Jerry C. Brewer
In denouncing of Judah’s abominations, God spoke these pointed words through His prophet Jeremiah: “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 time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD” (Jer. 6:15).
It is the nature of those who revel in wickedness and immoral conduct to have no thoughts of shame or to even blush. Their arrogance permits them to engage in whatever abominations they desire with no concern for what God or men think about their conduct.
Now, consider these words from Ezra, who confessed Israel’s sins when he came to Jerusalem to restore the Law of Moses:
“At the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens” (Ezra 9:6).
What a contrast between Judah in Jeremiah’s day, and the godly Ezra following the Babylonian captivity!
I submit that American society today stands in the shoes of an arrogant, wicked, rebellious Judah of Jeremiah’s day. Those of us who grew up in the 1940s and 1950s were no different from today’s youngsters. We occasionally spat out a foul word we had heard on the playground at school, or from unsavory friends. But, unlike so-called “adults” today, just before some sort of punishment was administered, that word elicited this phrase from parents and grandparents: “You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” As children, we learned “shame” and learned that when we did or said something shameful, we should manifest that shame in a blush, as Ezra. That is no longer true in society.
Foul Language
Words that were spoken in dens like pool halls and beer joints in previous generations, were never uttered in the company of women and children. To be sure, they were repeated, but not in polite company. Today’s rampant wickedness of the tongue may indicate there is very little “polite company” any more. On the other hand, it probably indicates that those who voice foul language have no respect for such company. They are arrogant and unashamed and aptly described by Paul In his letter to Rome: “…being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents…” (Rom. 1:29-30).
Verbal sewage which previous generations rarely—or never— heard is commonplace in today’s world. It oozes from fermentedly wicked minds into homes via television and films. It is standard verbal fare in places of business, in homes, and on public streets. It is epidemic, if not pandemic, in every hamlet, city, and state in our nation today. It was even uttered by Presidential Candidate Donald Trump in 2016—something no previous candidate or sitting president would have done in previous generations. That is not to say that none of them used that kind of language, but they did not put it on public display to corrupt young minds and offend sensibilities of godly people.
Sexual Sins
Fornication and adultery (including sodomy) is displayed and openly celebrated, as though this is “natural” for mankind. Soap Operas, Hollywood films, stage plays, and other mediums of the arts arrogantly publish these sinful lifestyles for all to see—and no one blushes.
Even in some places within the church, there is no blushing when Christians divorce without a Scriptural cause, then remarry and live in a state of adultery. Such immoral sexual conduct is often brushed aside with the flip quip that, “Times have changed.” Yes, “times” change, but God does not (Mal. 3:6). What was contrary to God’s moral standard 5,000 years ago is still evil in His sight.
In previous generations, young women who became with child were often shuttled off away from the eyes of others to have the child, and parents blushed. Not any more. Even on television game shows, you will find couples who “proudly” announce that they are “fiances” and have children. Shacking up and fornicating without the benefit of marriage is today’s “norm” and it has even become so among “senior citizens” in order to protect their Social Security or pension incomes. Young single women today openly and arrogantly announce on Face Book and other social media that they are, “going to have a baby” without a scintilla of shame—and certainly no blush.
If my parents could return to the world today, they would be aghast at the prevalence of sodomy in the world. And they would blush at the public acceptance of that abomination. It was inconceivable in their generation—and in my earlier years—that the sin which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah would not only be accepted in this country, but legalized as well. Not only is it legalized, but it is celebrated, promoted and accepted in the highest echelons of government.
There is a sad consequence to this abomination that brings others into fellowship with it. Many who would never before have accepted this sinful lifestyle now fall silent before it because their own children and grandchildren have embraced it. They may protest (in quiet corners) that they would not do it, but lend their influence to its continued propagation by their silence and acceptance of their sodomite offspring—and they don’t even blush.
Doubtless, there are many who do blush at the widespread and rampant wickedness of our society, but they have become a remnant. Behavior that society once frowned upon has overrun us since the 1960s “free love” generation (who, incidentally, now run the country). Like frogs in slowly boiling water, we have become conditioned to accept wickedness because “times have changed” and the 1960s song, “The Times They Are A Changin’” has become the anthem of the depraved. Allan Bloom best summed it up society’s failure.
“Attending church or synagogue, praying at the table, were a way of life, inseparable from the moral education that was supposed to be the family’s special responsibility in this democracy. Actually, the moral teaching was the religious teaching. There was no abstract doctrine. The things one was supposed to do, the sense that the world supported them and punished disobedience, were all incarnated in the Biblical stories. The loss of the gripping inner life vouchsafed those who were nurtured by the Bible must be primarily attributed not to our schools or political life, but to the family, which, with all its rights to privacy, has proved unable to maintain any content of its own. The dreariness of the family’s spiritual landscape passes belief. …The delicate fabric of the civilization into which successive generations are woven has unraveled, and children are raised, not educated” (The Closing of The American Mind, 1987, Simon & Schuster, NY, pp. 56, 57).
Until parents, like Ezra, feel shame and learn to blush at the wickedness that engulfs society, its tide will continue to consume and destroy the last vestiges of decency in a once moral society. How long will God’s judgment tarry?
