron think they can run the show?’ He shouts, “I am just as anointed as they are!”
Beloved David, a man after Adonai’s own heart, has a heart to comfort the hurting. Bind up the broken. He sends his servants. David was a shepherd who watched over the sheep. He protected them from the lion and bear. He was a giant slayer. All Israel was one under his leadership, and the Messiah Yeshua came through his bloodline. In our story, David is sending his servants. What does the Father, and His Son, Yeshua, say happened to all the servants sent to their people?
“Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’ But they did not listen or incline their ears; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.…” (Jeremiah 44:4-5).
“I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.” (Revelation 22:8-9).
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those having been sent to her! How often would I have gathered together your children, the way in which a hen gathers together her chicks under the wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37).
“So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets” (Matthew 23:31).
“Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One” (Acts 7:52).
How does David remedy this? What instructions does he give those who have been humiliated? Disgraced?
“When they informed David, he sent word to meet them, for the men were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards grow, then return.”
There was someone else whose beard was plucked, and his nakedness was exposed—the most Humble servant of all, Yeshua, Messiah.
“I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6).
Jericho is a place where walls come down. It is a place with a name that means fragrance. When your buttocks are exposed and your beard is shaved half off, you will either have a putrid smell, or the crushing will leave you with a sweet aroma. May it be the latter for all the weary leaders out there and their servants, the prophets. Intercede for those who wish you harm. Remember how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! O, it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments, and his skirts were covering him.
If you enjoyed this blog, you might like my book The Spirit of Leviathan– HERE
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Sources: Jewish Encyclopedia.
Abarim Publications–name meanings.
Photos: Unsplash.
Oh this is beautiful dear Sister. Thank you for the constant reminder of who we are in Yeshua. Blessings