Isaiah 58:7c
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh? NKJV
Isaiah 58:7c
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help. NLT
This topic is rarely or not spoken of in the church, perhaps for lack of understanding of what it means. And so, this passage in Isaiah 58:7 is part of a list of things God calls the right way to fast. The kind of fast He accepts from us (there is also nothing wrong with abstinence from food and other things to get closer to God and declutter spiritually, mentally, emotionally, at the soul level, and to remove dirt from our spiritual filters due to things we encounter in our daily living).
To explain the meaning of covering the naked, the naked is every person who goes through circumstances, adversities, troubles, or situations that expose their weaknesses and bring shame to them and those close to them. Sometimes it may be that God is taking the person(s) through a season on the way to new heights and new dimensions in Him, but it looks confounding to those who don’t have a front row view of what God is doing in them. The world is quick to shine its floodlights at such things, almost at lightning speed, but we need to remember that as children of a loving and just God, we demonstrate His love by covering the naked.
We are part of a body designed to heal itself. This means that there are solutions within the body for every situation our brothers and sisters or even ourselves go through that we cannot fix on our own. Among those solutions are prayer and intercession for the hand of God to remove the root of the issue, and for those involved to receive the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, and truth that will help them begin their journey of turn around from the shameful issues. Another part of the solution is to personally hold their hands and help them walk out of what led them into that ditch.
For those who know how to pray prophetic prayers of deliverance, this too is involved in most cases to help the person(s) come out of the bondage and oppression of the enemy and find freedom in Christ. However, the solution is never to talk about them openly, much less mock them for what they’re going through. As the body of Christ, we should be for them even if we don’t agree with them or what they have done. We must see that they get restored to God and that everything He says is restored in their lives and for His glory alone. For this, we need to make available everything God has given us to bring about this restoration for them.
Going the way of the world and exposing others when we are called to cover their nakedness has dire consequences in the things of the spirit. Exposing what we should cover is an act of dishonor. Whether we are exposing a leader or authority figure or a young person trying to find their way in life, it is still an act of dishonor in the sight of God. The Bible gives us examples of this principle of covering the naked which says that those who cover the naked among them find prosperity, enlargement, and become rulers of others. But those who don’t cover others in their nakedness lose territory and inheritances, even generationally.
The one we are to expose is the enemy in the same way Eve and Esther did. When Adam and Eve opened their eyes and saw that they were naked, they hid from the Lord in fear. Once the Lord confronted them about what they had done, Adam didn’t take responsibility for his lack of ability to enforce the command of the Lord to his wife and instead accused her of enticing him. Eve, on the other hand, recognized that she had been deceived by the serpent and that’s why she disobeyed God’s command to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We see this in
Genesis 3:11-13
11 “‘Who told you that you were naked?’ the Lord God asked. ‘Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?’
12 The man replied, ‘It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What have you done?’
‘The serpent deceived me,’ she replied. ‘That’s why I ate it.’”
Esther exposed Haman, the enemy of the Jews, who wanted to cause harm to her and her people. He had plotted to annihilate the Jewish people throughout the entire kingdom of Persia. But Esther pointed to him as the adversary to the king. This led to his confrontation by the king, and was followed by his removal in the same way Haman wanted to remove Mordecai, Esther’s cousin and godly advisor. As believers and followers of Jesus, we are supposed to expose all that is evil and detrimental to our walk in His will and for the restoration of His body in the way that He shows us.
Esther 7:3-10
3 Queen Esther replied, ‘If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request, I ask that my life and the lives of my people will be spared. 4 For my people and I have been sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate us. ...’
5 ‘Who would do such a thing?’ King Xerxes demanded. ‘Who would be so presumptuous as to touch you?’
6 Esther replied, ‘This wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy.’ Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen. 7 Then the king jumped to his feet in a rage and went out into the palace garden.
Haman, however, stayed behind to plead for his life with Queen Esther, for he knew that the king intended to kill him. 8 In despair he fell on the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king was returning from the palace garden.
The king exclaimed, ‘Will he even assault the queen right here in the palace, before my very eyes?’ And as soon as the king spoke, his attendants covered Haman’s face, signaling his doom.
9 Then Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs, said, ‘Haman has set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall in his own courtyard. He intended to use it to impale Mordecai, the man who saved the king from assassination.’
‘Then impale Haman on it!’ the king ordered. 10 So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.”
Many in the body of Christ have been exposing one another instead of exposing the enemy and covering each other in their nakedness. As mentioned, there are consequences for violating the principle of covering the naked. Let’s see this principle in Genesis 9:20-27
20 After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21 One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.
24 When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. 25 Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham:
“May Canaan be cursed!
May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.”
26 Then Noah said,
“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed,
and may Canaan be his servant!
27 May God expand the territory of Japheth!
May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem,
and may Canaan be his servant.”
As we can see, this is a generational curse. The sin of exposure of the naked that Ham committed was passed down to Canaan, his son. In the same way, children go through a time of being at the bottom, doing things on behalf of others, always being employees, never employers, losing whatever inheritance was intended for them by God, and seeing it go to others. Prosperity runs from them, as they do a lot but have nothing to show for it.
This becomes their portion until they come to a place of repentance for themselves, for the generations before them who committed this sin and violated this principle, and as they learn to submit to God and His ways also in the use of their mouths and how they speak of others. This is especially important when God has intended to make them His mouthpiece through the platform He gave them but their immaturity and lack of understanding of this principle caused them open their mouths in wrong ways, even in the name of God. God will ensure that all pride and self-centeredness are removed from them, and they will humbly seek to be restored to God and His will for their lives.
Genesis 12:1-7
1 The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.’
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan, 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
As seen, God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham, a descendant of Shem (See Genesis 11:10-26). Abraham had migrated from Ur of the Chaldeans, where he started as an idolater but learned to obey God in everything and walked in His ways until he became the father of our faith. This means that the curse pronounced by Noah was fulfilled, and the land of Canaan, which once belonged to the son of Ham, by this curse spoken against him, due to his father’s violation of the principle of covering the naked, now became the inheritance of a descendant of Shem, one of the two who chose to cover their father’s nakedness. Thus, Abraham, who was already blessed by the riches of the world, became exceedingly wealthy by the blessings that came from the Kingdom of God, and his descendants also enjoyed this land and God’s blessing over them.
This principle of covering the naked is one of the Biblical examples we see that highlight the importance of being mindful of the consequences of our actions and wrong beliefs that could cause our children and their children to inherit things they never asked for, nor do they have any explanation for what they may be going through. Our repentance on behalf of those who sinned before us, for ourselves, and for the next generations is important. Just as it is crucial to seek to remove the curse and other consequences from our lineage so the next generations after us are free from those consequences and have the knowledge and understanding of what could open the door to being perpetual servants of others and never be able to get ahead in life.
Pray with me….
Father, in the name of Jesus, I come humbly before your throne of grace and mercy to ask for your forgiveness for the sin of not covering those who were naked among us, who have been going through shameful circumstances, perhaps consequences for their mistakes or the mistakes of their forefathers, and those you have been taking to other dimensions of your Kingdom in ways that are confounding to our wisdom. We ask you Lord to forgive our sins, and that in our shame we may be covered and helped and not be made a public mockery by others, especially those of our family of faith, even when we didn’t deserve it. We ask you Lord to go to the place, time, and occasion that brought about this sin by someone in our bloodline in however many generations this may have happened, and blot out this sin from us and our bloodline with the Blood of Jesus. We ask that the consequences of this injustice we committed against others be removed from our bloodline so we can become successful and no longer be only servants of others without the possibility of getting ahead. As this sin and its consequences are removed, then we may walk as the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, lenders and not borrowers, first and not last according to your will, and as you always intended for us. Lord, do this for your glory alone, we ask in the mighty name of Jesus and thank you for hearing and answering our prayers. Amen
To God alone be all the glory. **
