Articles
Neither Could They Blush
In Jeremiah 6 there is a picture of a powerful enemy force invading the land of Judah from the north. The “evil that appears out of the north” (v. 1) was Babylon. The chapter speaks of the preparation for their coming that Judah would make, but it would all be to no avail. The nation of Judah would be conquered. The time of retribution was coming. Jeremiah told the people why this was going to happen and appealed to them to return to the ways of the Lord, but they continued to refuse and their wickedness remained. The chapter ends with Jeremiah comparing the attempts to bring Judah to repentance to the refining of metals. All attempts to “refine” them had failed. Therefore, they were going to face the Lord’s wrath as “rejected” or “reprobate” silver.
In verses 10-15 of Jeremiah 6, the prophet goes into some detail concerning why this was going to happen to the southern kingdom of Judah. In verse 15 there is a statement found that I want to notice in particular. The verses say, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore, they shall fall among them that fall: at the same time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says the Lord.” Did you notice the phrase, “neither could they blush”?
According to Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, the first two definitions of blush are “to redden, as from embarrassment or shame” and “to feel shame or embarrassment.” Christians must not make the same mistakes that the citizens of the nation of Judah did, and lose our ability to “feel shame or embarrassment.”
Let me give you a few things to consider. Does the widespread ac-ceptance of homosexuality still cause you to blush, or do you now find yourself watching television shows or going to movies where the main sympathetic character or characters are practicing homosexuals, and where much of the humor comes at the expense of those who would oppose it?
Have you maintained your ability to be embarrassed, the ability to blush, over how you may appear in public? Is your sense of style and fashion determined by God and His standards, or is it determined by modern entertainers who appear in public (obviously as part of their appeal) dressed as, what God called Judah from a spiritual standpoint, harlots?
Is it possible that the lyrics of modern music—including almost an en-tire genre of music—can cause you to be embarrassed, to blush to think that people would even sing of such things, or will you go on listening because it “doesn’t bother you”? If that is the case, you have lost your ability to blush.
On and on we could go with question after question, but certainly most can see that a great deal of what just twenty years ago was considered cause for blushing, cause for shame and embarrassment, no longer causes folks to even bat an eye. The “things written aforetime were written for our learning” (Rom. 15:4). We must learn from the people of the nation of Judah and never lose our ability to feel shame, to be embarrassed, or blush.
