The Ultimate Cover-Up
Written by Erin Richer
I think my friend was about to share some embarrassing things about a woman we both knew. I won’t deny I was insanely curious about what she was going to say, but as she began she stopped herself. “I probably shouldn’t share this.” She paused, then carried on down a different path. Despite my curiosity, I let it go.
I’m no saint; I can think of a hundred times I’ve asked for the gory details, or when I have shared with some amusement someone else’s follies. Full disclosure: I can think of two people who drive me up an absolute wall, and I share the things they say or do that frustrate me with, at least, my husband on a regular basis. These two I have in mind when I read the following story:
Drunk, naked, and passed out in his tent is how Ham found Noah. Thoroughly amused by the discovery, Ham came out of the tent and pointed out his father’s condition to his brothers, Japheth and Shem. Intending they would join in his enjoyment, I suspect he was surprised by their response. Noah, by the way, was known for being righteous, for being the only person on the earth who walked with God—hence his salvation from the flood. Is there anything more captivating than when a righteous man falls? And yet, Japheth and Shem did not join Ham in his tomfoolery. In fact, they intentionally walked backward into the tent so they wouldn’t see their father’s shame, covered him—so that no one else would ever see it. Then, they walked back out. (Gen 9:18-27)
I just love when an Old Testament story I’ve read many times foretells the gospel and suddenly it cuts me wide in wonder.
I learned what the Bible means in 1 Corinthians 13 when it says, “love protects.” The Greek word for love in this case is agape—the kind of love only God can give. And the Greek word for protects is stego and means “to cover over in silence.” As soon as I heard this definition, my mind immediately flashed to this story of Noah and his sons.
Did you know, we have an enemy who literally stands before God accusing us day and night, pointing out our shame? (Rev 12:10) Like Ham, he laughs about us: “Look, God…look what your ‘little righteous one’ did! Come check it out. Do you see her shame?” If you try to imagine what you’re being accused of as Satan stands before God, it probably wouldn’t take long to come up with some ideas. Maybe the way you yelled at your kids before school this morning? Maybe the way you treated your husband in a moment of hurry? Maybe the entire cookie sleeve you ate from the pantry five minutes ago? Maybe you feel it’s so much worse than any of those examples and it’s not even in the same universe…abuse? Adultery? Slander? It doesn’t matter. My point is, the voice you have in your head accusing you and insisting you should feel ashamed is real. But our agape loving God already responded to every. single. accusation—both big and small.
God literally entered our tent backward and covered us up. The Almighty God of the universe—Creator of heaven and earth, who could have entered the world in a condemning blaze of glory—came into the world upside down—head first—in the tiniest form and entered the human-flesh-tent as a baby. He walked among us, not once publicly drawing attention to our specific sin. Think of the paralytic Jesus cleansed of sin before He healed his body: “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.” (Matt 9:2) Even the woman at the well, after affirming her value to Him, He privately acknowledged her moral failure but did not shame her! Instead, He revealed that He was the Messiah who came to save her.
And for his Magnum Opus of agape protecting love, He covered our sin and shame with His own flesh and blood, rose from the grave and exited the tent of this world. He left having covered our sins, carrying our shame in tow. God in Christ had every right to the last word about our sin and shame, but at calvary He silently covered over our shame with his sufficiency.
Is it even possible for us to grasp the magnitude of this kind of agape loving protection?
Love that learns of our shame, and enters in quietly, silently, humbly covering us when we’re completely unaware? While we were still sinners Christ died for us. When we weren’t looking for Him. While we weren’t asking for help, when we didn’t even know we needed Him, Christ silently covered our shame. (Isa 53:7)
I’m sure we can all think of specific people who have been the Noah to our Ham. Aren’t we all guilty at least once of pointing out someone else’s shame to others. There’s no condemnation there…He loves us and He’s changing us and He’s covered us. But what if we spend some time pondering our own drunken nakedness inside Noah’s tent and consider God’s love to our shameful condition. Perhaps today we can allow the love we’ve been shown by our Father to saturate our souls. Let’s spend some time pondering our own spiritual state of drunken nakedness, God’s love poured over our shameful condition. Let’s place ourselves inside Noah’s tent and consider the grace of God his sons modeled toward him.