Today's Reading: Numbers 32

 

Your Sin Will Find You Out

If you received an anonymous letter in the mail that simply read, “I know what you did,” what is the first thing that would come to your mind?  Is there some unconfessed sin from your past that you haven’t dealt with?  Or, worse, is there some “secret” sin in your present life that you think no one knows about?

Jesus said, "That which is done in secret shall be shouted from the housetop” (Luke 8:17).  

In Hebrews 4:13 we read "Everything is open and naked before Him with whom we have to do."  There really is no such thing as “secret sin.”  You may think...

you’re hiding your sin, but God knows about it and will hold you accountable.

In our passage today, Moses grants the request from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh to settle east of the Jordan river.  However, he gives them one condition – that they stay in the fight with their fellow tribes until the land of Canaan has been fully conquered by Israel.  He explains that it would be a sin against God if they fall back and fail to keep this condition.  Moses warns them very sternly, “You won’t get away with it if you don’t stay and fight.”  Your sin will find you out.

Sooner or later, our sins always catch up with us.  Sometimes they catch up with us quickly and forcefully; sometimes it happens only gradually or over a long period of time. But eventually we will pay the price when we rebel against God, either now or in eternity.

Before your sin finds you out, I would exhort you to “find sin out.” That is, we need to know what is contrary to the will of God in our lives and avoid it at all costs.  Get alone with God.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything in your life that is contrary to God’s will.  Agree with God that it is sin.  Confess it and forsake it. 

If we try to hide our sin, it will find us out.  You can be sure of it.  However, if we freely admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and “will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:9)