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      Actually, Yahweh’s Word does reveal directly and specifically whether this alteration of the appearance of the face through make-up is sin! HOW is it possible that painting the lips, cheeks, or eyes could be either forbidden or approved by YAHWEH’S TORAH? It’s time we realize that the Spiritual Law covers every act of right or wrong.

      Yahweh’s Torah is a great inexorable overall Law of SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES! It is not merely ten literal and specific commands. It must be obeyed according to all the scope of its SPIRIT, as well as its literal letter.

The Principles of the Law

All the spiritual Law may be summed up in one word – LOVE. Love is a spiritual principle. As the principle of the Torah is applied, it enlarges into the two great laws – LOVE toward Yahweh and LOVE toward human neighbor.

A Surprise Scripture

In the 2^nd chapter Yahweh’s Word to us through Isaiah speaks to The House of Jacob – our people – are replenished from the east – pagan beliefs and customs. One of these, we shall see later, is facial make-up! (verse 6). Our land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of our treasures (v.7). Yes, we are the wealthiest nation that ever existed. This was NOT true of ancient Israel.

But our land is also full of IDOLS – worshipping the things our own hands have manufactured and made! (Verse 8). It is the very present, when the DAY OF YAHWEH is near (verse 12). Yahweh is soon going to abolish our idols, our pride and vanity, our sins (verses 17-18).

It continues into chapter 3. Children will begin to boss parents and rule over them (verse 4). That is happening right now!

Children are their oppressors, and WOMEN “wear the pants” (verse 12). They cause us to SIN, and lead as in WRONG PATHS. Now verse 16: “And YAHWEH says, Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with stretched out necks and wanton eyes…So YAHWEH will make the crown of the daughter of Zion scabby…” and dire punishment for SIN follow.

Now what are “wanton eyes?” As this is translated into the English language you don’t catch the real meaning inspired by Yahweh into the original Hebrew words at all!

Actually, when the meaning of the inspired Hebrew is examined, there is no one word in the English language to convey the intended meaning. And rather than use a whole sentence or two to express the inspired meaning, the translators have chosen this one word “wanton”.

The English word they did use, “wanton,” is defined by Webster as unchaste, lewd, licentious, immoral, etc. This expresses the spirit and character back of the act described, but not the method by which such lewdness and licentiousness is manifested. It seems to be about as near as the translators could get in rendering the Hebrew.

But let’s understand the full and complete meaning of the Hebrew word. One thing the Commentaries do give us accurately is the technical meaning of Hebrew and Greek words.

Clarke Makes It Clear

First, notice the rendering of the Adam Clarke Commentary.

Verse 16. And wanton eyes – ‘And falsely setting off their eyes with paint.’ Hebrew, falsifying their eyes”.

Ah, NOW we begin to see the real intended inspired meaning!

REMEMBER – the custom of using PAINT to color and to change the looks of the face, to make it appear “prettier,” originated in harlotry, as I will prove later. It was always used to seduce and lure men into LUST. In Bible times women painted their eyes, primarily – at least the emphasis was then on the eyes, though they also used some paint, frequently, on the cheeks and the lips. Some 40 years ago the emphasis was on the cheeks, though some painted the eyes and the lips to a lesser degree. Today the emphasis is on the lips, though to some extent women still paint, in lesser degree, the cheeks, and many the eyes.

The principle – the purpose – is the same, whether the painting emphasis is on the eyes, the cheeks, or the lips. WHAT it is, is just the same. WHERE it is placed may vary, with varying fads of the times. But it is all the same thing, so far as the principle of SIN is concerned.

Clarke further explains that this Hebrew word is closely associated with the noun “sikra” which the rabbis used for “stibium, the mineral which was commonly used in coloring the eyes… the Chaldee paraphrase explains it: stibio linitis oculis, ‘with eyes dressed with stibium’. This fashion seems to have prevailed very generally among the Eastern people in ancient times; and they retain the very same to this day.”

Actually, we saw a great deal of this on our recent visit to the Middle East. From the “Critical and Experimental Commentary”: “16. and wanton eyes – Hebrew (mesha-ququeroth, from shaquar, to deceive.) ‘deceiving with their eyes.’… Lowth, after the Chaldaic, ‘falsely setting off the eyes with paint.’ Women’s eyelids in the East are often colored with stibium, or powder of lead.”

These critical explanations make it plain that painting the face has, since ancient days, been intended to falsify the appearance of the face – to deceive! Women today may not like to admit it, but there can be no purpose in applying lipstick or any kind of paint except to change the appearance of the face – and that very act means to FALSIFY the face – to DECEIVE those who see them as to what their real appearance actually is! The very USE of lipstick or make-up, even though a woman denies the motive in her heart, is to change the facial appearance – and this, in turn, is to falsify, and to deceive – which is not righteous or holy, but sinful.

And so there, properly translated, is a PLAIN SCRIPTURE showing that the act of painting the face, (whether eyes, cheeks, or lips) is falsifying, intended to DECEIVE, an expression of VANITY which is the very basis of all sin.

This, and the Scriptures that shall immediately follow, show that this almost universal custom, stimulated and kept alive in the interest of multi- million dollar profits by the big cosmetic manufacturers, is condemned by Yahweh Almighty as being a SIN!

HOW, and WHY it is a sin – HOW it violates the SPIRIT OF THE LAW – will be explained later in this article.

Where Make-Up Originated

Do you know where the use of make-up originated? Actually the first “painted huzzy” was Semiramis, the original mother of harlots, human author and founder of the world’s religions and of abominations of the world.

Nationally, it came out of ancient Egypt. Nearly everything evil and sinful came out of Egypt. Egypt is used as the very TYPE of sin in the Scriptures. When we were in Egypt this past spring we saw many of the statues and idols of ancient Egypt.

Two things were most prominent in the statues of their ancient queens and goddesses: the painting on their faces, which changed their natural appearance, and the thin-veiled gowns which exposed nudity underneath. They had changed themselves from a modest and virtuous appearance into one of sensuality.

Changing facial appearance by painting the face originated in harlotry. It was used originally only as a device of harlots to attract men in a manner designed to break the 7^th Commandment.

It’s modern, popular and almost universal use today originated with the harlots of Paris. From there it travelled to the old red-light districts of San Francisco, Denver, New Orleans, Chicago, New York and other American cities. Then it was used by the street-walker prostitutes to attract and seduce men.

The Encyclopedia Britannica says: “It is quite probable that cosmetics had their origin in the East, but it is necessary to turn to Egypt for the earliest records of these substances and their application.”

According to the Britannica, the practice of facial subterfuge and deception by painting and make-up reached its zenith in the time of Cleopatra. The Britannica also states that the early inhabitants of Britain imported toilet articles from the East. In the passages from Isaiah cited above, chapter 2 and verse 6 says Yahweh is forsaking and punishing the House of Jacob “because they are filled from the East!” Yes, that’s where they got the make-up idea and materials!

Paint on the face in America was first used by the Indians, as “WARPAINT.” We regarded it as a heathen, savage custom! Yet our women have taken up the custom, copying from the harlots of Paris. The practice certainly did not originate from YAHWEH, but from harlotry and heathenism. In 1770 the State of Pennsylvania passed a law that a marriage could be nullified if the wife had, in courtship, deceived and misled her prospective husband by having changed her appearance with make-up!

It Is BIG Business

The cosmetic industry has become one of America’s greatest industries. By the post-war year of 1919 it had risen to a volume of 82 million dollars. By 1925 it had mounted to $147,000,000. But by 1955, the cosmetic industry spent in advertising to tempt the women into buying cosmetics ONE MILLION more dollars than their entire sales volume had been in 1925. Not including soap, but just face-changing cosmetics, the industry spent for advertising $148,675,000!

And according to the March 28 New York Times, American women in 1955 spent, to change the appearance of their faces (including perfumes), $1,192,200,000!! That’s one BILLION, one hundred ninety-two MILLION, two hundred thousand dollars! Today the number is in the trillions of dollars each year.

Do we realize that as many people and tiny children are starving to death each year, trillions of dollars are being spent by women to simply try to make their appearance look deceiving? And for what vanity! How sad!

Perhaps most women do not realize, or won’t admit, the extent of their VANITY in wanting to make themselves prettier than they really are, but the cosmetic manufacturers and their shrewd advertising men know! The average American business cannot profitably spend more than 1/2 of 1% up to a maximum of 4% of sales volume in advertising. But apparently the cosmetic industry, due to female vanity, is able to spend 12,5 %, and make it pay! When male GREED cashes in on female VANITY, the result is fabulous profits for shrewd commercial interests!

Bible Examples

Yahweh gives examples in the Bible of women who were righteous, meek, humble and obedient, and He also gives examples of women who were prostitutes – who were seductive and satanic influences on others.

And LISTEN!

In every single case where painting the face is mentioned in your Bible, YAHWEH LABELS THE WOMAN A WHORE! Is that shocking? Yes, but TRUE! Painting the face is never once mentioned in connection with a virtuous woman! HOW does Yahweh label YOU? Every woman should ask herself that question.

Perhaps I have seen the oldest historic record of putting make-up on the face, on our recent visit to ancient Egypt! Yahweh uses Egypt as a TYPE of sin, especially in the lesson of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Most of the pagan and sinful practices that befoul our western civilization today came out of Egypt.

In Egypt we saw many statues and paintings of ancient Egyptian women, and of their goddesses. Always their faces were painted. But perhaps the oldest written records are found in the Bible.

First is the case of the Gentile daughter of a Sidonian King, Jezebel. King Ahab of Israel married her. Yahweh condemned this evil woman to a horrible death because of her great WHOREDOMS. Jezebel applied the “art” of make-up to her face to make herself sexually attractive in order to deceive and seduce men. Yahweh uses this vile woman as a type of the great false church (Rev 2:20), who also is labeled in your Bible as a whore! Just as this original Jezebel painted her face to seduce men, so does this great collective woman deck herself out seductively, and attempt to change her appearance from her actual EVIL look, by deceiving the whole world into believing that she “looks” virtuous and pure and holy.

But notice the high-points of the story as it is in the Bible. “And it happened as if it were a light thing, that he walked in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took a wife, Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and bowed himself to it.” (1st Kings 16:29-31).

Later, Jehoram, son of Ahab and Jezebel, was reigning as king of Israel. With the king of Judah he went out against Jehu, whom Yahweh had appointed to succeed Jehoram as king.

“And it happened, when Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, is it peace, Jehu? And he said, What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her sorceries are so many? (2nd Kings 9:22). As Jehoram turned to flee, Jehu slew him.

Is It a “Light Thing?”

“And Jehu came to Jezreel. And Jezebel had heard, and had painted her eyes and adorned her head, and looked down through the window.” (2nd Kings 9:30). She was now making a desperate effort to seduce Jehu, lest he kill her. She resorted to all her wiles of harlotry, and lewdness.

WHY do women who profess to be GOOD women resort to this same trick of deception to attract men today? WHY have modern women, as if it were a light thing to walk in the sins of Jezebel, made this an almost universal custom today? Will YAHWEH’S women, “the LIGHT of the world,” – the only light remaining in this evil world – yield themselves “to be LIKE worldly women around them?”

From the very first historic records, painting the face has been an integral part of HARLOTRY, used to attract and seduce men! It was always part of the equipment of a harlot. That is a simple statement of FACT. It cannot be denied. The harlots of Paris use it. The whores of the old United States “red light” districts all used it. The street-walking prostitutes all used it before the professing “decent” women copied after these daughters of Jezebel.

Some women may say that “we don’t use it for seductive purposes or as a device of harlotry today!” Of course not! But, in like manner I’ve heard preachers try to justify the pagan practices of observing Christmas by arguing, “But we don’t use it for the purpose they did – for worshipping Baal. We have adopted their custom for the purpose of worshipping MESSIAH.”

But Yahweh says: “And that you not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their Elohim? And I shall do so, even I. You shall not do so to YAHWEH your Elohim; for everything hateful to YAHWEH, which he detests, they have done to their gods…All the things that I command you, take heed to do them and you shall not add to it, nor take away from it.” (Deut 12:30-32).

YAHWEH COMMANDS US NOT TO FOLLOW THESE ABOMINABLE PRACTICES AND CUSTOMS USED IN PAGAN IDOLATRY AND HARLOTRY! Facial make-up is one of them! A woman may think she looks nice in the sight of the world with make-up. But how does she look in Yahweh’s sight?

Abomination in Yahweh’s Sight

It’s true, we have been born in such a world, and grown up taking such things for granted as much as we take any article of normal clothing for granted, accepting it as a normal custom with never so much as a thought that there could be anything sinful about it.

We simply have to come to the knowledge that “there is a way that seems RIGHT to a man, but the end of it is the ways of DEATH.”

In the same manner, it may be difficult, at first, for many of you women in Yahweh’s true Congregation to realize that make-up on the face is actually one of those things that is AN ABOMINATION in the sight of Yahweh – that its use is a SIN – a violation of YAHWEH’S TORAH, as I shall presently show! It may be difficult for one who has always taken these worldly customs for granted to realize that a woman who “looks NICE” to the world actually looks like a painted prostitute in the sight of YAHWEH!

Israel’s Harlotry

As the harlot Jezebel was a type of the great MOTHER of harlots and ABOMINATIONS of the earth, so both Israel and Judah, the CONGREGATION of the Old Testament, played the whore, and symbolically “painted their faces.”

Listen to THE WORD OF YAHWEH! “This word from the Eternal came to me:” – quoting from Ezekiel 23, Mofatt translation.” ‘Son of man, there were two women… when they were young, they played the harlot in Egypt, where men pressed their breasts and handled their virgin nipples. Their names were Ohola, the elder, and Oholibah, the younger. They became my wives and bore sons and daughters (as for their names, Ohola is Samaria, Oholibah Jerusalem).

“But Ohola played the harlot, though she was my wife…and befouled herself with the idols of every man on whom she doted; she never ceased her harlotry since in Egypt men lay with her as a girl and handled her virgin nipples and had intercourse with her freely. So I handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians… They exposed her nakedness… and they slew her with the sword; so punishment was inflicted on her, till she became a WARNING TO WOMEN.

“Her sister Oholibah saw this, but she went further in depravity, in her lust and harlotry… I saw that she was befouling herself… but she carried her harlotry further; she saw men pictured upon walls, figures of Chaldeans drawn in vermillion… and when she saw them she doted upon them …

… And this is how they behaved within my temple; they actually sent for men who came from abroad, sent messengers to them! And for them you bathed yourself, you PAINTED YOUR EYES, you put on your ornaments, you sat on a handsome divan, with a table spread in front of it

… and sounds of revelry arose!’” (Ezek 23). NOTICE THAT! Here Yahweh pictures Israel and Judah as harlot women. They have sent for men. In order to seduce these men, and lead them into adultery, they PAINTED THEIR FACES!

This has always been the main equipment of harlots! It is the very instrument of harlotry. Yahweh CONDEMNS the ACT as SIN – and shows plainly that this paint was applied FOR THE PURPOSE of seduction.

Now complete this blistering message from Yahweh to modern women today!

“ ‘This therefore is Yahweh ETERNAL’s sentence: Bring a host of folk against them, and hand them over to be maltreated and robbed! Let them be stoned and put to the sword … that all women may TAKE WARNING and avoid YOUR sensual ways … and so learn that I am Yahweh the ETERNAL!’”

How about it? Do you want to argue that Yahweh doesn’t mean YOU – or that this does NOT apply to using make-up today? YOUR body is Yahweh’s temple today, and if you defile it, Yahweh says He will destroy YOU!

IN EVERY CASE where make-up is mentioned in the Bible, Yahweh labels the woman who uses it a WHORE!

Always, its use is an attempt to change the appearance of the face! It is an attempt to make the face appear to be (a DECEPTION!) more beautiful than it is. Always in one way or another it is VANITY! Today it is also an instinctive human-nature pull to conform to the ways of this world – perhaps without realizing that this is in direct disobedience of Yahweh’s command: “And be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of YAHWEH” (Rom 12:2).

Whoring Judah

In the 4^th Chapter of Jeremiah, Yahweh reveals the destruction to be poured out on Judah, as a result of her whoredoms. Yahweh cries out to these unfaithful Jews: “O Jerusalem, cleanse your heart from evil so that you may be saved … For My people are foolish. They do not know Me.

They are stupid children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but they do not know to do good. For so YAHWEH has said, The whole land shall be a desolation … And you, O desolate one, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, though YOU MAKE LARGE YOUR EYES WITH

PAINT, you beautify yourself in vain. Lovers despise you; they will seek your life’” (Jer 4:14, 22, 27, 30). Here adulteress Judah is pictured as The Eternal’s wife. Painting her face to seduce lovers into adultery.

And WHAT WAS THE ADULTERY OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH?

Why, precisely the very thing that causes women to use lip-stick and other make-up today! They wanted to be like the other nations around them! Yahweh said to Israel: “When … you shall say, ‘Let me set a king over me like all the nations around me…’” (Deut 17:14).

Again, “When you come to the land which YAHWEH your Elohim is giving to you, you shall not learn to do according to the HATEFUL ACTS of those nations … For all doing these things are AN ABOMINATION (Deut 18:9,12).

WHY Women Wear It

If other nations around them had not practiced these abominations, the Israelites would never have wanted to do them.

LIKEWISE, if the women of the world around you had never worn lipstick or make-up, not a single woman in the Congregation would ever have wanted to wear it!

THINK THAT OVER! No person can dispute that! IF the women of the world never wore it – IF they frowned on it and considered it bad taste, NO WOMAN IN OR OUT OF THE CONGREGATION WOULD WEAR IT!

It is put on the face for one or both of two general reasons: 1) to be like the world around you – to BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD, in direct DISOBEDIENCE of Yahweh’s command; or else 2) “to look nice,” as women express it, which means, simply, to CHANGE the appearance so as to make the face prettier than it naturally is – WHICH IS VANITY! Either is a violation of Yahweh’s Law, and A SIN! Actually, the only reason a woman wishes to conform to the world is VANITY – fearing what the world will think, more than fearing Yahweh CARING more for the world and what it thinks than for Yahweh and what looks right IN HIS SIGHT!

A woman may try to REASON and ARGUE around it, but every woman knows in her heart this is THE TRUTH! Back, now to Isaiah 3.

“Don’t Feel Dressed Without It”

“As for My people,” says Yahweh, “children are their oppressors, and women rule over him. Oh My people, those leading you cause you to go astray, and they swallow the way of our paths” (Verse 12). Women, in other words, “wear the pants.” Women have become haughty, full of VANITY, trying to put themselves above men. And how? “Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with stretched out necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and make a tinkling with their feet” (Isa 3:12,16).

The Adam Clarke Commentary says, further, on this verse: “Her eye-lashes, which are long, and, according to the custom of the East, dressed with stibium (as we often read in the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrew women of old, Jer 4:30, Ezek 23:40)

… ‘But none of these ladies’, says Dr. Shaw, Travels, p. 294, ‘take themselves to be completely dressed, till they have tinged their hair and edges of their eyelids with alkahol, the powder of ore

…’ Ezekiel chap. 23:40, uses the same word in the form of a verb, cachalt eynayik, ‘thou dist dress thine eyes with alkahol’; which the Septuagint render ‘thou didst dress thine eyes with stibium’; … compare 2nd Kings 9:30; Jer 4:30.”

“Thus Saith Yahweh”

And so critical examination of the original languages shows that ALL these Biblical passages, referring to Jezebel; to whoring Israel and Judah as Aholah and Aholibah; and to Judah, refer to the same identical PAINTING OF THE FACE that is definitely, specifically, literally, condemned as a SIN in Isaiah 3:16-17. Thus, when these scriptures are considered together, we have FOUR scriptures definitely and positively condemning make-up on the face!

This is plain “THUS SAITH YAHWEH!” And did you notice that these pagan women of the East, condemned by Yahweh, do not feel completely dressed without their make-up on? How many of our own modern women have said the same thing? It’s high time for Yahweh’s women to REPENT, and with Yahweh’s help wean themselves from that kind of heathen feeling!

Virtuous Women

But if Yahweh’s Word labels these painted women of the world as ABOMINATIONS and WHORES, it also gives us descriptions of righteous, humble, and virtuous women.

Yahweh’s PRINCIPLE is that real beauty comes from WITHIN! Remember, Yahweh LOOKS ON THE HEART! Paint on the face will NEVER recommend you to Yahweh!

LISTEN! “Likewise, wives, be submissive to your own husbands … And adorn not yourselves with the external ornaments of curls of the hair, or the wearing of golden trinkets, or of costly garments. But the HIDDEN MAN (person) of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of the meek and quiet spirit, which is of great value before Elohim. For so once indeed the holy women who were hoping on Elohim adorned themselves, submitting themselves to their own husbands” (1st Peter 3:1, 3-5).

Ask yourself: Do you want to “look nice” in the sight of Yahweh, or in the sight of the world – WHICH?

Never Paint Over the Jewel

Now this scripture in 1st Peter 3 is expressing a PRINCIPLE, rather than specific details.

The principle is that the REAL BEAUTY is IN THE HEART, and shines out from the INSIDE! If that is there – if the woman is meek, modest, humble, then to be dressed becomingly, and even with proper and modest decoration when the occasion warrants it, may be right and proper in Yahweh’s sight. This merely puts a becoming and modest outward and pleasing setting around the REAL JEWEL, which is a humble spirit and contrite heart and virtuous character.

But if it is done to show off the person in a spirit of vanity, then the motive of the heart is evil, and the very same outward decoration, which might be approved when worn from chaste and righteous intentions, is put to a Sinful use.

Modern Slang Shows WHY

On the other hand, applying paint to the face changes and falsifies the appearance, DECEIVES those who see it, and is ALWAYS pictured in connection with HARLOTRY in the Bible!

Today women in public places are heard excusing themselves thus: “I think I’ll go into the powder room and improve on Mother Nature.” “Mother Nature,” of course, in reality is Yahweh! Or, a common expression among girls today: “Let’s fix our faces!” Or, “Wait till I put on my face, and I’ll be right there!” Yes, they KNOW it means putting on a FALSE face! Sometimes women use the expression “repair my face.”

These slang expressions in common use show where their minds are – and what is the intent of the heart!

The very words “make-up” mean “not my real face, but my MADE-UP face.” To MAKE is to re- CREATE. Yahweh says: “Rather, O man, who are you to question against Elohim? Shall the thing formed say to the One forming it, Why did You make me like this?” (Rom 9:20). Yet that is what women are replying AGAINST YAHWEH when they change and falsify their faces!

Do you know the definition of the word “cosmetics?” It is from the Greek word “kosmos,” which is the Greek word representing THIS WORLD and its ways, which Yahweh condemns! Painting the face is condemned in the Bible. It is used ONLY in VANITY or desire to be like, the world, or to conform to the world, or to look “prettier” to the world.

NOWHERE did Yahweh tell men or women to cover up, or put paint on, their faces – but He does tell us to put clothes on our bodies! Proper and modest ornamentation on the clothing that covers the body is approved in many scriptures, and can be done with humility of heart and purity of mind. This applies alike to men’s neckties and women’s scarves, handkerchiefs, or ornamental decorations on dresses.

YAHWEH’S PRINCIPLE is that we must not put trust in outward appearance, as opposed to meekness of a subdued mind that is subject to Yahweh in everything!

The SPIRIT of the Law

What is the SPIRIT of the Law? What is the SPIRIT of Yahweh? It is, first of all, LOVE! Love is the fulfilling of the law. All the law is fulfilled by one word – LOVE!

Love is selflessness. Love is giving, and sharing. Love is toward Yahweh and neighbor – AWAY from self. That is its underlying principle of RIGHTEOUSNESS.

What, then, is the underlying PRINCIPLE of SIN? It is the opposite of true love. Sin is VANITY, first of all. The very root and core of human nature is VANITY!

Vanity is SELF! Vanity expresses itself in many ways, and in different ways in different people. Vanity expresses itself in lust, in greed, in resentment, hatred.

Yes, “ALL Is Vanity”

Vanity is a sort of unrealized, undefined craving for the ADORATION of other people – an adoration that belongs to YAHWEH. Vanity springs from an inherent feeling of inferiority, perhaps unrealized, and asserts itself in a natural effort to rise above that unpleasant inferior feeling by elevating the self above the others, or by at least desiring to be “well thought of” by others.

This instinctive reaching out for adoration violates the first commandment, by making the SELF another god before – that is, prior to – higher than – the true Elohim.

People do not, of course, stop to analyze this feeling and tendency in their natures. Yet VANITY is in our natures. VANITY is one of those things the believer must CRUSH – must keep SUBDUED. If any man or woman says, “I am not vain. I have no vanity,” that person just doesn’t know himself or the nature that was born in him.

It is VANITY that makes people want to BELONG – to be ACCEPTED by a clique, group, club. It is the basis of “party spirit,” and of competition. One of the fruits of the FLESH (violations of Yahweh’s Law), as translated by Moffatt, is party spirit. This is the ingredient in human nature – the SINFUL ingredient – that makes people want to be like the people of the world around them – to BE CONFORMED to this world.

Yahweh commands, “And be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of YAHWEH” (Rom 12:2).

VANITY in the male, if the man has ambition, expresses itself often in the desire to appear important to other men. Vanity in women may express itself in many ways, but the most common is the innate desire to be pretty. One woman who probably would deny that her use of make-up is an expression of this very VANITY said that she would rather be pretty than to have “brains and intelligence.”

WHY Women Use Make-Up

Remember, a THING is not sin. Lipstick, of itself, is not sin. Money is not, of itself, evil – but the love of it (which is actually LUST) is a root of all evil! The use of lip-stick in expressing vanity or conformity to the world IS SIN!

Most women, when asked WHY they use lip- stick, will of course not confess: “I use it as an expression of VANITY,” or “I use it to express an urge to be like the world.”

No, most women will say: “I wear it to look nice” – or “to avoid offense.” They SAY it in words that sound harmless. But YAHWEH KNOWS YOUR HEARTS better than you do – and HE knows that the heart of women, as well as men, is “DECEITFUL, above all things, and it is incurable.” And He asks: “Who can know it?” (Jer 17:9). Yes, the inner intents of the heart often deceive its owner.

TO WHOM does this woman wish to “look nice?” – to Yahweh? No, for to Yahweh she looks like a painted, artificial PROSTITUTE!

TO WHOM do you wish to “look nice?” But “to other people.” Yes, but to what other people? To the people of Yahweh – the brethren of the Congregation? No, because they are obedient to Yahweh – they have stopped using it they have the mind of Messiah and see you as He does!

You see, when we pin it down, the woman who wears it “to look nice” is trying to look nice to the WORLD! She is trying to conform to this world – to be LIKE the world – against Yahweh’s word. (Rom 12:2)

Women do NOT have to be like the world in ways that transgress the spirit of Yahweh’s Law! They do NOT have to wear lip-stick or other make-up, any more than men have to break the Sabbath!

Worldliness is conforming to the world in ways that transgress the letter or the spirit of Yahweh’s Law. Wearing make-up is worldliness – and THE BIBLE brands worldliness as SIN!

Your Decision

Those yielded to Yahshua who paid such a PRICE for this very cleansing will need no more. Those not so yielded would not repent and let the precious blood of Messiah cleanse them, and their faces. Yahweh tells us WHAT is sin, and He tells us that this vain use of facial make-up is SIN!

But Yahweh leaves it to YOU to decide whether to obey! You are a free moral agent. That decision is now YOUR RESPONSIBILITY! What are you going to do with it?