A Lesson about Shame

A LESSON ABOUT SHAME

An Exposition of Genesis 9:18-29

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: June 26, 2022

Series: The Book of Genesis

Note: Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

²⁰ Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. ²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,

“Cursed be Canaan;
    a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

²⁶ He also said,

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;
    and let Canaan be his servant.
²⁷ May God enlarge Japheth,
    and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
    and let Canaan be his servant.”

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹ All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. (Genesis 9:18-29)

AN OVERVIEW OF THE PASSAGE

With Genesis 9:18-29, we come to the concluding biographical sketch of Noah’s life that had begun in Genesis 5. In Genesis 5, we learned about several generations of the male descendants of Adam through his son Seth. Most of the brief biographical sketches in Genesis 5 consist of three verses. For example:

“When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, ane he died.” (Genesis 5:6-8).

Noah, however, only got one verse in Genesis 5: “After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 5:32) After Genesis 5:32, Genesis devotes 95 verses – from Genesis 6:1 to Genesis 9:27 – to recount the events leading up to, including, and following the flood, with Noah being the central human figure. Finally, after those 95 verses, we get to the concluding statement. If we put Genesis 5:32, Genesis 7:6, and Genesis 9:28-29 together into a single paragraph without interruption, this is what we would have:

“After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth (5:32). Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth (7:6). After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died (9:28-29).”

Noah had life a remarkable life, a life characterized by faith and obedience, which stood out in the midst of a filthy and violent world. Noah walked with God in a world that didn’t know God.

Now as we bid farewell to Noah, it is natural to ask: what will become of Noah’s legacy? Will his sons prove to be faithful stewards of their father’s spiritual wealth, or will they squander it?

THE NAMES AND SIGNIFICANCE OF NOAH’S THREE SONS (v. 18-19)

As we look at verses 18-19, we encounter the names and significance of Noah’s sons. Noah’s sons were previously mentioned by name in Genesis 5:32, in Genesis 6:10, and in Genesis 7:13. Now as we conclude Genesis 9 and prepare for Genesis 10, the spotlight turns onto Noah’s sons “who went forth from the ark” (v. 18) with their father. Their names “were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

Of course, only eight people survived the flood – Noah and Noah’s wife, Noah’s three sons and their wives. As they entered the post-flood world, the future population of planet earth would stem completely from Noah through his three sons. The significance of this fact is highlighted in verse 19: “from these [three… sons of Noah] the people of the whole earth were dispersed.”

There is one other detail in verse 18 that helps to set the stage for what follows: “Ham was the father of Canaan.” In fact, Ham had four sons (Genesis 10:6), Japheth had seven sons (Genesis 10:2), and Shem had five sons (Genesis 10:22). But of these sixteen grandsons of Noah, Ham’s son Canaan enters the account of Genesis 9:18-27 in a tragic way. Canaan’s name is mentioned five times in these ten verses.

THE CHARACTER OF NOAH’S THREE SONS (v. 20-23)

After hearing the names and significance of Noah’s three sons in verses 18-19, now in verses 20-23 we learn about the character of Noah’s three sons. Of course, a man’s character is not determined by a single isolated action. But a man’s character does get expressed and revealed in particular actions, and this is what is happening in verses 20-23. Ham’s misconduct reveals an underlying flaw in his character, whereas the honorable conduct of Shem and Japheth reveals that something is fundamentally right about their character.

The circumstance that occasions the revelation of the character of Noah’s sons is a foolish action by Noah himself. Keep in mind, though, that verses 20-23 aren’t primarily about Noah. Noah’s good character has already been well-established. That said, it is worthwhile to remember that with the notable exception of our Lord Jesus Christ, no man who has walked with God upon this earth has done so in a 100% sin-free manner.

So, in verses 20-21 we learn that Noah became a cultivator and harvester of grapes. As “a man of the soil” (v. 20), perhaps Noah was a farmer more generally, but what is specifically mentioned is that “he planted a vineyard” (v. 20). Noah was a vineyard planter, a vineyard cultivator, a vineyard harvester, and then finally a winemaker. It is important to be clear that up until this point, Noah’s vineyard work and wine production are good things. The Lord is the one who causes “plants [to grow] for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man” (Psalm 104:14-15).

Over and over again, the Bible teaches two important things about alcoholic beverages: first, that they are a good gift from God; and second, that they are potent and must be handled with great care. Moderate consumption is permitted and has God’s blessing, but preoccupation and excessive consumption and drunkenness are foolish, sinful, and destructive: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.” (Proverbs 20:1) “Be not among drunkards” (Proverbs 23:20). And Scripture tells us to “[be] sober-minded” (1 Peter 1:13). Physical sobriety doesn’t guarantee spiritual sober-mindedness, but physical drunkenness makes spiritual sober-mindedness impossible.

As for Noah, “[he] drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.” (v. 21) Noah acted in a manner inconsistent with his overall character – which is something that you and I are also prone to do at times. In Noah’s case, he drank to excess, got drunk, and fell asleep naked. This is not Noah’s finest hour. Drunkenness itself is shameful, and then his shame is compounded by nakedness. H. C. Leupold writes this sobering commentary:

“[Noah] neglected caution. He who maintained his ground over against a wicked and godless world, neglecting watchfulness and prayer in a time of comparative safety, fell prey to a comparatively simple temptation, which should have been easy to meet. It is not the young and untried Noah who sins. It is the seasoned man of God, ripe in experience, who is here brought low.”[1]

In our own varied circumstances, let us be careful to maintain appropriate diligence and vigilance at all times.

Now at this point we should take note of how this passage echoes Genesis 2-3. In last week’s sermon I showed about eleven different ways in which Genesis 8:1–9:17 echoes Genesis 1:1-30. Well, the echoes continue in today’s passage. Specifically, Genesis 9:20-25 echoes Genesis 2-3 in profound ways.

The First Echo

The first echo: as one commentator pointed out, in Genesis 2 Adam is made from the soil, and in Genesis 9 Noah is a man of the soil. Adam by creation, and Noah by vocation, are connected to the soil.

The Second Echo

The second echo: in Genesis 2, the Lord “planted a garden … and there he put the man whom he had formed.” (Genesis 2:8) So the first man, Adam, is situated in a garden, and he was called to be a gardener – “to work [the garden] and keep [the garden].” (Genesis 2:15) In Genesis 9:20, Noah “planted a vineyard” and now his life is situated, in part, in the vineyard.

The Third Echo

The third echo: In Genesis 3, Adam and his wife Eve ate of the fruit from the tree in the garden, concerning which the Lord had said not to eat. Adam and Eve had sinned. In Genesis 9:21, Noah drank of the fruit of the vineyard, which he was free to do. But he drank to excess and became drink, which is contrary to the way of righteousness. Noah had sinned.

The Fourth Echo

The fourth echo: at the end of Genesis 2 and the beginning of Genesis 3, Adam and Eve “were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). Before man’s fall into sin, it was not shameful to be naked because there was nothing of which to be ashamed. But what happened to Adam and Eve as soon as they ate the forbidden fruit? “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” (Genesis 3:7) At this moment the physical nakedness became a frightening expression of their moral nakedness. Now Adam and Eve knew at a deep level in their moral self-awareness that they had something to hide. They were naked and ashamed. And Genesis 3 raises a very important question: what will you do when you realize that you are naked, guilty and ashamed? That very important question is addressed throughout Genesis 3, but Genesis 3 is not today’s passage.

It is fascinating to compare and contrast Genesis 9:22 with Genesis 3. Genesis 9:21 concluded by telling us that Noah “lay uncovered in his tent.” After man’s fall into sin, clothing became the order of the day. Noah lived in a world in which human beings were supposed to be clothed, except within the intimacy of the marriage bed. But in Genesis 9:21 Noah acted foolishly and shamefully – and the shamefulness of his drunkenness is expressed in his consequent nakedness within his tent. And it is at just this point where we see a striking echo of Genesis 3.

In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve sinned, their eyes were opened to perceive their own nakedness. In Genesis 9, after Noah sinned, somebody else’s eyes are present to see Noah’s nakedness. This somebody is Ham: “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.” (Genesis 9:22)

Genesis 3 raised the question: what will you do when you realize that you are naked and morally ashamed? Now Genesis 9 raises a related and yet very different question: what will you do when you realize that someone else is naked? What will you do when you realize that someone else has acted shamefully? This is a massively important issue, and how you handle this issue reveals the condition of your heart.

As Genesis 9:22 begins, Noah’s son Ham “[sees] the nakedness of his father”. The question is: what does Ham do with this awareness? What does Ham do with his father’s nakedness and his father’s shame? As it turns out, what Ham does is the exact opposite of what he ought to have done. What does Ham do with the information about his father’s nakedness? He tells his brothers about it. He broadcasts it. Ham is a tattletale – and it is high wickedness.

This leads us to the end of Genesis 9:22. Precisely because of Ham’s tell-all reporting, now Shem and Japheth know about their father’s nakedness. They shouldn’t have known about it, but now they do. They haven’t actually seen – and they will not see – their father’s nakedness. But they know about it, because Ham told them. What will they do with this realization that their father is naked?

Shem and Japheth prove to be of much better character than their brother Ham. Shem and Japheth do what Ham ought to have done, but didn’t. Shem and Japheth “took a garment… and covered the nakedness of their father.” And they went about it in a careful and honorable way:

“Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.” (Genesis 9:23)

Shem and Japheth knew not only that they had no business broadcasting their father’s nakedness to others, but also that they themselves had no business looking upon it or contemplating it. Therefore, they honored their father in at least two ways: first, they didn’t fix their attention on the symbol of his shame (remember, Noah’s physical nakedness is the expression of his moral shame); and second, they covered their father’s nakedness, thereby ensuring that no other family member who passed by or peered into the tent would see his nakedness. In both these ways, Shem and Japheth honored the dignity of their father.

THE DESTINY OF NOAH’S THREE SONS (v. 24-27)

And with that we come to verses 24-27. Verses 18-19 told us the names and significance of Noah’s three sons. Verses 20-23 gave us insight into the character of Noah’s three sons. And verses 24-27 shed light on the destiny of Noah’s three sons – although that is an imprecise way to put it. For here in verses 24-27 what we realize is that Ham drops out of the discussion entirely. And this is tragic. At the beginning of Chapter 9 it says, “And God blessed Noah and his sons” (Genesis 9:1). This general blessing gives way to a more specific blessing upon Shem and Japheth in verses 26-27, but Ham is left out. Ham has walked away from the place of blessing. He squandered his father’s spiritual wealth. While Ham is absent from the promise of blessing, Ham’s son Canaan is painfully present in verses 24-27, where he is mentioned three times (in v. 25, 26, 27).

In due course, “Noah awoke from his wine” (v. 24). And somehow – we are not told how – but somehow Noah “knew what [Ham] had done to him” (v. 24). Noah knew that Ham had treated him shamefully. In light of this knowledge, Noah pronounced a curse upon Ham’s son Canaan:

“Cursed be Canaan;

a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” (v. 25)

One of the themes that runs through Genesis is the theme of blessing and cursing. God blessed Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28, and God blessed Noah and Noah’s sons in Genesis 9:1. We want to live under the blessing of the Lord, but sin brings us under the curse. The serpent was cursed in Genesis 3:14. The ground was cursed in Genesis 3:17. Adam’s son Cain was cursed in Genesis 4:11. Now Noah’s grandson Canaan is cursed here in Genesis 9:25. Although as Christians we understand that servanthood – and even being a servant of all – is the way that the Lord calls us to live, in the context of the curse of verse 25 the phrase “a servant of servants” is not meant to be taken positively. Instead of being elevated, Canaan is demoted. Instead of being honored, Canaan is punished. Instead of being lifted up, Canaan is struck down. Instead of being exalted, Canaan will be humiliated. In the decades and centuries that are ahead, Canaan’s descendants will occupy an inferior position in relation to the nations that develop from Shem and Japheth.

As for Shem and Japheth, they will live under the Lord’s blessing. This promise of blessing is set forth in an interesting way. Noah doesn’t directly say ‘Blessed be Shem’ or ‘Blessed is Shem’. Instead, in contrast to the statement “Cursed be Canaan” in verse 25, now in verse 26 Noah says “Blessed be the LORD”. Canaan is going down, but the name of the Lord shall be lifted up and honored. The Lord is worthy of all blessing and honor and praise. The Lord presides over heaven and earth, and all authority and power belong to Him. The Lord is uniquely and supremely blessed, and the Lord alone has the authority to bless others and curse others.

As verses 26-27 unfold, it is evident that both Shem and Japheth are being included within the scope of the Lord’s blessing. In Shem’s case, “the LORD” is specifically identified as “the God of Shem” (v. 26). This anticipates what will become clearer in Chapter 11, that the genealogical line out of which Messiah will come, will be traced through Shem. In Genesis 9:26, Shem is honored as one who is in special relationship with the Lord God, whereas Canaan occupies a low position: “and let Canaan be his servant” (v. 26).

Then in verse 27 Noah says, “May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem”. This also is a form of blessing. The first portion of blessing goes to Shem (v. 26), but now a second portion goes to Japheth, that Japheth himself might live “in the tents of Shem”, within the realm of blessing, in the place where God is known and worshiped. Noah’s words convey the prayerful benediction that Japheth grow in size and stature.

The context of Genesis 9-10 indicates that the pronouncement of blessing on Shem and Japheth, the absence of any blessing on Ham, and the pronouncement of a curse on Canaan, goes beyond the destiny of mere individuals. Genesis 9:19 told us that “from [Shem, Ham, and Japheth] the people of the whole earth were dispersed.” Genesis 10 tells us about the clans and nations that grew out of Noah’s three sons (see especially Genesis 10:32).

So, we should understand that the blessing on Shem and Japheth is a blessing on the nations that will stem from them. The absence of blessing on Ham is the absence of a blessing on the nations that will stem from him. And the curse upon Canaan is a curse upon the Canaanites and it puts the Canaanites on a collision course with the judgment of God.

As Noah’s life concludes (in v. 28-29), he was in a position to look out upon a growing number of descendants. In fact, the detailed genealogical information about Shem’s descendants in Genesis 11 makes it clear that Noah lived to see ten generations of descendants – his 350 post-flood years is a long time! But Noah knew that while some of these descendants may have been on the path of blessing, he knew that some were not on the path of blessing. Noah’s words – which should be understood as God-inspired prophetic utterances through a faithful patriarch – these words set opposite trajectories for sons and grandsons, and for the clans and nations that would fill the earth.

LESSONS FROM THE PASSAGE

Having walked through the passage, now we get to consider lessons from the passage. There are multiple layers of practical instruction that shine forth from this passage, but I’m only going to focus our attention on two specific and very important lessons.

Lesson #1: The way that you treat your father has massive implications for you and your children.

Let’s start to unpack this lesson by calling attention to the obvious. Why is Canaan cursed in verse 25? The answer is not difficult to find. Canaan is cursed in verse 25 because Canaan’s father dishonored his father in verse 22. When Ham dishonored his father, Ham opened the door to a curse upon his son.

On the flip side, why are Shem and Japheth blessed in verses 26-27? The answer is not difficult to find. Shem and Japheth are blessed in verses 26-27 because they honored their father in verse 23. When Shem and Japheth honored their father, they kept open the door of God’s blessing upon them and their descendants.

In making these observations, I don’t mean to suggest that parents’ actions lock their children into an irreversible direction. In Scripture, there is always the possibility that a child will turn away from the godly legacy handed down to him from his parents (which, in fact, is just what Ham did). And there is always the possibility that a child will make a decisive break from the ungodly influence that was passed down to him from his parents. Canaan is a sinner in his own right, and his descendants were sinners in their own right. As for Shem’s descendants and for Japheth’s descendants, they would only experience the blessing of God to the degree that they themselves held fast to the way of righteousness.

But we have to be straight-up when we’re dealing with the Scriptures. Multi-generational family influence is a real thing, and individual responsibility is a real thing. Neither principle should be allowed to cancel out the other. And the principle that receives attention in Genesis 9:18-29 is the principle that the character and actions of fathers shapes the destiny of their sons. Dads, learn from Ham: if you dishonor your own father, you just might bring a curse upon your son! Being a parent is consequential.

The Lord “[visits] the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate [him]” (Exodus 20:5). On the other hand, “the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.” (Psalm 103:17-18) “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) The character of one generation is consequential for the next generation.

As part of this lesson, we need to reckon with how much value God places on honoring one’s parents. “Honor your father and your mother” (Deuteronomy 5:16). “Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother” (Deuteronomy 27:16). Now remember the larger context of these instructions: it is the responsibility especially of your father but also of your mother to teach you the ways of the Lord, to train you in the good way that you should go, to guide you and set an example for you. If you have godly parents, then receiving instruction from them is key to the development of your own godliness, so that in due course you can disciple your own children.

Ham’s father was a righteous man who trusted God and walked in obedience to God’s commands. Noah had a rich legacy of faith that he was able to hand down to his children. Noah walked with God – and central to walking with God is the experience of God’s grace. When the Lord said that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21), Noah wasn’t an exception. Noah was a sinner like everyone else. The critical difference, of course, is that Noah had learned to trust God, to depend on God’s grace, to turn away from his sin and walk in the way of righteousness. Therefore, Noah’s life really did stand out from other people because he had been transformed by God’s grace. Noah’s righteousness was not of the pseudo-righteous proud variety. It was a righteousness born of grace. It was a righteousness expressed in humility. It was a righteousness that involved the joy of the Lord and love unto others. If Ham had stood in the legacy of his father’s faith – if Ham had stood with his father in the riches of God’s grace – then he wouldn’t have shamed his father at the point of his father’s failure. But Ham was a stranger to grace, and so when the moment of failure came to his attention, his instinct wasn’t to pour grace on his father; his instinct wasn’t to restore and uphold his father’s dignity; his instinct wasn’t to cover his father’s shame. In this heart-revealing action, Ham demonstrates that he hadn’t received his father’s spiritual wealth and therefore didn’t have any such spiritual wealth to hand down to his own children.

Jonathan Safarti comments that “the immorality begun by Ham and extended in Canaan developed to a revolting degree in the Canaanites” [2]. Canaanite culture involved unhinged sexual perversion and child sacrifice. The indecency of one generation (as in the case of Ham), if left unchecked, will grow into gross immorality in the generations that follow.

When a man turns away from the godly legacy of his father, that man brings trouble on his descendants.

When a congregation turns away from the faithful heritage of its founders, it brings trouble on the kids.

When a nation turns away from the righteous principles of its forebears, it brings trouble on the rising generation.

Humble, gracious, and wise people don’t live in the illusion that these fathers, founders, and forebears were perfect people. They weren’t, and we know it. But we know how to honor and uphold their dignity of these good but flawed men. We know how to walk backward and cover their nakedness with a garment of grace, and not parade their failings in front of the public eye. But the unrighteous Hams of this world actually want to publicly shame the righteous Noahs of this world. You must not get caught up in that. Instead, love your children by honoring the faithful men and women who have come before you, especially your fathers!

Lesson #2: The way that you relate to other people’s shame is a huge deal and reveals whether or not you understand the gospel.

As important as the first lesson is, the second lesson is actually even more important. It gets to the real heart of this passage. Every single one of us is sinful; every single one of us has done shameful things; every single one of us will blow it to a greater or lesser degree at some time in the future. And sometimes, like Ham, you will see someone’s folly and shame. At other times, like Shem and Japheth, you will hear about it. What will you do?

Just think about all the ungracious ways of responding to the failings of the people around us. One response is to actually redefine good and evil in such a way that the failing isn’t even a failing, and one ends up celebrating what is objectively shameful. The world does this all the time; the world glories in its shame; the world rejects God’s standard and calls good ‘evil’ and calls ‘evil’ good. But among those who recognize the failings of others as true failings, there are a number of ways to go wrong. We might be glad that someone has failed (“I never liked him anyway!”). We might be over-critical and condemn the person. We might choose to never forget that person’s failure, but always hold it over their head and use it as leverage in future interactions. We might decide that another person’s failure makes for interesting conversation with other people (“Can you believe what he did? I just don’t understand how he could have done that? We’d better take time to pray for that person, don’t you think?) We might use another person’s failure to discredit them, cancel them, or exclude them from our lives.

And I’m here this morning to tell you, my fellow Christians, that in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, it must not be this way among us. We have no business brokering in other people’s shame the way that the world does. And just so no one walks out of here with a misimpression, I’m not talking about situations where a person’s unrepentant conduct poses an immediate and acute danger to other people: an active shooter, an active abuser, an active con-artist, an active false teacher must be met head-on and opposed in order to protect other people. I’m not talking about such situations. What I’m talking about is a thousand other situations in which someone within our family or church family has blown it, acted shamefully, messed up – and frankly, no one else needs to know about it. And the question is whether you are going to use your knowledge of the situation as ammunition to shame and injure them, or whether you are going to use your knowledge of the Lord to cover their shame.

There is another echo of Genesis 9 in Genesis 3, and I have saved the mention of it until now. In Genesis 3, what did the Lord do with Adam and Eve’s nakedness? He covered it! “And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21) Now in Genesis 9 we learn that Shem and Japheth do what God does. In their own small but important way, Shem and Japheth do what God does, and they take a garment and cover their father’s shame.

And that gets to the important issue here. If God has clothed you with garments of righteousness, if God has justified you through the blood of His Son, if God has adopted you into His forever family, if God has forgiven you and cast your sins into the depths of the sea, if God has separated your sins from you as far as the east is from the west, if God doesn’t treat you according to what your sins deserve but pours an abundance of mercy and grace upon you, if God has set you apart and put His own Spirit within you, then who am I to do anything else except to echo God’s grace to you. Only God can decisively and definitively cover your sin and guilt and shame, but if He has, then I must reflect and apply God’s grace by covering your shame and never making sport of your failure. Do you understand?

“Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” (Prov. 19:11)

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)

“Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” (Proverbs 10:12)

“Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” (Proverbs 17:9)

“[Bear] with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, [forgive] each other” (Colossians 3:13).

Further, when we realize that God has been unspeakably gracious to us, then how can we do anything but extend that grace to our brothers and sisters in Christ?

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

Jesus bore our shame in order to cover our shame:

“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)

We must glory in the cross, and thus glory in sins forgiven, guilt removed, and shame covered. Then, in our own varied interactions with one another, we will count it a privilege to walk backward and put a garment of grace over a brother or sister who has blown it. 

Brothers and sisters, if we live in this manner, we will leave a legacy of rich, blood-bought, shame-covering, soul-transforming grace to our children. If we do not live in this manner, then our influence will run in the opposite direction.

ENDNOTES

[1] H. C. Leupold, quoted in Jonathan D. Sarfati, The Genesis Account: A theological, historical, and scientific commentary on Genesis 1-11. Second Edition. Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 2015: p. 618.

[2] Jonathan D. Sarfati, The Genesis Account: A theological, historical, and scientific commentary on Genesis 1-11. Second Edition. Powder Springs, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 2015: p. 622.