Oh, how I remember that embarrassing moment! It is, unfortunately, etched in my memory forever. My research had been extensive and my oral report was completed well in advance of the due date, giving this hyper-student ample time for any last-minute fine tuning. So why was the room giggling? Was my hair in disarray? Was there something afoot unawares to me? In complete humiliation, I soon realized my error. The word GNOME has a silent G, and in my silly nervousness, I had pronounced it incorrectly, aloud, for an entire classroom of peers to hear, G-nome. Then, as though called to attention from a deep sleep, EVERY blood vessel in my face sprang into action, adding a bright-red face to underscore my embarrassment. Oh, make it stop! We have all experienced those beet-red situations, those appalling, awkward scenes that replay constantly in our memory. But blushing is not always a bad thing, and the prophet Ezra’s experience is recorded in Scripture as an example of good blushing.
God had opened the door for His people to return to their land after years of exile in a heathen land. In spite of their sin, their God had not “forsaken them” and “…grace had been showed,” mercy had been “extended.” One would think that humility and gratefulness would flow from God’s chosen people. But they responded to this matchless love by willfully disobeying God, AGAIN, as they “…mingled themselves with the people of those lands” by intermarrying with the godless people among them, marring the “holy seed” of Israel, which was precisely what God had warned them NOT to do. When the transgression was brought to Ezra’s attention, this humble priest wept before His God “…I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to thee…for our iniquities are increased.” Ezra was embarrassed that his people had so quickly transgressed their God. He blushed at the sins of his fellow countrymen.
Blushing when faced with our sin, or the sin that surrounds us, is a good thing; it represents our sense of shame, guilt, and repentance before a holy God. The problem occurs when our hearts become so hard to sin that we are no longer ashamed, we no longer blush. Have I listened to questionable language so long that it has become part of my vernacular? Have I been so desensitized by the corruption that has been allowed to enter my eye gate that I am no longer shocked at its vileness? Have I exposed my life to that which would not be pleasing to my Father? In spite of the wicked world in which I live, am I still able to blush in the presence of a holy God? Although I’m not excited about the prospect of blushing, I hope that when I grieve the Spirit of God with my behavior, or what I tolerate from the world around me, I “blush to lift my face,” as I bow humbly at His feet.
Jeremiah 6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush:
Lord, when confronted with the ugliness of my sin, I want to blush, I want to be humbled before You. Help me not to be complacent in the face of iniquity, my spirit hardened by a world engulfed in sin. Keep me tender enough to blush.