(Transcript of a lesson taught at Landmark Baptist Church, Locust Grove, GA, on June 7, 2015; http://www.landmarkbaptistga.com.)
Text: Zech. 9:12-17
In this study I’d like to examine two types of
beauty found in scripture. As our
framework, we’ll…
- First look at the overall usage of the word “beauty” and its forms in scripture;
- Next define “beauty” with the English text, using Zech. 9:17;
- Examine two types of beauty found in both the prophetic and mystery scriptures; and
- Finally, note practical applications for the body of Christ as we go.
OVERALL
USAGE OF “BEAUTY” AND ITS FORMS IN SCRIPTURE
The word and its forms occurs 49 times and 27
times, respectively, for a total of 76 times. Only four of those are found in
the new testament canon, and only one
of those in a church age context. So it’s almost exclusively an old testament term,
though there’s much for the saint in this age to learn from these passages, which
was my inspiration for choosing this topic.
BEAUTY
DEFINED
The text passage obviously has a future application
to Daniel’s seventieth week, which I’m not going to expound, but please note v.
17, which I believe provides a clear definition of “beauty.” The context here is God’s beauty, defined in
a parallelism as his goodness. So
Barbie isn’t the only one who’s beautiful. The greatest beauty in the universe
is not Miss Universe; it’s the God of the universe!
Beauty is goodness; but that’s
not all. Obviously; it’s not the same word, so there’s more to it than just
goodness. Beauty is manifest
goodness: it’s goodness that can be seen physically, or more importantly,
spiritually. Look at Ps. 27:4, “One
thing have I desired of the LORD, and that will I seek after; that I may dwell
in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.”
So there’s outer beauty and inner
beauty, and I’d like to note (1) some passages that contrast these two types of
beauty in the prophetic and Pauline scriptures; and (2) practical applications
for the body of Christ.
BEAUTY IN
THE PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES
There are numerous references to physical beauty,
or lack thereof, in the prophetic scriptures. This should be no surprise, since
the theme of the prophetic scriptures is an earthly, physical kingdom, albeit
with the Lord from heaven as its head. There are also numerous references to
beauty in a spiritual context, and I’d like to weave our examination of these
two types of beauty in the prophetic scriptures under three headings: women,
men, and God, God being last for climax.
Women. The
first passage in scripture dealing with beauty is Rachel’s beauty (Gen. 29:17).
She was beautiful and well favoured. But as you get to know Rachel, you find
that her beauty is skin deep. She’s well favoured physically, but not
spiritually.
1 Her
envy of Leah drives her to rail on Jacob for not maintaining her honour, as if
there’s anything that he could do about it.
His retort about God shows that Rachel is not reckoning with the
Almighty, and she proceeds to give Bilhah to Jacob out of emulation, to keep up
in the original “baby race” (Gen. 29-30).
2 She
lacks spiritual discernment
a. When Dan is born, she thinks that it’s judgment
in her favor (Gen. 30:6), and he becomes arguably the worst tribe in Israel
(Gen. 49:16-18);
b.
She views these births as “wrestling” with Leah (Gen.
30:8) rather than gracious gifts from God.
3 She’s
selfish to the end, intending to name her second son Ben-oni, or “son of my
sorrow”—how’d you like to carry that name for life (Gen. 35:18)? Jacob
overrules her, and graciously names him Benjamin (“son of the right hand”).
4 In
the end, her physical beauty doesn’t get her honour. Jacob buries her at
Bethlehem by herself (Gen. 35:19-20), not in the family plot at Machpelah. That
honour is reserved for tender-eyed Leah, definitely the more spiritual of the
two, and Jacob honours her accordingly (Gen. 49:29-32).
The contrast between the physical and spiritual
beauty of women comes out strong in the prophetic scriptures as a whole.
1 Prov.
11:22. As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman [physical
beauty] who is without discretion [spiritual ugliness].
2 Prov.
31:30. Favour [physical] is deceitful, and beauty is vain [physical]: but a
woman that feareth the LORD [spiritual beauty], she shall be praised.
a.
To stay balanced, however, notice that she
dresses nice and so does her family
b.
Nothing wrong with looking good; problem is when
it goes to your head and becomes vanity
c.
Two senses of vanity: (1) you think that you’re
something when you’re nothing; and (2) it really counts for little compared
with the fear of the LORD
d.
Fear of the LORD is described as a treasure in
Is. 33:6, as is “a meek and quiet spirit” in 1 Pt. 3:3-4
e.
Paul supports this theme in 1 Tim. 2:9-10, where
he urges sisters in this age to give priority to their spiritual adornment just
as Lemuel and Peter do.
3 So
it’s a trans-dispensational theme that women should be more concerned about
their spiritual beauty than their physical beauty; and I believe that if a
woman has the right spirit and priorities, the inner beauty will prompt her to
beautify herself outwardly in a modest manner.
4 My
wife said to be sure and mention Jezebel in this context, so I will. Here’s the
direct opposite of what I just said: a woman beautifying herself outwardly from
a spiritually ugly motive. Here intent
is obviously to seduce Jehu, which she botches. Instead of saying something
seductive, like “Hey, handsome!” her anger comes out as a threat, and Jehu
wisely ignores her (never talk to the devil) and calls for help.
5 I’d
like to close this section with a quote from a famous, living actress, whom I
won’t name, though I will quote her to support what I’m talking about. “Let me
tell you something—being thought of as a beautiful woman has spared me nothing
in life. No heartache, no trouble. Love has been difficult. Beauty is
essentially meaningless and it is always transitory.” Now that’ some wisdom,
folks. That woman has been voted one of the most beautiful women in the world,
and that’s what she had learned about it. You wish more women (and men) would
come to the same conclusion; the world might be a lot better place, amen?
Men. Women
are not the only ones said to be beautiful in scripture. To illustrate the contrast
between physical beauty and spiritual beauty in the prophetic scriptures, I’d
like to highlight the looks and hearts of two men: Absalom and Christ.
1 Absalom
(2 Sam. 17:25), aka Mr. Universe. Literally, he was the most handsome man in
the entire country (just like King Saul; cf. 1 Sam. 9:2) and the second half of
the verse magnifies his looks even further, stating that he had no physical
blemishes whatsoever. Granted, every man’s physique is marred by the fall
(likely his feet weren’t the same size), but his looks were as perfect as could
be for a man in Adam’s image (Gen. 5:3).
2 But
oh how many spiritual blemishes he had!
a.
Vengeance on Amnon for violating Tamar
(13:22-29)
b.
Arson (14:28-33). Burns Joab’s field to get an
audience with David
c.
Hypocrisy. Feigning righteousness (14: 32, 15:4)
and reverence for David (13:24; 14:33)
d.
Flattery (15:2-3)
e.
Treason (15:1-6)
f.
Deceit (15:7-9)
g.
Lewd, incestuous, and shameless (16:20-23)
h.
Intended patricide (17:1-4); Ahithophel’s plan
to kill David “pleased Absalom well”
i.
Vain (17:5-14); how Hushai sways him…appeals to
his vanity
He clutches the reins of power for a brief moment,
then is violently taken away, like so many other men in history
[Why do men crave power? I think that one reason is
that part of our evil nature is a desire to be like the most High; remember it
was a tree to be desired to make one wise…like God; face it, power makes men
feel like God; that’s why so many go after it; I mean, how many people in the
world aren’t trying to move up. Bro. Richard Yerby, missionary to Japan, wrote
a book called Creature vs. Creator,
and he taught how it’s basic to man’s nature to want to rise, hence the
perennial popularity of books on success. I have books in my office from the
late 1800’s along these lines: it never goes out of style, because most men
want to be like the most High (Is. 14:14).]
One great exception is the God-man: his goal was to
go as low as he could, and that humbling included physical ugliness. Read Is.
53:2 carefully. If he has “no beauty,”
then he must be ugly, right? I’m not sure that the Lord was even an
average-looking man. Whereas Absalom was handsome and had no blemishes, I think
that the Lord was ugly. Now priests couldn’t have physical defects (Lev.
21:16-24), so I don’t think that the Lord was deformed like Quasimodo
(“crookbackt”; Lev. 21:20), but there was nothing comely or beautiful about his
physique. At least Leah had tender eyes (Gen. 29:17); I’m not sure that even
the Lord’s eyes were physically
attractive, though I’m confident that they were penetrating, since he had no
fallen nature to make him lose eye contact.
This humble carpenter from Nazareth had no physical
beauty, but he sure was beautiful spiritually, wasn’t he? Just read the rest of
Is. 53. and see how God exalts him, along the same vein as Phil. 2: (1) meek (v. 7); (2) humble (v. 9); (3) peaceful (v. 9); (4) honest (v. 9); (5) righteous (v. 11); and (6) compassionate (v. 12)
The handsome Absalom ends up damned in “his own place”
(2 Sam. 18:18) like Judas (Acts 1:25); the ugly Nazarene ends up exalted at
God’s right hand over everything in heaven, earth, and the underworld! How
dangerous physical beauty can be, if it’s not subordinate to God!
God. Our
study of beauty in the prophetic scriptures would not be complete without examining
references God’s beauty therein, and I’d to close this section of the lesson
thereby.
· Since God is a Spirit, our context will be
spiritual beauty. Look at 2 Chron. 20:20-21. When Judah’s enemies came against
her en masse in the days of
Jehoshaphat, the king prays and sends out men to fight with singers in the
forefront, to “praise the beauty of
holiness,” that is, the LORD’s holiness (“Praise the LORD…”). Ps. 29:2 tells kingdom saints to “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness,”
but here the text shows that holiness is beautiful; what makes God beautiful is
holiness. In other words, his
holy nature highlights his goodness, making him beautiful.
·
What makes a believer beautiful is holiness;
personal holiness in the kingdom program, and positional holiness in mystery
program.
o
Moses concludes Psalm 90 with these words, “And let the beauty of the LORD our God be
upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our
hands establish thou it” (90:17). So a kingdom saint’s goodness is related
to his conduct.
o
Believers in this age, however, don’t have to
pray that; it’s on us already. For those
of us in the body of Christ, it’s Christ’s
righteousness that makes us beautiful; Count Zinzendorf, the great Moravian
leader, captured this so well in the first verse of his hymn, “Jesus, Thy Blood
and Righteousness”:
Jesus,
Thy blood and righteousness
My
beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst
flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With
joy shall I lift up my head.
o
Furthermore, God’s beauty is not only on us, but
in us. Eph. 5:9, “(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth;)”; and that natural (or supernatural) goodness should be
manifest in our lives, as we yield to the Spirit of God, it’s source.
·
·
So when Ps. 29 says, “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness,” it’s saying that only
the holy should worship the Lord; and since we’ve been sanctified in Christ,
we’re fit to worship God (Phil. 3:3) positionally. Practically, however, it’s
hard to sincerely worship God if you’re not living holily, so we should strive
for our state to match our standing so that we can freely worship God in the
beauty of Christ’s holiness.
MYSTERY
SCRIPTURES
The only beauty that Paul mentions in his epistles is,
not surprisingly, spiritual beauty. Physical beauty of little relevance in this
age, though it’s natural and fitting for people to improve their looks in any
dispensation.
Rom. 10:15,
“And how shall they preach except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of
good things!” Paul is quoting from the old testament (Is. 52:7), where nearly
all other references to beauty are found, but he spiritually applies this
passage to proclamation of the gospel in this age. In God’s eyes, the feet of
his messengers are beautiful…spiritually, because of the spiritual benefits
that they bring to others in the gospel. God is so desirous for sinners to be
converted, that he magnifies the feet (basic equipment) of those bringing his
message to sinners, and adds an exclamation point at the end, signifying the
depth of his feeling.
The single reference to beauty in
Paul’s epistles in a spiritual context
emphasizes that the gospel and its benefits in this age are essentially spiritual, though God does promise to
supply the temporal needs of his children while they’re in this world. This
supply is only right, since our bodies and souls are still on earth (2 Cor. 5:9)
and subject to vanity (Rom. 8:20), though our spirits are above (Eph. 2:6).
CONCLUSION
I married my wife in March 2000, and we had two
songs sung at our wedding: “In Due Time” by Sound Doctrine and “How Beautiful”
by Twila Paris. At that time we believed that the church is the bride of
Christ, so both songs speak of the church waiting to wed Christ, though now I
think that it’s better to say that we’re “waiting for the adoption” (Rom. 8:23)
rather than a wedding, though we will indeed be physically united to Christ at
that point.
Anyway, the song by Twila Paris
is an excellent illustration of the two types of beauty in scripture. She sings
about the beauty of Christ’s hands, feet, heart, and eyes, then moves on to the
positional beauty of his body now, which is waiting for his return, and
amazingly touches on the practical beauty of believers who give sacrificially
like Christ did. The climax of the song is a reference to Rom. 10:15, which she
ties back to the earthly ministry of Christ (hands, feet, heart, and eyes).
It’s one of the loveliest modern Christian songs I’ve heard, and I hope that
you’ll listen to it at your leisure.
Our
God is beautiful, in all three of his persons. His earthly people will be
beautiful one day, when they turn to him in distress and are cleansed from
their sins. His heavenly people are beautiful now in Christ, and should allow that beauty to be manifest in their
lives. Finally, his messengers have beautiful feet, since they bring “all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3) to those that believe.
