I watched a short cartoon comedy skit years ago that took place on a beach crowded with young people. One of the female characters got up on the stage, started dancing to the applause of the crowd, but when she removed her bikini top, they all fell silent. A man entered from the right, wrapped a towel around her and said, “Have you no shame?”
I have spoken with people in my past who use curse words as part of their normal vocabulary, seen women in public dressed as scantily as possible, watched crimes happen on the television while everyone just goes about their business.
“And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Gen. 3:10)
The lack of personal shame is the advancement of our adversary in every civilization, today and those times that came before us. It is not the destruction of the family unit, not the sodomites openly expressing themselves, not reprobate, crooked people being left unpunished for any number of reasons, it is the lack of shame, personal shame.
The first open expression of this was when Cain said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9) He knew the Almighty knew what he had done, and he did not care, there was no shame in his words or for his action.
When we go past the point of openly expressing our sinful desires, when they are no longer hidden from the public view, there is a freedom that occurs that cannot be fully expressed, when you realize that no one really cares, and no one is really going to do anything about it, then personal freedom has reached its pinnacle.
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:” (Exo. 32:7)
As the old saying puts is, “When the cats away, the mice will play.”
Over two thousand years of play is coming to an end my friends.
The only reason many times over that the children of Israel finally begin to obey again was because the wrath of the Most High fell upon them. Now we find ourselves in a time where many who profess to serve the Living God have decided that love is the only answer we are to have towards this world that has, for the most part, cast aside almost every vestige of shame. Not correcting, not reproving or rebuking, just minding our own business and never judging. The enabled society could not exist if shame was still a factor in the lives of many.
“And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2nd Peter 3:4)
We can reveal His truths to them, tell them of His great displeasure, His hatred of sin, even His love for them, we can even quote John 3:36 and tell them that His wrath abides on them. But the ground is not going to open up under them, they more than likely will not get struck by lightning, fire is not going to come down from the sky and consume them.
There was four hundred years of silence from the Almighty from Malachi until Messiah was born, in all reality, there has been over two thousand years of silence since He ascended back to the Father. But not for much longer.
Love, yes. His wrath, yes. Their sins against Him, all this and more should be revealed to the unrepentant that you speak to. But recall this, the very first emotion revealed to our first parents after they broke His one and only commandment was shame.
If they can be made to understand that shame towards Him who first loved them today, they may never have to know that feeling ever again.
