In case you’re not familiar with the passage, this ironic pastor has ironically tattooed this on his arm (ironically): “You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:28. How ironic, doing precisely what the law says his people are not to do.
I know that we are not justified by the law. No law will save us, for Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to us. Our only hope of salvation is Christ’s perfect fulfillment of the Law. But where Christ claimed to fulfill the Law, and while he made a mockery of Pharisaical interpretation of the Law, He, nor His apostles, ever ridiculed it nor showed contempt for it.
The Law, even as expressed in this passage, is a part of the story and plan of redemption. It has its purpose, and that purpose is one of respect and reverence.
The modern Evangelical church is plagued with antinomianism, that is, an anti-law belief that is much worse than tattoos and body modification. The modern church has rejected God’s moral Law (see Exodus 20 to see what that entails).
The Old Testament is God’s Word. The fear of God does not permit us to find a joke in it.
Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers לֵ֝צִ֗ים;
Psalm 74:22 Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you חֶרְפָּתְךָ֥ all the day!
Proverbs 14:6 A scoffer לֵ֣ץ seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.
Proverbs 21:24 “Scoffer” לֵ֣ץ is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride.
Proverbs 24:9 The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer לֵֽץ is an abomination to mankind.
2 Peter 3:3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers ἐμπαῖκται will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
Jude 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, ἐμπαῖκται following their own ungodly passions.”
