So Hanun seized David's envoys, shaved off half of each man's beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away. – 2 Samuel 10:4

Today's Scripture Reading (June 5, 2022):  2 Samuel 10

In the divided history of the United States, one of the most serious divisions was the divide between the slave States, mostly in the south, and the free states, in the north and the extreme west. It is a division that still plays itself out in contemporary American culture. But what has sometimes been forgotten is that being an African American living in one of the Free States might have been better than being an African American existing in one of the slave states, but it definitely wasn't safe—living while Black was dangerous then, just as it is now. And one of the daily realities for an African American living in the Free States was that someone could grab them on the street and take them to the slave States for no other crime than living with a certain skin color. It is a sad part of the history of North America and a part of the history of the continent for which we still have not recovered.

In ancient Israel, slavery was also a very real reality, but it was often not racially based. Even Hebrew people could enter into a slavery relationship with other Hebrews. The distinction between a male free Hebrew and an enslaved man was the presence of a beard. Free Hebrews proudly displayed their beards, while an enslaved person was clean-shaven. For a free man to have his face shaved, even just half of it, was intended to send a serious message. Soon all of Israel would live as slaves.

Hanun had seized David's ambassadors and had shaved off half of their beards to send a message to David. What was done to the King's ambassador was the same as doing it to the King. But Hanun did not stop there. He also cut the lower half of the garments off of the men. The author of Samuel tells us that this exposed the buttocks of the ambassadors. But that was not the real problem. It also would have exposed the genitals of the ambassadors, exposing the fact that they were circumcised, as all Jews were. Hanun wanted to expose what he saw as Israel's shame. To the Gentile people who surrounded Israel, circumcision was proof of the inferior nature of the Jews. The circumcised ambassadors were deeply humiliated by both actions, and because they were humiliated, so was David.

Jesus made a similar comparison on his last night with his disciples. Just before his arrest, he told them that;

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me (John 15:18-21).

We are ambassadors of our King. And by persecuting us, the powers of this world believe that they are persecuting Jesus. Jesus's message was never that we should avoid that kind of persecution, but rather that we should remember that the true target of our persecution, just as it was for Jesus, is aimed at the God that we serve.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 19