The recent Ashley Madison dumps reveal two things about our secular media.
They love when the righteous fall.
They hate when unrighteousness is exposed.
The cognitive dissonance is astounding. On one hand, there are now millions of men and women whose "private" cheating has been brought to the watching eye of the public. On the other hand, there are now millions of men and women whose lives will be utterly changed by this. And it trickles down to the family, to the children. Divorces are likely. Huge personal ramifications are likely. People will despair of their sin, and attempt to cover the ugliness.
Everyone can see how ugly it is. But is the ugliness in the questionable practice of the data dump (namely, the hacking, the deception inherent in pulling out large swaths of personal information and exposing it to the world)? If it is, then we ought to remember the uglier sin of adultery. The uglier sin of breaking the wedding vow. The uglier sin of turning one's back on the wife of their youth. The uglier sin of David and Bathsheba's adultery and the ugliness of David's attempts to cover his sin with the death of another man.
Wasn't Nathan also deceptive? For he drew out David's hypocrisy with his own ruse, speaking as the mouthpiece of God. Then we must concede that there is such a thing as righteous deception.
The Ashley Madison data dumps are merely unwitting calls to repentance. Who knows why the hackers did it. But we know why God
orchestrated them to do it:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
Romans 1:18-32 ESV
The interesting backlash and moral outrage by those who approve such practices against the release of this data is epitomized by this scripture. And yet, there is silence among them, in the form of selfrighteous gloat, when the sins of people like Josh Duggar are further revealed. Now Edom is laughing. Beware, Edom:
“But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; do not boast in the day of distress. Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity; do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives; do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress.”
Obadiah 1:12-14 ESV
So what to make of this news? 39 million accounts were created by aspiring adulterers who had already committed their sins in secret, in their hearts. And God sees them all. And now God has exposed it all. Chances are there are adulterer pastors shaking in their boots, waiting to see if they will be found out. Men and women are seeking to cover their shame with the indignant blast against those on higher moral pedestals. Yet the only way to cover the shame of sin forever is to let Jesus be your covering.
If you are a Christian, Jesus died for your sins before your adultery, he died for your sins after they were covered. But he didn't die to cover them so that they wouldn't be revealed. Rather, the only way Jesus covers sin is by uncovering it. The confession of the Christian is not a non-admission of guilt, but the admission and transfer of that guilt to Jesus, where it was swallowed up on the cross. We give Jesus our sin, and Jesus gives us his righteousness. Nothing has changed. Christian, were you found out? Then repent. Repent before you're found out, so that when you are found out, you are pointing people to Jesus and the sin you transmitted to Him. Give Jesus the glory of your repentance.
God's response to Edom is more fearsome and quakening than the crash of the ocean of iniquity unleashed by the revelation:
“For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.”
Obadiah 1:15-18 ESV
Esau dies. Esau burns. The church is the agent of God's flame. God will blot Esau out, by changing their names, or by giving them escape through the cross of Christ.
Every human being was born in Esau's tent.
Christians should be reminded of Paul's exhortation:
““Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:13-20 ESV
But before this, Paul commands we remember the why:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV
Such was I. And such were some of you.
Were the Christian's sin revealed to them, they need only rejoice in repentance and come back to God's fold. But for those who gloat at the fall of the righteous,
““Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness! You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!”
Habakkuk 2:15-16 ESV
The glory of the unrighteous is the fall of the righteous, and their just deserts will be utter shame.
SDG
Nick
