One day a school principal received a phone call. The voice said, “Thomas won’t be in school today.” The principal was a bit suspicious of the voice. He asked, “Who is speaking?” The voice came back, “My father.”
Sir Walter Scott penned the lines in his poem entitled Marmion, “Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive.”
Sin often becomes a web that we get caught in. Each sin lays down another sticky string of web until the web becomes so tangled we become entrapped in the web that we created. Then we are left with the guilt that sticks and clings to us and weighs us down until we experience depression or feel like failures. Whether the sin is a lie or any other sin, we can be sure we will be found out…one way or another. Even if we were to get away with it here on earth, God is an omnipotent God. He sees everything and He knows everything – even the thoughts that are never expressed through word or action.
An Eastern proverb says: “Curses, like chickens, always come home to roost.” Sin also will “come home to roost.” It might mean that we got caught in the sin. Or maybe we didn’t get caught, but we still live with guilt, regret, and the consequences of our actions. It might mean that relationships are hurt or destroyed. It might mean getting fired from a job. It might mean the end of a marriage. Even if the sin brought no consequences now, God always knows. Psalm 139:7 says, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” The answer is – nowhere.
Consider the following examples from the Bible:
- Adam and Eve tried to hide from God when they committed the first sin. God asked Eve, “What have you done?”
- When Cain killed his brother, God asks, “Where is your brother?” Cain denies any knowledge of his whereabouts. God’s reply: “What have you done?”
- Moses killed an Egyptian who was mistreating a Hebrew slave. He thought now one saw him. The Bible tells us that Moses looked around before killing the Egyptian. Then he buried the body in the sand. But then the next day, he attempts to break up and argument between two of the Hebrews and they said “Will you now kill us like the Egyptian?” Moses learned the hard way that our sins will find us out. Moses’ sin sent him fleeing from Pharaoh to another country.
Over and over again throughout the Bible we can find where someone thought they had gotten away with sin, only to realize that they could not hide it from God. In Joshua 7, Achan took “accursed” things from among the spoils of battle that God had given instructions not to take. He didn’t even get to enjoy those things because he had to bury it so no one knew. But God knew and the result was the nation losing the next battle.
David thought his sin of sleeping with Bathsheba was not known, but his sin results in the conception of a child. Now he has to cover that up so he brings Bathsheba’s husband home from the battle (where David should have been!) so that everyone will think the baby is her husband’s child instead of his. However, the husband is too noble for this plan to work and so David then sends him to the front lines knowing it will result in the husband’s death. Bathsheba then becomes part of David Harem. But God knew exactly all the sins that was tangled up in this web and the son conceived in sin became ill and died.
In Acts 5, people were selling their possessions and giving to those who had need. Ananias and Sapphira sold some land and told the apostles they had sold for a certain amount but in fact they had sold it for more and kept the rest for themselves. Their sin was not keeping some of the profit from the sell, but that they were deceitful in telling the apostles they sold it for less than they had. Peter asks Ananias, “Why have you lied, not to men – but to God?”
Joseph’s brothers were filled with jealousy – so much so that they sold Joseph off to slave traders. They then had to cover up that sin with another and they took his coat of many colors and dipped it in the blood of an animal, ripped it up and brought it to their father who assumed Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. But seventeen years later when a famine is in the land, the brothers go to Egypt to buy grain only to learn that the second in command of all of Egypt was the brother they had sold into slavery.
So you can be sure that no matter the sin, our sins will indeed find us out. I would rather have my sins forgiven and washed away then to have to explain them to God.
God, forgive us of our sins and help us live in obedience to your Word.
#canthidesin #noescape #Godsees
Don’t forget to learn this week’s memory verse:
Don’t forget to learn this week’s memory verse:
1 Chronicles 28:9
Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him.
Meditate and apply:
Will you commit to praying with us in 2020 that God will revive His people, renew our faith, and redeem our land? We feel such an urgency and desperation for revival. If God is moving your heart for revival, write your revival prayer in the comments along with your state or country.
#knowGod #headknowledge #heartknowledge #revivalinAmerica #revivalin2020 #WCM