By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
It stinks when you try so carefully to sin in secret, and it doesn’t work. To take every conceivable precaution and still be exposed.
Moses declared a truth we ignore to our own harm. “You may be sure that your sin will find you out,” (Numbers 32.23).
My friend, your sin will find you out. You may get away with it for a long time, but a day of reckoning is around the corner. You can’t keep it hidden forever.
You will be exposed, and then all hell will break loose. You’ll be left wishing you never started with that sin.
When Adam and Eve sinned, their first thought was to hide from God. If God can’t find us, they must have concluded, he can’t discover our sin. Wrong. And men and women, teens and children have been wrong ever since.
Be sure of this: your sin will find you out. King David couldn’t sleep one night, so he went for a stroll on his balcony.
He noticed a beautiful woman bathing, and his lust ignited. He sent for her and slept with her, then sent her home under the cover of darkness. No one would know of his sin, David assured himself.
But shortly afterwards, the woman, Bathsheba, sent David a message that she was pregnant with his child. Uh, how does he hide that?
David hatched a plan to keep his sin secret. He called her husband Uriah home from the war and urged him to sleep with Bathsheba both nights he was on leave.
But Uriah didn’t spend either night at home because he wouldn’t enjoy pleasure with his wife while his fellow soldiers faced uncomfortable living conditions and an enemy determined to kill them.
Curses, foiled again, David must have thought. Since Uriah didn’t sleep with his wife, he could not be the one who got her pregnant. The cover-up wasn’t working.
So, David sends a message to the commander of the army to place Uriah on the battle line where the strongest enemy warriors were, certain that they would kill him.
Then David can marry Bathsheba, and nobody would suspect any hanky-panky happened between them before Uriah died.
But God informed Nathan the prophet of David’s sin and conspiracy to hide his sin. Nathan confronted David, who confessed, and soon everyone in the kingdom knew.
Be sure of this: your sin will find you out. You can be as crafty as David in attempting to keep your sin concealed, but it won’t stay hidden forever. One day, it will be revealed, and the fallout will begin.
David would tell you the moments of pleasure your sin gives you aren’t worth it when you’re found out. His affair with Bathsheba set off rivalry and hatred among his children, two coup attempts on his throne — one by his own son. A downward spiral continued from bad to worse until the day of his death.
Be sure of this: your sin will find you out. And when it does, you won’t like the repercussions. How many times must we see it happen to others before we believe it and stop trying to get away with our sin by hiding it?
On July 16 of this year, the CEO of a tech company called Astronomer, and his Human Resources chief attended a concert together near Boston. They had been carrying on an affair for some time.
They went to great measures to hide their sin from his wife, their friends, and their co-workers. They slipped into the concert headlined by the band Coldplay. During the performance, they were caught embracing on the jumbotron.
When they saw themselves on the giant screen, they realized their secret wasn’t a secret anymore. She covered her face and turned away, while he ducked out of sight. The look on his face said it all: “O crap, we’ve been caught.”
The Babylon Bee is a popular online publication that promotes itself as “Fake News You Can Trust.” Recently, they tackled the jumbotron incident at the Coldplay concert in their usual satirical way.
“Have you found yourself wondering how you could prevent the shame and horror of having it found out that you’re being unfaithful to your spouse while canoodling with a fellow executive at your company at a public event? One simple trick is all it takes.
“Don’t cheat on your wife.” “Like magic! Follow this 1-step process, and you’ll be guaranteed to never be caught cheating on your wife with your HR chick at a Coldplay concert. EVER.”
Or you can convince yourself that others will get caught, but not you. But despite your confidence, know this: your sin will find you out. And when it does, you won’t like the results.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.