The Importance Of Modesty

Isaiah’s Judgment on the Daughters of Zion

Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks, glanting wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with the scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves, the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets, the signet rings, and nose rings, the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags, the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

Instead of perfume there will be rottenness, and instead of a belt, a rope, instead of well-set hair, baldness, instead of a rich robe, a skirt, a sackcloth, and branding instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty men in battle, and her gate shall lament and mourn.

Empty she shall sit on the ground, and seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, we will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.

These are the words of the Lord. So, if you remember the context, at the end of chapter 2, we were talking about the pride of Judah and all the high and lofty things that the Lord was going to cut down because they were proud and competed with him.

And then at the beginning of chapter 3, we looked at one aspect of that pride, which is people in their trust in men, their pride in their leadership, instead of trusting in the Lord. And now we're going to look at another version of that pride.

If the former passage more or less focused on the men, this passage focuses on the women of Judah and their immodesty, which is another form of pride. And as we look at this, I want us to see the problem of immodesty, the solution to immodesty, which can be found in Jesus Christ.

And then after that, we're going to look at three different reasons why immodesty is foolish. So that's our trajectory for this morning. The problem of immodesty, the solution to it in Christ, and then three different reasons why it is foolish.

The Nature of Immodesty as Pride and Self-Protection

All right, verse 16 says, The Lord said, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet.

All right, so here you have a statement that they are proud, they are haughty. They walk with outstretched necks and glance wantonly with their eyes. I don't know how exactly to describe to you what that looks like, you know.

But obviously this is something flirtatious, something seductive. And mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, once again, I don't know what exactly that looks like. But, and it could even refer to the jewelry that they're wearing on their ankles, or it could refer to the way they walk with a seductive gait.

I'm not really sure, but the point is that they're, you know, acting seductively, flirtatiously, and modestly. Now, when I think about this passage and the people to whom I am presenting it to, you know, people who, by the standards, if we're just talking about attire, are largely a modest people.

And I don't want to preach this in such a way that you leave here thinking, oh yeah, that world, so immodest. I want you to leave here thinking about how this applies to us here today. I feel a need to describe immodesty in a way that's a little more broad than a definition that just refers to clothing would do.

So, immodesty can refer to different things, right? Someone who brags is immodest. I have a tendency to name-drop. That's immodest. Now, if you think about clothing, think about the way we use the word immodesty.

I might say, at one point, Britney Spears dresses immodestly. And I also might say the Pope dresses immodestly, right? Those mean two different things, sort of, but they are both immodest. And so, what is it that connects those two things?

Think about what connects those two things. It is that both of them declare a lack of vulnerability and a lack of weakness. One, by being revealing, says, while others may be vulnerable like this, I'm not.

And the Pope, by decorating himself, declares certain perfections that he does not have, declares himself to be free of weaknesses that others have. This is what immodesty, broadly speaking, is. It's something more specific than just pride in general, but it's anything that, even internally, if you're denying your weaknesses, or externally, you are using things to hide the weaknesses you have.

That is what immodesty is, more broadly. Now, if you think about yourself, what is it, what weaknesses do you have, and what do you do to hide those weaknesses from others? Every single one of us, when we talk to others, pretends to have a more perfect life than we really do.

Right? And with the advent of social media, it's a little more obvious. You go on Instagram and you see what people post, and, you know, it's the happy things, it's the good things. It's not the imperfections of their life that they broadly advertise.

And no one wants to just advertise the imperfections of their life. And so, they instead focus on their strengths, hiding their weaknesses. And this is a very natural desire that we have. But what we have been called to, as Christians, is to open confession of our sins.

James 5 .16 says, confess your sins, confess to one another, pray for one another, that you may be healed. And that is a hard thing to do. But this is the thing to which we have been called, to be open about our weaknesses, instead of focusing on our strengths, to hide who it is that we truly are.

Otherwise, we cannot be healed. Now I'd like to look at the punishment that a modesty receives. In verse 17, Therefore, the Lord will strike with the scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

Christ Bears the Shame of Immodesty

Okay, so instead of beauty, they become ugly. Right? This is a poetic justice that's being done here. These things that these people were focusing on as their strengths, that they were being proud about and modest about, God is taking those things away.

Then it says, He will lay bare their secret parts. He will make them ashamed. Right? Nakedness has to do with shame. That's why the prophets frequently speak of nakedness as something that exposes sin, or Adam and Eve in the garden.

When they had sinned, they then realized they were naked, and it became a shameful thing. These people are ashamed. And so God says, If you're going to act shamelessly, I will make you ashamed. Like I said, a poetic justice.

You're going to flaunt yourselves, I will flaunt you. That's how this is being reversed. This is a dire punishment, something that you do not want to face. But there is a solution. There is forgiveness for this sin that we all participate in, not just those who dress provocatively.

And that solution is found in Jesus Christ, who died for the sin of immodesty. Consider his life for a minute. Jesus lived a modest life. Now you might think, Well, Jesus didn't have any weaknesses, did he?

He did. They were not weaknesses that were moral failings or moral weaknesses, but they were weaknesses of a different variety. Isaiah 53, 2 says, He grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.

He had no form of majesty that we should look at him, or beauty that we should desire him. He lived a perfectly modest life, and then he suffered and died in place of those who have lived lives of immodesty.

And think about what suffering it was that he bore on the cross. It was a suffering of shame, right? It's this that we saw right here. He had his clothing divvied up by lot. His secret parts were laid bare in the place of those who deserve such a shaming punishment.

This description right here is what Jesus himself bore in place of those who deserve it. And so if you trust in him for the forgiveness of sins, you can be free from the punishment that is owed to those who have been immodest.

Now, having looked just at those two verses and seen the problem and the solution, I want to continue on through the rest of this passage, looking at different ways, like I said, three different ways, that immodesty is foolish.

And each one of these will hopefully point us to Christ. Verse 18,. And that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets and the scarves, the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes and the amulets, the signet rings and nose rings, the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks and the handbags, the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans and the veils.

Instead of perfume, there will be rottenness. Instead of a belt, a rope. Instead of well-set hair, baldness. Instead of a rich robe, a skirt, a sackcloth. And branding instead of beauty. So here, all those things that they had had pride in, all these things that they were using, immodestly, God is taking away.

Now, if you happen to be reading another translation, no doubt some of those would have said very different things. When you have a list like this in Hebrew, without context, a lot of times it's not clear what this particular thing means.

Is it a bracelet or is it a necklace? It's not always clear. But that's not really the point. The point is that by listing all these things, God is showing the extreme narcissism that is immodesty. And he's replacing each one of those things.

Instead of beauty, ugliness. Instead of fragrance, there's putridness. Branding instead of beauty, etc. He is replacing each one of these things. The first reason this is foolish to be immodest is because immodesty treats as eternal that which is temporary.

Now, God is taking all these things away. However, we should already know, just by default, that no beautiful thing lasts forever. Your own physical beauty fades away very quickly. Your strength, your physical strength, fades away.

Even if you have something that seems a little more permanent, like a bank account, even that, you will not have access to it after you die. Each one of these things is temporary. They do not last. But there is a beauty that is eternal.

Psalm 27 4 says, One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever all the days of my life, that I may gaze upon his beauty and inquire in his temple.

The psalmist is talking about gazing upon the beauty of the Lord. That is the true beauty that we ought to be seeking, rather than our own beauty. We ought to be considering God's beauty, rather than our own.

Christ's beauty, rather than our own. There's a key thing to consider here, which is, not only is Christ beautiful, not only is God beautiful, but he is the source of all beauty. So that means that our beauty is derived from him, but then additionally it means that he is the standard of beauty.

A lot of people say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? And that's used to mean that beauty is subjective. It's kind of an arbitrary standard that each person sets for themselves. It's kind of true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there's one beholder that matters more than all others, and that beholder is God.

And we need to be considering what his eyes consider beautiful. And his eyes, while he created the things that we find beautiful, physically, aesthetically, that is ultimately what he finds most beautiful.

1 Timothy 2 .9 talks about dressing, rather than with costly attire, golden pearls, dressing ourselves with modesty and self-control. These are things that he considers more beautiful, and we can have that in Christ.

If we are in Christ, we are dressed in him, and the Father sees us as beautiful because the Father sees him as beautiful. And then not only that, but he has given us of the Holy Spirit that grants that fruit of the Spirit, that modesty and self-control that makes us beautiful in this life, spiritually, and then even beyond that, the Holy Spirit is that seal of the resurrection that we will have eventually, if we trust in Christ.

That seal of the resurrection that will make us beautiful physically as well. So this is not a partial salvation. This is a whole thing that Jesus provides. And modesty is not the answer. You can't make yourself appear more beautiful by pretending that you don't have an aging body, by pretending that if you coat yourself in jewelry that you'll be more attractive.

It's a bit paradoxical, but if you want to be beautiful, then you must admit your nakedness, that shame that we were talking about, because only by admitting your nakedness, your lack of beauty, that you can be clothed in Christ and made beautiful.

Anything else, if you are boasting, using anything that would make yourself to appear more wonderful than you actually are, to hide your weaknesses, you know, that's, like I was saying earlier, that's no different than this, than the kind of modesty we have pictured in this passage.

It's no better than the makeup of Jezebel to cover yourself. Instead, you need to admit your own nakedness, be clothed in Christ. The next reason why immodesty is foolish is that it boasts security, but offers none.

False Security and Strength in Weakness

So look at verse 25. Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty men in battle. Her gate shall lament and mourn. Empty she shall sit on the ground. So someone who is immodest, who hides the weaknesses they have, focusing on their perfections, boasting their perfections, they are people who act as though they are secure.

They have all the security they need. They are independent. They don't need anybody else. If you were to look at this passage and meditate on it, which I did, you might find that 25 and 26 are kind of hard to fit into the rest of this.

How does this have to do with immodesty? Everything else makes a lot of sense, even verse 1 in the next chapter. But this one, you might think, well, how is this related? Why are the men being punished instead of the women?

How does this make sense? Well, this isn't unrelated. It's not an arbitrary punishment. This is a punishment on the women. These women, immodestly, considering themselves secure, considering themselves self-sufficient, by destroying the warriors of the city, God is showing them that they are not secure.

They are not self-sufficient. He is taking all these things away. All these things, just as with beauty, are temporary. Right? They're all superficial. Lipstick on a pig. They're all temporary. Like a sidewalk chalk paint mural, you know, it might last for a season, but as soon as the rain comes, it's washed away and everything is gone.

And that rain will come, and are you ready? There is a security that we can have in Christ. If we are in Him, then we have eternal life. We have an eternal security. And that is so much better than the false security that you get out of—what's the phrase I'm looking for?

Not self-denial. Self-delusion, maybe. The self-delusion of immodesty, saying that I have these perfections and I'm using them to cover these weaknesses. And that security is found in Christ through, once again, another paradox, admitting our weakness.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 .10, he says, For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. The point of that being that it is in those who admit their weakness that God is willing to reveal His strength so that it is shown that He is the one who is strong and not them.

Just like admitting our nakedness is how we get clothes and beauty, admitting our weakness is how we can be strong in Christ. Verse 4 -1. And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes.

Only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach. So, the last reason that immodesty is foolish is because immodesty finds identity in the self independently. Now, I couldn't think of a more clear way of saying that, so it might not immediately seem that that's foolish to find identity in self independently of anything else.

But let me try to explain that. Here you have these women who earlier were finding themselves to be self-sufficient, but now instead of playing hard to get, they are begging someone else for an identity, someone else for a name.

This is what immodesty is. Immodesty is to say that I have worth in and of myself, and I don't need anything else for worth. That falls apart pretty quickly. As soon as you start changing, then that source of worth changes.

If you're finding your worth in how others perceive you, then you're lying to yourself to say that it's independent of anything else. It's very existential. If you've heard that before, maybe even had to read existential lit in high school like I did, what existential means is that our existence precedes our meaning.

In other words, we exist, and then meaning is something that gets slapped on later by whoever decides to give it meaning. I exist, and then I give myself meaning. Christianity believes that God is what gives all things meaning.

He determines the meaning of all things. You cannot have worth in yourself, but this is what all kinds of world religions teach us, what a lot of religions teach, in just about every Disney movie you watch.

It says, you know, believe in yourself. Believe in yourself, and you've got worth. It doesn't matter what anybody else says. No, there's someone else who matters. It matters what he says. Let me give you an illustration.

Alright, I have a visual illustration, the best kind, right? I have a $20 bill here. How much is this worth? Sort of. Yeah, it's a trick question. This piece of paper is worth almost nothing inherently, right?

It finds its value in something much bigger, right? The Federal Reserve. Jesus is far bigger than the Federal Reserve. You can find a great identity in Jesus, and unlike the Federal Reserve, it's always changing and making my $20 worth $19 and then $18 and so on.

There's your political comment for today. Alright. Unlike the Federal Reserve, Jesus is unchanging. He gives us a worth that is so much more valuable than anything else. And if you were wondering what you were worth, the answer is inherently very little.

But if Christ died for you, if you trust in him for salvation, then you have been purchased with his blood, something more valuable than all the gold and jewels in the world. So as we consider this passage, consider that this was not just for the women of Judah.

This is for us today. Back in verse 25, it said, Your men shall file by the sword and your mighty men in battle. Notice that, you know, this stops being about them, this third person plural, and starts being about her, singular, the city, and then you, or you and then her.

Jerusalem becomes personified, and as we've seen earlier, Isaiah often uses Jerusalem, or the Holy Spirit anyway, uses Jerusalem to foreshadow the church. We need to be asking ourselves, as a church, are we engaging in immodesty?

Are we pretending to be more perfect than we are? Because God did bring 25 and 26 about on Jerusalem. He destroyed them, once with Babylon, again in 70 AD, because they considered themselves self-sufficient, secure, without the need for this Messiah that had come to them.

But as we move forward, I would ask that you consider it folly to consider as eternal that which is temporary, to boast strength and security where you have none. Instead, let us admit our nakedness, be clothed in the beauty of Christ, admit our weakness, be imbued with the strength of Christ through the Holy Spirit, who gives us that fruit that makes us beautiful in this life, and that you find your identity and your worth not in yourself inherently, but in Christ, who is purchased with his blood all who believe.

So if you turn to Christ, he can forgive you the sin of immodesty because he has lived a perfectly modest life and died bearing the shame described here, the one of nakedness and suffering. Let's pray.

Prayer and Hymn for the Lord’s Table

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the clarity it provides. I pray that you would assist us as we are a people who very much desire to be strong and beautiful and focus on our strengths and our beauties rather than admitting our nakedness and weakness.

I pray that we would be a people who humbly come before you, receiving from you that which we need, and we would be a people who humbly go to each other, confessing our weaknesses, confessing our sins, overcoming the hurdle of embarrassment that we feel by these things.

I pray that we would humble ourselves as we ought and that we would find our worth in your Son, Jesus Christ, and that we'd be filled with the Holy Spirit and be made to be beautiful. In Jesus' name, amen.

We'll open your hymnals as we prepare ourselves for the Lord's table to number 415. God be merciful to me. Once again, please stand with me. Number 415.