Love Covers Sin -- January 4, 2009

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Genesis 9:22-23

I would never condone keeping family secrets when they are hurting the family or even an individual in the family. Nevertheless, here we see in scripture the principle of protecting the dignity of the sinner. Gossiping about it only adds humiliation their situation. Ham didn’t even bring up the factual problem of his father’s drunkenness. He focused on Noah’s shame. Ham told his brothers all the embarrassing info about their father’s exposure.

Contrast this with Shem and Japheth who covered their father’s shame and even refused to see his exposure. They kept their respectful view of Noah intact by their integrity. They didn’t cover his sin but they did cover his nakedness. Often we act like Ham instead of the other two. We enjoy the humiliation of others and make sure others know about too. Instead, in love we need to cover the humiliation and confront the sin.

Noah as a prophet of the Lord curses Ham’s offspring while blessing the descendants of Shem and Japheth. Could it be that we are bringing a curse on the ministry we will birth by reveling in the fall of others. As we find others brought down by sin let’s make sure we are ministering to help them up not to thrill to their consequences.

Covering You,

Pastor Jason