We’ve all had the experience of being embarrassed by someone else’s actions. Parents are sometimes embarrassed when their children say or do things in public that the parents wish they’d never said or done. Children, in turn, may be embarrassed by their parents, who say and do things that might not be perceived as “cool” or whatever the current slang terminology is. (There — I’m probably embarrassing my daughter this very minute.)

We can even be embarrassed by people we don’t know personally. I know that I have occasionally been embarrassed by American athletes, for example, when they behave boorishly in international venues. (I’ll commend here this year’s U.S. Olympic team, whose members have, from what I’ve observed, comported themselves on the world stage with unfailingly good sportsmanship and camaraderie.)

Do you suppose that God is sometimes embarrassed by His children, even as human parents are embarrassed by theirs? I believe He is, on the basis of this passage of Scripture:

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16).

Notice that God is not ashamed to be called the God of those righteous men and women who served Him faithfully unto death, as did those whose exploits are recalled in Hebrews 11. That statement suggests its corollary: that God is ashamed to be called the God of those who did not walk in faith before Him.

Was God not embarrassed by his creation in the days of Noah? “And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:6).

Or at Sinai, when the Israelites lapsed into idol worship in Moses’ absence? “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them” (Exodus 32:9-10).

Perhaps, we think, God felt such shame occasionally in ancient times, but surely He would never feel that way about His people in this day and age. Could the Lord be ashamed of His church today? Ask the church at Ephesus, to whom Christ said, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place — unless you repent” (Revelation 2:4-5). Or the church at Laodicea: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16).