Everyone needs a garment.  A garment is for covering, protection and adornment.  A good garment protects you from the weather while making you feel comfortable.  It provides modesty for you and at the same time makes you look better in appearance.  A poor garment is uncomfortable and ill fitting.  It makes you look and feel bad.  According to the season of life, we need lighter or heavier garments to cover us.

A Shameful Garment

The first garments were worn in a bad attempt to cover the shame of the first sinners.  Adam and Eve disobeyed God and attempted to cover their immodesty with dying fig leaves.  Genesis 3:7  Our human attempts to cover sin always ends in embarrassment.  These garments remind us of our self-righteousness which is like filthy rags emphasizing our shame.  Isaiah 64:6  Adam and Eve didn’t need wilting bikinis; they needed robes which had been purchased by the blood of an innocent sacrifice.  Revelation 19:13

A Stolen Garment

There are times in our efforts to follow Christ when we fall into the hands of disrespectful people.  Years had passed since Jesus was arrested, but John Mark could not tell this story without remembering the shame of this awful moment.  Though few people saw him as he ran naked through the darkness trying to escape his tormentors, he still could not forget his shame.  In his fear and confusion he ran in the wrong direction.  No doubt if he could have understood what Jesus was accomplishing, he would have run to Jesus instead of running away.  He would have identified with Christ’s shameful mistreatment instead of trying to hide.  Galatians 3:13; Hebrews 13:13

A Cut Garment

David was being persecuted by King Saul.  He had done nothing wrong to warrant this treatment, but Saul in his jealousy was trying to find and kill him.  King Saul had fallen asleep in the cave where David and his men were hiding.  I Samuel 24:4-5 Foolishly David’s men provoked him to avenge himself and kill Saul telling him it was God who had given him this opportunity.  They forgot they were all trapped inside a cave with Saul’s army outside.  David refused to harm Saul personally but couldn’t resist the temptation to cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.  He had to try to prove something, but immediately after cutting Saul’s robe his heart troubled him.  He had dishonored his master by cutting his robe.  He had no right to touch the Lord’s anointed.  David proved nothing by his cowardly act except his own guilt.

A Smothering Garment

Elisha knew the king of Syria was able to recover from his sickness, but he also knew the king’s men were not going to allow this to happen.  It was not his sickness that would kill the king; it was the king’s men.  In the king’s weakened condition, Hazael saw his opportunity to become king.  He took a piece of thick cloth and dipped it in water and smothered the king.  What should have been a refreshing cloth to wash his face became a shroud.  The covering was deliberately made too heavy for him to recover, and nobody but God and the prophet knew the difference.  What seemed to be an act of kindness was in reality a deceptive way to get rid of the king.

A Cursed Garment

Noah was a great hero of faith who saved not only his family, but also the whole human race from destruction.  But even the great ones make mistakes.  After the flood, Noah got drunk and in his drunken condition uncovered himself in the privacy of his tent.  We don’t know why Noah drank, but it was probably the same reason many drink today.  They want to forget their pain and sorrow.  Noah had seen a world die.  Nobody but his son, Ham saw his drunkenness because he was in his tent.  Genesis 10:20-25  It is difficult for sons to restore a father who has fallen.  Sons fail to understand the imperfections of their fathers and pretend they have no sins of their own.  Instead of Ham covering his father, he spread the news to his brothers outside the tent.  It was not enough to see his father’s shame; he had to tell it to others.  What had been done in private was now public.  Because of Ham’s unfaithfulness in revealing the shame of his father his own son, Canaan became cursed.  Many times our own heart is revealed through our children’s failures.  Canaan was cursed to serve his brothers because his father refused to serve Noah.

A Blessed Garment

When the Shem and Japheth heard of their father’s shame they acted with graceful dignity by taking a garment and laying it on their shoulders.  Together they carried the weight of the covering for their father.  They walked backward very carefully realizing that they too could fall carrying the garment to cover the nakedness of their father.  They refused to look upon his nakedness.  Because of their attitude of respect they received a blessing.  Genesis 10:26-27  It is the way we deal with the sins of other’s will bring us either a blessing or a curse.