“Sins’ Shame”

(part 1)


“O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.”

Ezra 9:6

How many of you can identify with that prayer. We all, I am certain, have things in our lives that we deeply regret, are embarrassed about, or ashamed of. Shame is defined as a painful sense of having done something wrong, improper or immodest. It has been evident in the lives of men since the moment sin entered the world. Genesis 2:25 tells us that before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve, both walked in perfect relationship with God. They walked in obedience to God’s Word and although they were fully exposed they felt no shame”

“The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”

Genesis 2:25

However, after they sinned by eating off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 3:7 tells us:

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

Upon becoming painfully aware of their nakedness, Adam and Eve’s initial response was to cover themselves. There was now something in their lives they did not wish to have exposed. So they covered themselves (hiding themselves from one another with fig leaves) and then they hid themselves from God:

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord god among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

Genesis 3:8-10

Shame is always accompanied by an attempt to cover ourselves. In fact, throughout scripture, specifically the Old Testament, shame meant to “cover one’s face.” Covering one’s face is a natural response to shame. Do you remember getting into trouble as a child and when confronted about what you did wrong you “hid your face” in your hands? Psalm 44:15 says:

“My disgrace is before me all day long and my face is covered with shame.”
In those moments of painful awareness when our sin is exposed we “hide our face.”
Kid’s hide behind the curtains, in the closet or under the bed, but adults do it to. Maybe it isn’t as primitive, but we hide ourselves in busyness, work, activity, alcohol, prescription medicine…all in an attempt to conceal the pain and the shame.



Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com