What makes you ashamed? Is it personal? Others? Nakedness? Ashamed is a Bible consideration and term. In Jeremiah 6 the weeping prophet of Anathoth was directed by God to write to the people of Israel and addressed this subject.

It was at verse 10 that Jeremiah observed them to have uncircumcised ears in refusing to hear the word of the Lord. In fact they were ashamed of it and found it a reproach. A long suffering God was trying to warn them of destruction coming through the prophet begging them to repent, but they refused to listen. The apostle Paul dealt with a similar reaction in Rome when he tried to reach the Jews who were in Rome with the saving message of the Gospel (Acts 28:27). They were not interested and in both cases they took no delight in hearing the word of the Lord. They were unfaithful/divorced from God (Hosea 4:12, 9:1), had gone “whoring after the heathen” (Ez. 23:30), and like the church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:4), their passion had gone cold — they had left their first love.

Were they ashamed (Jer. 6:15)? Not at all, they had lost the ability to blush (8:12). The end to such a condition and state of being — “they shall fall.” It is sin and iniquity which separates from the living God (Is. 59:2).

Isaiah said that “seeing they could not see” (Is. 44:9). They had not circumcised their eyes in dedication to the Lord. The things of God were not important to them, but they rather enjoyed the “pleasures of sin”(Heb. 11:25). To them the things of this world were “delectable,” attractive for the present with no profit for the future. That is the nature of the world and sin. It is attractive for the present but delivers nothing profitable in the end (Jude 12).

Those who are given to such give witness of themselves (Mt. 7:20). One will ultimately declare themselves, declare their shame when standing on their own before the Lord the righteous judge. Remember righteous Joseph of long ago (Gen. 39:9). When tempted by Potiphar’s wife he declared: “how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

The Bible warns those who will reject the word of God. The attractions of the world end in destruction. The people of Assyria lost their world power by an alcoholic death in Nineveh. The wrath of God comes on those who live in adultery (Col. 3:7). Christians who seek compromise and try to “have it both ways” make the Lord sick (Rev. 3:16). A neglectful death comes to those out of duty and is very sad indeed. The shame of people of God in Isaiah’s time was illustrated as revealing their “nakedness” (Is. 47:3). Jeremiah said, “as reprobate silver,” they were rejected by the Lord (Jer. 6:27-30).

God’s remedy then and now? Return to “the old paths,” “the good way, and walk therein” (Jer. 6:16).

Can these things happen today? Most certainly they can and will if Christians fail in keeping their heart “with all diligence” (Pr. 4:23). It starts with a circumcision of heart (Jer. 4:4). It is then and only then that ears and eyes will be attuned to the words of God. A discipling of heart and life will bring satisfaction in this life and eternal life in the world to come.

Does unrighteousness make you ashamed? Does immodesty, drunkenness, filthy speech make you blush? When the Lord speaks through His word to you, are you listening?

-David Hill