ASHAMED DENIAL

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’ If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’”

Zechariah 13:4-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we continue to study the thirteenth chapter of Zechariah, we see the prophet sharing prophecies of things to come, things that would happen on a day ahead.

In the opening verses of this chapter, Zechariah tells of a future cleansing for the Israelites, one that would wash them clean of their iniquities. We also saw a foretelling of what would happen to any false prophet who continued to spread falsehoods in the name of the Lord. You’ll recall that those prophets would end up executed by their own parents.

Well, in continuing to address the matter of these counterfeit messengers of God, we find Zechariah sharing these words which form the foundation for today’s message. Look again at these verses here:

“On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’ If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’”  Zechariah 13:4-6

Note here that a day would come when these false prophets would be covered with shame over the bogus visions they had shared, visions which had served to mislead God’s people.

How deep would the shame be?

The scriptures tell us that they would seek to disguise themselves and even deny being a prophet in the first place.

First, the disguising as we see this statement within the passage:

“They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive.”

Prophets were often known to wear coats of hair. In fact, as we go to the Book of 2 Kings, we find this dialogue regarding the prophet Elijah:

The king asked them, “What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?”

They replied, “He had a garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.”

The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.” 2 Kings 1:7-8

Without seeing the prophet directly, the king identified him completely by the description of what he wore. The false prophets thought they would become invisible to the general public if they would only not dress as one would expect them to.

But this wasn’t all these shamed messengers would try to do to deceive and conceal their true identity. For the scriptures tell us they would also deny being who they really were. Look at the things they would say:

“Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’ If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’”

Remember that if the false prophets were identified, then they were to suffer the death penalty so there was definitely incentive for them to go undiscovered. Deniability became their tactic.

If someone asked them whether or not they were a prophet, they would reject and refute the notion, claiming to be a farmer again, even trying to convince others that they had worked the land since the days of their youth.

There was only one problem with the ruse and it involved the matter of bodily wounds noticed by others, wounds that were typically associated with self-mutilation produced during idolatrous worship practices. The scriptures speak about these practices in the following verses:

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 1 Kings 18:26-28

You may recall this story as Elijah issued a challenge to the prophets of Baal to show the power of their god while Elijah would display the power of the true God (capital “G”), the Lord God Almighty. The idolaters were doing everything they could to conjure up a response from their god, even going as far as slashing themselves with swords and spears “until their blood flowed”.

The prophets in the future time foretold by Zechariah would bear the wounds of such pagan religious customs but when questioned would lie about their origin, claiming they had come from hanging out with their friends.

In sum, whether dressing differently, bearing false identity, or falsifying evidence of their sinful worship practices, the prophets were engaged in denial forged from their shame.

Later in the New Testament, we would find a reversal in this model as we found Peter, one of Jesus’ closest followers, distancing himself from Jesus when the chips were down. Look at this passage:

Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”

Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown Me three times.”

And he went outside and wept bitterly.  Matthew 26:69-75

Jesus had been arrested and things were in great turmoil as He was dragged before the Sanhedrin for a hearing. Peter feared inside that maybe he would be arrested and harmed as well if anyone knew his identity, if anyone found out that he was one of Jesus’ disciples.

And so three different times, when challenged as to whether he was with Jesus or not, Peter lied and denied that he even knew Him. After the third refutation, the rooster crowed, the sign Jesus said would mark Peter denying Him, a prediction that Peter vehemently denied would ever happen.

But it did and where did it leave Peter?

Ashamed.

Ashamed of Himself after denying he knew his Master and Savior.

Today, people are still choosing to try and conceal their identity from others and it cuts in two directions.

Sinners try and masquerade as being good and righteous, only allowing people to see the side of them that would garner favor. If they would only remember that nothing is hidden from the Lord who sees right through any human charade. Perhaps they would start to feel shame for their actions and choose to repent and change their ways.

On the other side of the spectrum, Christians will often conveniently hide their identities if they think it will lead to persecution or rejection. In essence, they decide to veil that they are yoked to Jesus in any way and in doing so, they show themselves no better than Peter.

And, like him, they should be ashamed of themselves.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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