Playing Hide and Seek With Sin

Numbers 32:1-6, 16-27
It is interesting when certain phrases or expressions -- ones we use in our daily lives -- pop up in scripture reminding us how the Bible has permeated our language and our culture. We have a somewhat minor example today from the book of Numbers. Moses is speaking to the tribes who have sworn to help subdue the promised land even though they do not intend to occupy it. "But if you do not do this," Moses tells them, "you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23). Your sin will find you out. This is an expression I have heard over the years, but I don't think I ever knew where it might have originated.

Note, by the way, that Moses does not say, "you have sinned against the Lord and the Lord will find you out." God would know of the transgression, but Moses indicates that the sin itself that carry its own punishment. There are consequences to our actions, Moses is saying, and in this case the failure to meet a commitment will not go without repercussions; the tribes in question will not be able to hide from what they have done because the deed itself will remain a part of who they are.

Frankly I'm not sure we ever know the full ramifications of our actions, the "what ifs" and "what could have beens" of what we have done or left undone. Sin catches up to us--finds us out--in a number of ways, some large and some small, even if only in the fact that we know we have fallen short of God's will. Ultimately, of course, it is God who stands as judge of our wrongdoing, but sin cannot be ignored, cannot be cast aside lightly. Our sins will find us out and when they do the will be consequences.

Prayer: Lord God, guide us in our living that we may not fail you, but when we sin, O God, grant us forgiveness, for it is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.