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Numbers Chapter
Thirty-Two
Numbers 32
Chapter Contents
The tribes of Reuben and Gad request an inheritance on
the east of Jordan. (1-5) Moses reproves the Reubenites and Gadites. (6-15)
They explain their views, Moses consents. (16-27) They take possession of the
land to the east of Jordan. (28-42)
Commentary on Numbers 32:1-5
Here is a proposal made by the Reubenites and Gadites,
that the land lately conquered might be allotted to them. Two things common in
the world might lead these tribes to make this choice; the lust of the eye, and
the pride of life. There was much amiss in the principle they went upon; they
consulted their own private convenience more than the public good. Thus to the
present time, many seek their own things more than the things of Jesus Christ;
and are led by worldly interests and advantages to take up short of the
heavenly Canaan.
Commentary on Numbers 32:6-15
The proposal showed disregard to the land of Canaan,
distrust of the Lord's promise, and unwillingness to encounter the difficulties
and dangers of conquering and driving out the inhabitants of that land. Moses
is wroth with them. It will becomes any of God's Israel to sit down unconcerned
about the difficult and perilous concerns of their brethren, whether public or
personal. He reminds them of the fatal consequences of the unbelief and
faint-heartedness of their fathers, when they were, as themselves, just ready
to enter Canaan. If men considered as they ought what would be the end of sin,
they would be afraid of the beginning of it.
Commentary on Numbers 32:16-27
Here is the good effect of plain dealing. Moses, by
showing their sin, and the danger of it, brought them to their duty, without
murmuring or disputing. All men ought to consider the interests of others as
well as their own; the law of love requires us to labour, venture, or suffer
for each other as there may be occasion. They propose that their men of war
should go ready armed before the children of Israel into the land of Canaan,
and that they should not return till the conquest of Canaan was ended. Moses
grants their request, but he warns them of the danger of breaking their word.
If you fail, you sin against the Lord, and not against your brethren only; God
will certainly reckon with you for it. Be sure your sin will find you out. Sin
will surely find out the sinner sooner or later. It concerns us now to find our
sins out, that we may repent of them, and forsake them, lest they find us out
to our ruin.
Commentary on Numbers 32:28-42
Concerning the settlement of these tribes, observe, that
they built the cities, that is, repaired them. They changed the names of them;
probably they were idolatrous, therefore they should be forgotten. A spirit of
selfishness, of seeking our own, not the things of Christ, when each one ought
to assist others, is as dangerous as it is common. It is impossible to be
sincere in the faith, sensible of the goodness of God, constrained by the love
of Christ, sanctified by the power of the Holy Ghost, and yet be indifferent to
the progress of religion, and the spiritual success of others, through love of
ease, or fear of conflict. Let then your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on
Numbers》
Numbers 32
Verse 1
[1] Now
the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of
cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that,
behold, the place was a place for cattle;
Jazer — A
city and country of the Amorites; Gilead - A mountainous country, famous for
pasturage
Verse 6
[6] And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben,
Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?
Ye sit here — In
ease and peace, while your brethren are engaged in a bloody war.
Verse 12
[12] Save
Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they
have wholly followed the LORD.
The Kenezite — So
called from Kenaz, his grand-father.
Verse 15
[15] For
if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness;
and ye shall destroy all this people.
All this people —
Who being moved by your counsel and example, will refuse to go over Jordan.
Verse 17
[17] But we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until
we have brought them unto their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the
fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
We ourselves —
Either all, or as many as shall be thought necessary, leaving only so many as
may be necessary to provide for the sustenance and defence of our wives and
children here.
Verse 20
[20] And
Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the
LORD to war,
Before the Lord — Before
the ark, which was the token of God's presence. He alludes either to the order
of the tribes in their march, whereby Reuben and Gad marched immediately before
the ark, or to the manner of their passage over Jordan, wherein the ark went
first into Jordan, and stood there while all the tribes marched over Jordan by
and before it, and these amongst the rest, as is expressly noted in these very
words, that they passed over before the Lord, Joshua 4:13.
Verse 22
[22] And
the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be
guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your
possession before the LORD.
Before the Lord — By
his presence and gracious and powerful assistance.
Verse 23
[23] But
if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your
sin will find you out.
Your sin —
The punishment of your sin. Sin will certainly find out the sinner sooner or
later. It concerns us therefore to find our sins out, that we may repent of
them and forsake them, lest our sins find us out, to our confusion and
destruction.
Verse 30
[30] But
if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among
you in the land of Canaan.
They shall have possession — They shall forfeit their possessions in Gilead, and be constrained to go
over Jordan, and to seek possessions there among their brethren.
Verse 31
[31] And
the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As the LORD
hath said unto thy servants, so will we do.
As the Lord hath said — Either at this time by thy mouth: or formerly, where he commanded us, as
well as our brethren to go into Canaan and possess it.
Verse 34
[34] And
the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,
Built —
Repaired and fortified. For they neither had need nor leisure as yet to do
more, the old cities not being burnt and ruined, as divers in Canaan were.
Verse 38
[38] And
Nebo, and Baalmeon, (their names being changed,) and Shibmah: and gave other
names unto the cities which they builded.
Their names changed —
Either because conquerers of places used to do so: or because the names of
other Gods (which Nebo and Baal-meon unquestionably were) were not to be
mentioned, Exodus 23:13.
Verse 40
[40] And
Moses gave Gilead unto Machir the son of Manasseh; and he dwelt therein.
Machir —
Not to Machir himself, who doubtless was long since dead, but the family or
posterity of Machir.
Verse 42
[42] And
Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah,
after his own name.
Nobah —
Who, though not else where named, was doubtless an eminent person of the tribe
of Manasseh. 'Tis observable, that these tribes, as they were placed before the
other tribes, so they were displaced before them. They were carried captive by
the king of Assyria, some years before the other tribes. Such a proportion does
providence frequently observe, in balancing prosperity and adversity.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Numbers》
"SHALL YOUR BRETHREN GO TO WAR WHILE YOU SIT HERE?"
Numbers 32:6
INTRODUCTION
1. Prior to Israel 's occupation of the Promised Land, the tribes of
Reuben and Gad wanted to settle in the land east of the Jordan
2. Their request and Moses' response are found in Num 32:1-27, and have
practical application to our service in the church today
[Let's begin our study with a review of...]
I. THE HISTORICAL ACCOUNT IN NUMBERS
A. REUBEN AND GAD EXPRESS THEIR DESIRE...
1. They were two tribes with much livestock - Num 32:1a
2. They saw that the land of Jazer and Gilead (the Transjordan )
was good for livestock - Num 32:1b
3. So they requested to be given the land as their possession,
and not taken over the Jordan river with the rest of Israel
- Num 32:2-5
B. MOSES RESPONDS...
1. "Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?" - Num 32:6
a. Shall they be at ease, while their brethren must fight?
b. Was it not with their brethren's help that the land they
desire is now available?
2. How Moses viewed their request...
a. They would discourage their brethren - Num 32:7
b. They would be no different than the ten spies
1) Who discouraged Israel by their report - Num 32:8-9
2) Who aroused God's anger against them - Num 32:10-13
c. They would be a brood of sinful men, and increase God's
anger against Israel - Num 32:14
d. They would in essence destroy God's people! - Num 32:15
C. AN AGREEMENT IS REACHED...
1. Reuben and Gad offer to send their soldiers to help possess
the Promised Land - Num 32:16-19
2. Moses agrees, but with a stern warning - Num 32:20-23
a. The land they desire will be theirs if they carry through
with their offer
b. But if they don't keep their agreement...
1) They will have sinned against the Lord!
2) Be sure their sin will find them out!
[In 1 Co 10:11 we are told that what happened to Israel serves as an
example to us, and was written for our admonition. With this in mind,
let's consider the following...]
II. APPLICATION FOR US TODAY
A. LIKE ISRAEL , WE ARE AT WAR...
1. A spiritual war, to be sure - 2 Co 10:3-5
2. A war against Satan, and the spiritual forces of wickedness
- Ep 6:10-18
-- The Lord's army (the church) fights this battle as her members
serve in such areas as evangelism, edification and benevolence
B. MUCH HAS BEEN DONE UP TO THE PRESENT...
1. Many have stood for the truth in the past
a. Coming out of denominationalism
b. Standing firm against innovations which would lead to
apostasy
2. Making it possible for us today:
a. To know the truth of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ
b. To worship God in spirit and truth
c. To enjoy the blessings of God's family
3. But the war wages on!
a. Every thought must be brought captive to Christ - 2 Co 10:5
b. We must continue to stand strong against the wiles of the
devil - Ep 6:11
C. SHALL OUR BRETHREN GO TO WAR WHILE WE SIT HERE?
1. By lettings others do the work of the Lord's army?
2. Shall we just sit, enjoying the efforts of others?
a. The efforts of those who labored in the past?
b. The efforts of those who labor now, making it possible for
us to enjoy the blessings of fellowship and worship?
-- If not actively involved in some phase of the Lord's work,
that is exactly what we are doing!
D. IF WE ARE SITTING, WHAT IS THE EFFECT?
1. We discourage our brethren! - cf. Num 32:7
a. Who often must carry the burden alone
b. Who easily get "burned out" trying to do it all
2. Lack of involvement is just as detrimental as active
opposition!
a. The slothful is a brother to him who destroys - Pro 18:9
b. If we do not gather, then we scatter; there is no neutral
ground! - Mt 12:30
-- Like just sitting in a wagon, instead of pulling or pushing,
we hinder its progress!
E. WHAT WILL BE THE END RESULT?
1. We will have sinned against the Lord! - cf. Num 32:23a
a. For what one does or doesn't do for the church, it affects
Christ!
b. As Paul learned when he persecuted the church - Ac 9:1-5
c. Yes, when we sin against the brethren, we sin against
Christ! - 1 Co 8:12
2. Be sure that our sin will find us out!
a. It will come out in the growth of the congregation
1) Proper growth is possible only if ALL are doing their
part - Ep 4:15-16
2) Growth may occur with inactive members, but the growth
will be stunted, retarded, handicapped!
b. It will come out on the Day of Judgment!
1) When we have to answer for our laziness!
2) Remember the parable of The Talents? - cf. Mt 25:24-30
CONCLUSION
1. When Reuben and Gad realized the effect of sitting while their
brethren went to war, they immediately made arrangements to do their
part
a. Moses was even patient with them, allowing them time to care for
their families - Num 32:24
b. They in turn promised to do their part in going to war - Num 32:
25-27
-- Certainly we can be patient in helping our brethren prepare for
"war", if need be
2. But may we all determine not to rest until the work is done, by
resolving to be...
a. More diligent in the spiritual battle we face!
b. More active in whatever area of service for which we are best
suited!
3. Let your brethren know that you desire to serve, and not just sit
while others work!
Are you in the army of Christ, actively engaged in the service of His
kingdom?
──《Executable
Outlines》
32 Chapter 32
Verses 1-6
The children of Gad, and the children of Reuben, came and spake
unto Moses.
The selfish request of the Reubenites and Gadites
I. Mean
selfishness. In the competitions of business and of professional and social
life there is often very much of mean selfishness, and that even amongst
persons who are avowedly Christians. But selfishness is utterly opposed to the
spirit of Jesus Christ.
II. Predominant
worldliness. In this day there are many, who regard themselves as Christians,
who resemble the Reubenites and Gadites--many who are chiefly influenced by
temporal and worldly considerations in--
1. The selection and conduct of their business.
2. The formation of matrimonial alliances; and
3. The determination of their residence.
Temporal gain, social surroundings, salubrity of atmosphere, and
similar things are often deeply considered, while sacred and spiritual things
are well-nigh overlooked.
III. Disregard of
the interests and bights of their brethren.
IV. Disparagement
of their Divine calling and destiny. What vast numbers practically despise
their exalted spiritual calling in the Gospel for the passing and perishing
things of this world!
V. Want of faith
in the Divine promise. It is not improbable that they had their doubts as to
their taking the good land beyond Jordan, and therefore sought to secure for
themselves what the nation had already conquered. Such unbelief is a grievous
dishonour to God. Conclusion: Mark the folly of this request of the Reubenites
and Gadites. The country which they desired had very grave disadvantages. A
selfish policy is generally a self-defeating policy. (W. Jones.)
Reuben and Gad
This is too often the prayer of prosperous men. They find upon the
earth what they regard as heaven enough. If they could but double their income,
they would sigh for no bluer heaven; if they could but have health without
increasing the income--simply increase of physical energy--they would desire no
better paradise than they can find on earth. Who likes to cross the Jordan that
lies before every man? There is a point at which it becomes very difficult to
say to God, “We are still
ready to go on; whatever next may come--great wilderness or cold river, or high
stony mountain--we are still ready to go on; Thy will be done, and Thy way be
carried out to its last inch.” Yet, until we reach the resignation which
becomes triumph and the triumph which expresses itself, not in loud sentiment
but in quiet and deep obedience, we have not begun to realise the meaning of
the kingdom of heaven. What was the answer of Moses? “Shall your brethren go to
war, and shall ye sit here?” (Numbers 32:6). What suggestion there is
in the colour of every tone! What sublime mockery! What a hint of cowardice!
What an infliction of judgment upon meanness! Sometimes the only way in which
we can put a rational rebuke is in the form of an inquiry. But there was more
to be considered. “And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of
Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them?” (Numbers 32:7). Take the word “discourage”
in any sense, and it is full of meaning. Perhaps a stronger word might have
been inserted here--a word amounting to aversion and utter dislike to the idea
of going forward. Our actions have social effects. There are no literal
individualities now; we are not separate and independent pillars; we are parts
of a sum-total; we are
members one of another. Then Moses utilised history (Numbers 32:8-13). The past speaks in the
present. Our fathers come up in a kind of resurrection in our own thinking and
our own propositions. Meanness of soul is handed down; disobedience is not buried in the grave
with the man who disobeyed. This is a broad law; were it rightly understood and
applied, many a man’s conduct would be explained which to-day appears to be
quite inexplicable. Appetites descend from generation to generation; diseases
may sleep through one generation, and arise in the next with aggravated
violence. Men should take care what they do. Then Reuben and Gad said they
would fight; they would build sheepfolds for their cattle, and cities for their
little ones: but they themselves would go ready armed before the children of
Israel, until they had brought them unto their place, and then their little
ones should dwell in the fenced
cities because of the inhabitants of the land. Moses said, in effect, “So be
it: if you
complete the battle you shall locate yourselves here; but you must complete the
battle, and when the conquest is won, you may return and enjoy what you can
here of green things and flowing water; but, let me tell you, ‘if ye will not
do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord’; this is not a covenant between
you and me--between man and man; but your sin will be against the Lord, ‘and be
sure your sin will find you out.’” The matter was not easily arranged; Heaven
was invoked, tones of judgment were employed, a covenant was entered into which
bore the seal eternal. That law still continues. Supposing there to be no
Bible, no altar, no invisible judgment-seat, no white throne--as has been
conceived by sacred poetry--there is still, somehow, at work, in this
mysterious scheme of things, a law of a constabulary kind which arrests the
evil-doer, which makes the glutton sick, which makes the voluptuary weak, which
stings the plotter
in the very time which he had planned for his special joy. There is, account
for it as we may, a ghostliness that looks upon us through the cloud, so that
we feel the blood receding from the face, or feel it returning in violent
torrents, making the face red with shame. But there is the law, give it what
name we may, shuffle out of religious definitions as we like: the wrong-doer
lays his head on a hard pillow; the bad man stores his property in unsafe
places. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verses 6-15
Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?
And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel?
The expostulation of Moses
1. He shows them what he apprehended to be evil in this motion; that
it would discourage the heart of their brethren (Numbers 32:6-7). What, saith he, with a
holy indignation at their selfishness, “shall your brethren go to war, and
expose themselves to all the hardships of the field, and shall ye sit here at
your ease? No, do not mistake yourselves; you shall never be indulged by me in
this sloth and cowardice.” It ill becomes any of God’s Israel to sit down
unconcerned in the difficult concernments of their brethren, whether public or
personal.
2. He minds them of the fatal consequences of the unbelief and
faint-heartedness of their fathers when they were, as these here, just ready to
enter Canaan. He recites the story very particularly (Numbers 32:8-13). “Thus did your
fathers,” whose punishment should be a warning to you to take heed of sinning
after the similitude of their transgression.
3. He gives them fair warning of the mischief that would be likely to
follow upon this separation they were about to make from the camp of Israel;
they would be in danger of bringing wrath upon the whole congregation, and
hurrying them all back again into the wilderness (Numbers 32:14-15). “Ye are risen up in
your father’s stead” to despise
the pleasant land, and reject it as they did, when we hoped you were risen up
in their stead to possess it. It was an encouragement to Moses to see what an
increase of men they were, but a discouragement to see that they were withal an increase of sinful
men, treading in the steps of their fathers’ impiety. It is sad to see the rising generations
in families and countries seldom better, and often worse, than that which went
before it. And what comes of it? why, it augments the fierce anger of the Lord;
not only continues that fire, but increaseth it, and fills the measure often,
till it overflow in a deluge of desolation. Note, if men did consider as they
ought what would be in the end of sin, they would be afraid of the beginnings
of it. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
The faithful rebuke of Moses
I. The injustice
of their proposal. Why should they have as their inheritance that country which
all had assisted to conquer, and leave their brethren to conquer other
possessions for themselves without their aid?
II. The tendency of
their proposal to dishearten their brethren. Because the granting of this request
would be likely to--
1. Reduce their numbers.
2. Engender dissatisfaction.
III. The wickedness
of their proposal.
1. Unbelief of God’s word.
2. Depreciation of God’s goodness.
IV. The tendency of
their proposal to call down the wrath of God.
1. The cause of His anger (Numbers 32:14).
2. The expression of His anger (Numbers 32:15).
3. The subjects of His anger. “All this people.”
V. The solemn
example by which Moses enforced his rebuke (Numbers 32:8-13). (W. Jones.)
The sin of discouraging our brethren
The children of God are very prone to be discouraged. The truth
is, that their path through the wilderness is not an easy one. The danger of
discouragement being so very great, it is the duty of Christians to encourage
each other, to exhort one another in words of kindness, cheerfulness, and love,
to hold on their way. How beautiful is the example of Jesus, in the tenderness
of the sympathy wherewith lie encouraged the weak. But Christians are too often
unlike their Master, wanting in that gentle and encouraging sympathy. It may be
well to note more carefully some of the ways in which Christians most
frequently discourage each other’s hearts.
1. First, then, we may mention an inconsistent life. There is nothing
so beautiful on earth as a consistent life, a life entirely consecrated to God--devoted
to one great object, and guided by one great principle. Such a life makes
people feel that there is something from God in true religion; and it greatly
encourages those who are seeking Christ. On the contrary, the inconsistent
lives of Christians are the greatest possible hindrance to the world, and to
those who are weak in faith. There was great apparent inconsistency in the
request of the Reubenites. They ought to have valued God’s promise, and have
wished to settle within the limits of the Promised Land; but the rich pastures
of the territories already won, and situated without its boundaries, were a
temptation to them. And Moses saw at once the effect that this example would
have upon the hearts of their brethren. It would discourage them. It is just so
with those who ought to live for heaven, who profess to be looking for it, and
yet set their
affections on things below--on the creature, or the world, or on money. This
contrariety between the profession and the life cannot be otherwise than a stumbling
block to the world, and a great discouragement to those who are weak in faith.
Some it hardens in their unbelief; others are led by it into painful doubt and
perplexity. It is no small sin to discourage our brethren.
2. But again, the natural heart is very prone to think that religion
is a gloomy thing, a system of sacrifices; and this we cannot wonder at, as it
only sees what must be given up, but cannot perceive what is gained. It cannot
understand that excellency of the knowledge of Christ which makes sacrifices
easy and delightful, and renders things impossible to flesh and blood
altogether possible. Now, when Christians are gloomy and desponding, when their
look is melancholy and their language dissatisfied, it tends to confirm the
notion that true religion does not make the heart happy, does not give it rest;
and so the wanderer, discouraged at the outset, seeks cheerfulness and pleasure
elsewhere, and not in Christ. Now, why should Christians ever give such an
impression of religion? Surely it must be of all things the most blessed to be
reconciled to God, to have the forgiveness of all sins. It is true that the
Christian has many trials which are unknown to the world, fightings within, as
well as fears without. But his fightings are not hopeless struggles. They are
the precursors of victory; for, says St. Paul, we are made more than conquerors
through Him that loved us.
3. Another way of discouraging our brethren is by showing want of
sympathy in their difficulties. Hardness and want of sympathy have much to do
with making the world as full of misery as it is.
4. Another case of discouragement to others is our shrinking, or
appearing to shrink, from difficulties. Moses evidently thought that this was
the motive of the request of the Reubenites. They wished to settle down in a
land already won, instead of sharing the danger of war with their brethren.
“Shall your brethren go to war, and ye sit here?” The event proved that happily
this was not the case. Moses
was mistaken in his suspicions. But it is quite clear, that had this been the
case scarcely anything could have discouraged the rest of the Israelites more
completely. Now this, we fear, is not a very uncommon cause of discouragements.
There are too many Christians who shrink from difficulties. They prefer some
smooth and easy course, the pastures of Jazer and Gilead to the warfare and
conflicts of Canaan. If some easy work is proposed to them, which is
accompanied by no great difficulties, and which involves no real self-denial,
they may be ready for it. But they do not like to take up the cross, and
especially a daily cross--one that lasts long. We ought not to shrink from
difficulties in doing the will of God. It is usually God’s way to surround His
own work with difficulties, and often with such difficulties as His own hand
alone can remove. And this He does to try His people’s faith, not to discourage
them. Viewed at a distance, like the wall of some great fortress, they appear
very formidable, but when grappled with in faith, one after another they fall
away. There are beautiful promises to encourage us under difficulties (Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 41:16; Zechariah 4:7). Let us then settle it
well in our hearts that we must have difficulties in doing the work of God; but
let not these dismay our hearts or lead us to discourage our brethren. (G.
Wagner.)
Verses 16-27
We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our
little ones.
But we ourselves will go ready armed.
The amended proposal of the Reubenites and Gadites
I. The amended
proposal made.
1. That they should province at once for the safe settlement of their
families and their flocks and herds.
2. That they would assist their brethren in the conquest of Canaan.
3. That they would not leave their brethren until that conquest was
completely effected.
4. That they would not seek for any inheritance with their brethren
on the other side of the Jordan.
II. The amended
proposal accepted.
1. Moses re-affirms the chief terms of their proposal.
2. He accepts their proposal as righteous.
3. He warns them that if they fail to faithfully fulfil its terms
punishment will overtake them.
III. The amended
proposal confirmed. Lessons:
1. The duty of manifesting a practical regard for the rights and
interests of others.
2. The importance of faithfully fulfilling the engagements into which
we enter.
3. The delusiveness of the notion that any one can sin and escape the
punishment of sin. (W. Jones.)
Conflict the condition of attainment, and suffering the
consequence of sin
I. A truth to be
confirmed--that those who would share in the inheritance must engage in the
conflict.
II. A warning to be
applied--that sin brings punishment; and that those who think to sin with
impunity, under a dispensation of mercy, will find themselves fearfully
disappointed.
III. A personal
application to be made. (Samuel Thodey.)
Necessity for conflict in the open field
A skilful botanist, an exile in a foreign land, was
thankful to accept the position of an under-gardener in the service of a man of
wealth. While filling this humble office, his attention was attracted by a rare
plant which had been sent to the owner of the garden, and which had been placed
in the hot-house under the impression that it was a native of the tropics. So
far from thriving, it had begun so evidently to wither and decay that the
unskilful gardener was about to remove it to a still warmer place, when the
observant eye of the botanist discovered it to be a production of the Arctic
regions, and insisted that it should be exposed to the icy breath of winter.
Forthwith it revived, and began to flourish. In like manner, if Christians will
shut themselves up in the confined and heated atmosphere of worldliness and
sin, they can neither hope for growth nor fruitfulness. Heroic conflict in the
open field with the enemies of our salvation, the overcoming of temptation in
the way of daily duty, constant communication with the Holy Spirit of God in
the use of the appointed means of grace--these are the only safeguards for the
soul. (Christian Age.)
Verse 23
Be sure your sin will find you out.
The great sin of doing nothing
I. What was this
sin? A learned divine has delivered a sermon upon the sin of murder from this
text, another upon theft, another upon falsehood. If you take the text as it
stands, there is nothing in it about murder, or theft, or anything of the kind.
In fact, it is not about what men do, but it is about what men do not do. The
iniquity of doing nothing is a sin which is not so often spoken of as it should
be. A sin of omission is clearly aimed at in this warning--“If ye will not do
so, be sure your sin will find you out.”
1. It was the sin of idleness and of self-indulgence. “We have
cattle: here is a land that yields much pasture: let us have this for our
cattle, and we will build folds for our sheep with the abundant stones that lie
about, and we will repair these cities of the Amorites, and we will dwell in
them. They are nearly ready for us, and there shall our little ones dwell in
comfort. We do not care about fighting: we have seen enough of it already in
the wars with Sihon and Og. Reuben would rather abide by the sheepfolds. Gad
has more delight in the bleating of the sheep and in the folding of the lambs
in his bosom than
in going forth to battle.” Alas, the tribe of Reuben is not dead, and the tribe
of Gad has not passed away! Many who are of the household of faith are equally
indisposed to exertion, equally fond of ease.
2. This sin may be viewed under another aspect, as selfishness and
unbrotherliness. Gad and Reuben ask to have their inheritance at once, and to
make themselves comfortable in Bashan, on this side Jordan. What about Judah,
Levi, Simeon, Benjamin, and all the rest of the tribes? How are they to get
their inheritance? They do not care, but it is evident that Bashan is suitable
for themselves with their multitude of cattle. Some of them reply, “You see,
they must look to themselves, as the proverb hath it, ‘Every man for himself,
and God for us all.’” Did I not hear some one in the company say, “Am I my
brother’s keeper?” Soul-murder can be wrought without an act or even a will; it
is constantly accomplished by neglect. Yonder perishing heathen--does not the
Lord inquire, “Who slew all these?” The millions of this city
unevangelised--who is guilty of their blood? Are not idle Christians starving
the multitude by refusing to hand out the bread of life? Is not this a grievous
sin? “But oh,” says another, “they can conquer the land themselves. God is with
them, and He can do His own work, and therefore I do not see that I need
trouble myself about other people.” That is selfishness; and selfishness is
never worse than when it puts on the garb of religion.
3. But with this there was mingled ingratitude of a very dark order.
These children of Gad and Reuben would appropriate to themselves lands for
which all the Israelites had laboured. God had led them forth to battle, and
they had conquered Sihon and Og, and now these men would take possession of
what others have struggled for, but they are not to fight themselves. This is
vile ingratitude; and I fear it is common among us at this very day. How come
we to be Christians at all? Instrumentally, it is through those holy
missionaries who won our fathers from the cruel worship of the Druids, and
afterwards from the fierce dominion of Woden and Thor. Are we to receive all,
and then give out nothing at all? Are we to be like candles burning under bushels?
Are we to waste our life by much receiving and little distributing? This will
never do. This will not be life, but death. Remember the Dead Sea, and tremble
lest thou be like it, a pool accursed and cursing all around thee l The text,
when spiritually interpreted, says concerning our personal service in the
conquest of the world for Christ--“if ye do not do so, behold, ye have sinned
against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.”
4. Again, we may view this from another point of view. It is the sin
of untruthfulness. These people pledged themselves that they would go forth
with the other tribes, and that they would not return to their own homes until
the whole of the campaign was ended. Now, if after that they did not go to the
war, and did not fight to the close of it, then they would be guilty of a
barefaced lie. It is a wretched thing for a man to be a covenant-breaker. It is
sacrilege for any man to lie, not only unto man, but unto God. I would speak
very tenderly, but if any man has been converted from the error of his ways, by
that very conversion he is bound to serve the Lord. Now, if he lives only to
make money and hoard it, and he does nothing for God’s Church and for poor sinners, is not
his baptism a lie? Once more, and I will have done with this painful subject.
What would their sin be?
5. According to Moses it would be a grave injury to others. Do you
not notice how he
put it to them? “Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of
Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?” What an example
to set! If one Christian man is right in never joining a Christian Church, then
all other Christian men would be right in not doing so, and there would be no
visible Christian Church. Do you not see, you non-professing believers, that
your example is destructive to all Church life?
6. Moses goes on to remark that if these people did not go forth to
war, they would discourage all the rest. “Wherefore discourage ye the heart of
the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given
them? “It is no slight sin to discourage holy zeal and perseverance in others.
May we never be guilty of killing holy desires even in children! How often has
a burning desire in a boy’s heart been quenched by his own father, who has
thought him too impulsive, or too ardent! How frequently the conversation of a
friend, so called, has dried up the springs of holy desire in the person with
whom he has conversed! Let it not be so. Yet without cold words our chill
neglects may freeze. We cannot neglect our own gardens without injuring our
neighbours. One mechanic coming late among a set of workmen may throw the whole
company out of order for the day. One railway truck off the rails may block the
entire system. Depend upon it, if we are not serving the Lord our God, we are
committing the sin of discouraging our fellow-men. They are more likely to
imitate our lethargy than our energy. Why should we wish to hinder others from
being earnest? How dare we rob God of the services of others by our own
neglect?
II. Notice what was
the chief sin in this sin? Of course, if the Reubenites did not keep their
solemn agreement to go over Jordan, and help their brethren, they would sin
against their brethren; but this is not the offence which rises first to the
mind of Moses. Moses overlooks the lesser, because he knows it to be
comprehended in the greater; and he says, “Behold, ye have sinned against the
Lord.”
1. It is disobedience against the Lord not to be preaching His truth
if we are able to do so. The hearer of the gospel is bound to be a repeater of
the gospel.
2. We are certainly guilty of ingratitude, if, as I have already
said, we owe so much to other men, and yet do not seek to bless mankind; but
chiefly we owe everything to the grace of God, and, if God has given us grace
in our own hearts, and saved us with the precious blood of the Only-Begotten,
how can we sit still,
and allow others to perish?
3. There would be sin against God in the conduct of these people, if
they did not aid in the conquest of Canaan, for they would be dividing God’s
Israel. Shall the Lord’s heritage be rent in twain? God meant them all to keep
together. Can it be that any of us are dividing the Church of God; that is,
dividing it into drones and workers? This would be a terrible division: and I
fear that it exists already. It is apparent to those who are able to observe;
and it is mourned over by those who are jealous for the God of Israel. Half the
schisms in Churches arise out of the real division which exists between idlers
and workers. Mind this. Be not sowers of division by being busy-bodies, working
not at all.
III. We have now
reached the last point, and the point that is most serious: what will come of
this sin of doing nothing? What will come of it? “Be sure your sin will find
you out.”
1. It would find them out thus: they would be ill at ease. One of
these days their sin would leap upon their consciences as a lion on its prey.
2. When conscience was thus aroused, they would also feel themselves
to be mean and despicable. Their manhood would be held cheap by the other
tribes.
3. They would be enfeebled by their own inaction. How much of sacred
education we miss when we turn away from the service of God!
4. Their sin would also have found them out, had they fallen into it,
because they would have been divided from the rest of God’s Israel. Those who
are nonworkers lose much by not keeping pace with those who are running the
heavenly race. The active are happy: the haled of the diligent maketh rich in a
spiritual sense. There is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to
poverty: I am sure it is so in a spiritual sense.
5. To come more practically home, if you and I are not serving the
Lord, our sin will find us out.
Sin will come to light
I. God certainly
shows His purpose to punish sin by the way He causes woe to come on some
sinners here. The drunkard, the glutton, and the cheat, the liar and the lewd,
are nut the only examples. Most frauds are exposed. Nearly all murders are brought to light. Men
may plot very secretly, and think their crimes are hid. But Providence calls on
stones and beams of timber, on tracks and pieces of paper, to be witnesses of
the crime. Then all that class of sins which are not punishable by human laws,
God often punishes with a loss of respect, esteem, or confidence.
II. Men might be
sure that their sin will find them out by the sore judgments which God
sometimes sends on men for their sins. On this matter we should exercise
candour, caution, and charity, and not call that an angry judgment which is but
a dark doing of love. Still there are on earth sore and marked judgments. Look
at the history of Achan, of Korah, &c. Of thirty Roman emperors,
proconsuls, and high officials, who distinguished themselves by their zeal and rage
against the early Christians, it is recorded that one became speedily deranged
after an act of great cruelty; one was slain by his own son; one became blind;
the eyes of one started out of his head; one was drowned; one was strangled;
one died in a miserable captivity; one fell dead in a manner that will not bear
to be told; one died of so loathsome a disease that several of his physicians
were put to death, because they could not abide the stench that filled his
room; two committed suicide; a third attempted it, but had to call for help to
finish the bloody work; five were assassinated by their own servants or people;
five others died the most horrible deaths, having many and strange diseases;
and eight were killed in battle, or after being taken prisoners. Men have more
to do with sin than to commit it.
III. One may escape
detection and strange judgments, and still his sins may find him out in the
fears, and clamours, and remorse of conscience. Remorse is remorseless. Like
fire, it burns all around it. No man can protect himself against his sins
flashing him in the face at any moment. The Bible, preaching, singing, praying,
a marriage, a trial in court, the sight of the man he has injured, or one that
looks like him, or anything may arouse his conscience into fury at the most
inconvenient time.
IV. But even if one
escape all these things, yet if he dies unpardoned his sins will find him out
in the next world (Luke 12:2; 1 Timothy 5:24; Ecclesiastes 10:20). Why do not men admit
the force of these truths, and act accordingly? The reasons are very clear.
1. Some think their sins will not find them out because God has not
yet called them to account (Ecclesiastes 8:11). Such men forget that
with the Lord one day is “as a thousand years,” &c. (2 Peter 3:8-10).
2. In this world sinners often forget their sins, and think God has
also forgotten them (Psalms 10:11). But God forgets nothing.
3. Some think their sin will not find them out because they doubt
whether God is holy and just, and whether He takes notice of human actions (Psalms 94:5-7). But that is practical
atheism (Proverbs 15:3; Ecclesiastes 12:14).
4. Some think their sin will not find them out because God is
merciful. But mercy rejected can save no man. All the cooling fountains can do
no good to him who does not
drink of them. Oh, sinner, “be sure your sin will find you out.” You may now
live in ease and in error. You may now harden your heart in pride. But you must
meet your sins at God’s tribunal. Remember that. Oh! be wise--be wise unto
salvation. (W. S. Plumer, D. D.)
Avoiding the mischief of wrongdoing
I. Our sin will
certainly find us out. Some men indeed are so hardened in wickedness, so
totally lost to conscience and reflection, that they are long able to hide
themselves, as it were, from sin. Such persons may live long before their sin finds them out. It
must wait for opportunities-a time of sickness or a time of distress, when a
man’s wickedness has drawn some heavy calamity upon him. Then his sin will be
sure to find him out. It will hold up a frightful mirror before him, and show
him that himself has been the cause of all he suffers.
II. Sin being thus
represented as a merciless creditor, of an unforgiving temper, demanding debts
with the utmost rigour, let us see how we may best avoid the mischief it
threatens.
1. As we are assured in the text that our sin will certainly find us
out it is the part of wisdom to be beforehand with it and find it out first.
Sin can never find us out but at some great disadvantage--when it is strong and
we are weak ; when habits of wickedness have been formed, and we have suffered
some mischief from them; or when our spirits are low, and we feel the world
sinking under us. But on the other hand, if we take the active part, and
endeavour to find out sin first, we prevent this bad effect. It is in this case
as in others of the same kind. If we are in debt, our debts, that is, our
creditors, will find us out. But when we are beforehand, and find out our debts
ourselves, and take methods to pay them, we avoid all the bad consequences we should otherwise incur.
He who can number a few figures may count his debts. They are, or may be, plain
before him. But the deceit and treachery of the heart lie deep; and it is often
a difficult matter to come at our sins. The case is this: we not only suffer
our passions and appetites to lead us into sin, but we use our reason, which
God has given us for better purposes, to excuse our wickedness. Repentance is
the grand condition of the gospel; and the first act of repentance is to find
out our sins. When we think of Zaccheus, let us remember the happy fruits of
finding out our sin. When we think of Judas Iscariot, let us tremble at the
dreadful consequences of suffering it to find us out.
2. Being thus convinced of the necessity of finding out our sin, the
next great step to be taken is to endeavour to obtain pardon for it. Whatever
difficulty there may be amidst the many corruptions and doublings of our hearts
in finding out our sins, the method of obtaining pardon lies plain before us.
3. Since, then, God Almighty hath thus put the means of our
salvation, in a manner, in our own power, by leaving us at option whether we will
accept or not the terms He hath offered; let us not be so lost to ourselves as
to go on in any sinful course till at length our sin find us out, but let us
manfully endeavour to find it out first. Infidelity, where proper means of
obtaining evidence has been neglected, is certainly a high offence. (W.
Gilpin, M. A.)
The sinner detected
I. That you have
sinned against the Lord.
1. This is abundantly evident from innumerable passages of Scripture.
2. From observation of the conduct of mankind, it is evident that
they have sinned against the Lord.
3. From the many dreadful threatenings which are written in the Word
of God.
4. This is evident from all the judgments which God hath brought upon
the children of men from the beginning of the world until now.
5. From the consent of all nations, it is evident that we have sinned
against the Lord.
II. How your sin
will find you out. It will find you out for your conviction and conversion, or
for your condemnation and destruction.
1. Your sin will find you out at the bar of conscience, under the
dispensation of the gospel of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Under afflictive dispensations of Divine Providence.
3. At the approach of the king of terrors.
4. Your sins, if you die impenitent, will find you out at the
tribunal of Christ, in the judgment of the great day.
5. The sins of the impenitent will find them out in hell, to all the
ages of eternity.
III. The absolute
certainty that sooner or later your sins will find you out.
1. That men’s sins shall find them out is absolutely certain, because
the nature and perfections of God require it.
2. The Word of God asserts it.
3. Conscience forebodes it.
4. God’s moral government attests it.
5. Those who have gone before, in every past age of the world and
period of the Church, in their experience have found it.
Conclusion.
1. Be sure to find out sin.
2. Find out your sin, so as to get a soul-humbling and a
heart-breaking view of it.
3. Endeavour to find out your sins in such a manner as shall influence
you to make a free confession of them unto the Lord.
4. Be so stirred up by finding out y our sins as to implore
forgiveness from God through the merit and intercession of His Son Jesus
Christ.
5. Be excited to wash in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
6. Endeavour to find out your sin, and to be so affected with the
sight of it as to forsake it and flee from it in time to come. (John Jardine.)
Unhelpfulness
What the text teaches is not merely that harm done to others will
recoil on the head of the wrong-doer, but that help withheld will do the same.
It assumes that our brethren have a right to positive assistance at our hands.
And it solemnly warns us that if we deny them that assistance, our sin will
find us out.
I. Take the case
of a parent who neglects the Christian nurture of his children. He allows them,
suppose, to grow up uneducated, sending them to work when they should be at
school, and preferring the petty earnings they bring him to their mental and
moral well-being. Or he allows them to take up with dangerous companions,
without making any effort to restrain them. Or, though not unheedful of their
physical comfort and intellectual culture, he neglects to bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord. What is the almost certain issue? Does this
negligent parent receive from his children honour, love, obedience, cheerful
help? Or if he does obtain some measure of deference while they are of tender
years, and dwell under his roof, what happens when they become grown men and
women, and he an old man in need of sympathy and aid? Alas! the cold
indifference with which they then regard him, the grudging parsimony with
which, if he is poor, they contribute to his scanty maintenance, the shame and
sorrow which they bring on his grey hairs by their ingratitude and
wickedness--these things but too surely prove that his sin has entailed an
answerable punishment.
II. Take the case
of those rich members of a community who neglect to provide instruction for the
untaught children of the poor. In the cost of the crimes which those unheeded
ones begin in youth, and perpetrate with aggravations in riper years, their sin
is finding them out. In the cost of police and prisons and heavy poor-rates, it
is finding them out. In the organised and protracted strikes, which reveal the
crass ignorance and pitiable credulity of their dupes, and threaten to palsy
the industrial enterprise of the country, it is finding them out. And should a
season of wild political excitement or of widespread commercial stagnation
arrive, with its provocations to turbulence and lawlessness, it may find them
out in a way yet more terribly retributive.
III. Take the case
of a corporation or a community which declines or delays to adopt measures cf
sanitary improvement. It is sad to think that the majority of men are without a
conscience as regards the violation of physical laws, though that is as truly a
sin against God as their violation of moral laws. But whether men arc alive to
their guilt in this respect or not, certain it is that their sin is in hot
pursuit of them, and will ere long seize and rend them with its deadly fangs.
The prosperous inhabitants of a town cannot suffer their poorer neighbours to
dwell in overcrowded and unwholesome tenements, without having themselves to smart
for such selfish neglect. If the poor are tempted, amid their physical
discomforts, to resort to the deceitful solace of intemperance, it must fall to
the rest of the community to pay for the pauperism and crime which intemperance
begets. If the poor are ruined in health and made reckless in habits by the
scenes of filth and vice which environ them, it must fall to those in better
circumstances to sustain the burdens and hazards which an idle and turbulent
populace never fail to create. And when fever or pestilence breaks out in the
squalid hovel, who shall guarantee the health of the sumptuous mansion?
IV. Take the case
of a Christian Church which neglects to adopt aggressive measures for the
reclamation of the irreligious multitudes around it. Every successive year adds
to the numbers who never enter a house of prayer. And now, instead of the grand
moral spectacle which our working-men once presented--men humble in station,
but high in moral excellence; scant of secular lore, but mighty in the Scriptures--we
behold throngs of workmen who are not only indifferent about religion, but
positively profane and sceptical. Bespeaks not this a lack of aggressive effort
on the part of our churches and congregations? Could there be now such a vast
outlying mass of irreligion, had each of our churches, in place of abiding
within its own pasturage, gone over the river to help those neglected ones in
their combat with evil? And shall not this sin find the churches out? It is
finding them out. Already are there thousands upon thousands in our land who
hate every Christian Church with a perfect hatred, and who would shout with
diabolic triumph over their destruction. (J. M. McCulloch, D. D.)
Our sins finding us out
1. First, our sins find us out when there is a direct connection of
cause and effect between the sin and the punishment, and in the most literal
sense of the word, we eat the fruit of our own doings. The delirium tremens which
overtakes the drunkard, the premature decrepitude or forlorn old age of him who
has laid waste his youth by sensual excesses, the rags with which the sluggard
is clothed, the shameful fall which so often the proud prepares for himself,
what are all these but men’s sins finding them out, the sin having all along
been big with the punishment, and in due season bringing it
forth--according to our own proverb, “Old sin, new shame,” old and new being
linked with one another by indissoluble bonds, and sooner or later making this
relation between them to appear?
2. But not in this way only do men’s sins find them out. Oftentimes
there is no such connection of cause and effect; but there is that conformity
between the sin and the punishment, that unmistakable resemblance between them,
which it is impossible to ascribe to blind chance. Scripture, and not Scripture
only, is full of examples in this kited. It is measured to men exactly as they
have measured to others; the very cup they have held to the lips of others
being by and by held to their own. The deceiver is deceived; the violator of
the sanctities of another man’s home beholds his own trampled on and violated
in turn. The wicked king, that slew the prophets and left their very bodies
unburied, is himself slain and east forth with the burial of an ass. So
marvellous is the conformity between the sin and the suffering, that there is
wrung from the sufferer, sometimes in the hearing of all the world, but oh t
how much oftener in the secret of his soul, a confession of the same: “As I
have done, so God hath requited me” (Judges 1:7; Revelation 16:6). Others may miss the
connection, may not so much as guess that there is one; but he knows only too
well whose hand it was that smote him; from what wing the arrow which pierced
him has been drawn.
3. Then, too, men’s sins often find them out, though no visible sign
or token may betray this fact to the world. All may outwardly stand
fair; there may be no breach in the worldly prosperity, nay, this may be
ampler, more strongly established than ever; while yet there may be that within
which forbids to rejoice, which takes all the joy and the gladness out of
life--the memory of that old sin which was as nothing when committed, but which
now darkens all, the deadly arrow poisoning the springs of life, which will not
drop from the side, which no force, no art of man’s device, can withdraw. Is
there not here one whose sin has found him out? Neither let us assume that it is
only the wicked whose sins thus come round to them again. God is faithful, and
will not allow His own children to escape altogether, any more than the
children of this present world. The cup of suffering may be filled more fully
for some than for others; but it shall come round in due time to all.
4. What shall we say to all this? If earlier or later, first or last,
our sins do thus so often overtake us even here, shall we not put far from us
so evil a thing and one which has such a fatal power of thus coming back on him
that wrought it? It may be that it is too late for this ; but there is still
something which we can do. We can, so to speak, take the initiative;
turn the table on our sins, and instead of waiting for them to find us out, we,
earnestly seeking, by aid of that candle which the Lord has lighted in us, may
find out them; and then we have the sure word of promise that, if we will judge
ourselves, we shall not be judged of the Lord. (Archbp. Trench.)
Sin its own punishment
The consequences of a man’s sin are often, and for a length of
time, felt by others rather than himself. The anxious husband has to bear the
burden laid on him by the thriftless wife; the widowed mother that which is
imposed by the extravagance of the thoughtless son. The sin, so to speak, born
into life, leaves its proper parent, travels sometimes far away, finds out the
innocent, and afflicts them; but nevertheless, in due time, it will come home
to the sinner himself.
I. Here was the
sin of selfishness. “Bring us not over Jordan.” A deliberate proposal,
involving schism in the body, separation, isolation, to carry out mean and
selfish ends. Suppose this request had been granted; though things might have
gone well with them for a time, yet in the end, cut off by their own act from
sympathy and aid, exposed to the attack of numerous foes, they would have
reaped the bitter fruit of what they had sown: and so throughout life, no one
more fails of his end, no one more certainly brings on himself what he seeks to
avoid, than the selfish man.
II. The sin of
cowardice, too, was probably here. Timorousness provoked insult, and invites
attack.
III. Here was the
sin of indolence. Nothing more certainly than indolence cuts itself off from
the ease and enjoyment it seeks. Its grows, too, so strong by yielding to it,
that at length freedom from toil ends in bitterest bondage.
IV. Here was that
in which all other sins may be summed up: disobedience to God. (J. W. Lance.)
The unfailing detective
The sinner and his sin change places after he has committed it.
Before its commission he pursues sin; after its perpetration sin pursues him,
and is sure to find him.
I. Why?
1. Because of the absolute perfectness of God’s law, which covers
every detail of a human being’s life, and threatens a penalty for every
dereliction.
2. Because of the perfect administration of that law, which notes
every offence and secures the punishment of every offender.
II. When?
1. Sometimes in this life, by civil law, by general censure, and by
reproaches of conscience.
2. Sometimes at death, when the hallucination of the world is
removed, and conscience asserts its authority.
3. Always at the judgment, when Satan no longer can deceive, when the
standard of duty is applied, and the sinner’s record is unfolded. In the Hades
of the lost, where the sinner shall reap in kind, in degree, and in quantity
what he has sown. (Hom. Monthly.)
The certainty of sin finding us out
I. What is meant
by our sin finding us out?
1. By the expression “Our sin,” we may in the first place understand
any particular sin of which we may have been guilty; any gross and single act
of injustice, profaneness, licentiousness, falsehood, or the like, which at any
time may have been committed by us. But we must not confine the expression to
this meaning; for it more properly signifies all the collective sin of which we
have been guilty; the sin, as it were, of our whole lives.
2. Now, in what sense is it said that this our sin will find us out?
To understand the force of this expression, we must remember that sin
necessarily brings certain evil consequences. It entails them on the sinner.
Now these consequences are three: fear, shame, and death. Sin necessarily
brings these evils with it in its train. “Evil pursues sinners”; and whatever
they may think or feel, their sin will one day find them out.
II. The certainty
that our sin will find us out.
1. In the first place, the perfections of God absolutely forbid that
sin should go unpunished. Omnipresent: Omniscient: Holy: Just. True and
faithful to His word.
2. In the second place, the many remarkable instances of sin being
detected and punished in this world, strongly confirm the truth under
consideration. Achan: Gehazi: Ananias and Sapphira. Has it not sometimes
happened, that a man has even become his own accuser? Unable to bear the
clamours and stings of conscience, he has confessed his own guilt, and has
given himself up to punishment. Now what do these things prove, but that God
will certainly bring to light the hidden things of darkness? We see how easily
He can do it. He thus directs sin to find out some sinners here, to convince us
that it will find out every sinner hereafter.
3. But, in the third place, should a doubt yet remain on our minds,
the appointment of a day of final retribution may and must entirely remove it.
(E. Cooper, M. A.)
Retribution
1. Does not common sense tell us, that if God made this world, and
governs it by righteous and God-like laws, this must be a world in which evil
doing cannot thrive? God made the world better than that, surely! He would be a
bad law-giver who made such laws, that it was as well to break them as to keep
them. The world works by God’s laws, and it inclines towards good and not
towards evil; and he who sins, even in the least, acts contrary to the rule and
constitution of the world, and will surely find that God’s laws will go on in
spite of him, and grind him to powder. God has no need to go out of His way to
punish our evil deeds. Let them alone, and they will punish themselves. Is it
not so in everything? If a tradesman trades badly, or a farmer farms badly,
there is no need of lawyers to punish him; he will punish himself.
2. Next, to speak of Scripture. I might quote texts innumerable to
prove that what I say Scripture says also.
3. You know that your sins will find you out. Look boldly and
honestly into your own hearts. Look through the history of your past lives, and
confess to God, at least, that the far greater number of your sorrows have been
your own fault; that there is hardly a day’s misery which you ever endured in
your life of which you might not say, “If I had listened to the voice of God in
my conscience--if I had earnestly considered what my duty was--if I had prayed
to God to determine my judgment right, I should have been spared this sorrow
now!” Am I not right? Think again of your past lives, and answer in God’s
sight, how many wrong things have you ever done which have succeeded--that is,
how many sins which you would not be right glad were undone if you could but
put back the wheels of Time? They may have succeeded outwardly; meanness will
succeed so--lies--oppression--theft--godlessness--they are all pleasant enough
while they last, I suppose: and a man may reap what he calls substantial
benefits from them in money, and such-like, and keep that safe enough; but has
his sin succeeded? Has it not found him out? found him out never to lose him
again? Is he the happier for it?
4. And lastly, you who, without running into any especial sins, as
those which the world calls sins, still live careless about religion, without
loyalty to Christ the Lord, without any honest attempt, or even wish, to serve
the God above you, or to rejoice in remembering that you are His children,
working for Him, and under Him--be sure your sin will find you out. When
affliction, or sickness, or disappointment come, as come they will if God has
not cast you off; when the dark day dawns, and your fool’s paradise of worldly
prosperity is cut away from under your feet, then you will find out your folly;
you will find that you have insulted the only friend who can bring you out of
affliction. Then, I say, the sin of your godlessness will find you out; if you
do not intend to fall, soured and sickened merely by God’s chastisements,
either into stupid despair or peevish discontent, you will have to go back to
God and cry, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am no
more worthy to be called Thy son.” Go back at once, before it be too late. Find
out your sins and mend them--before they find you out, and break your hearts. (C.
Kingsley, M. A.)
The warning against sin
One thing which has much to do with leading people to commit sin,
is the thought that they can do it in secret, and not be found out. Many a boy
is tempted to play truant, instead of going to school, because he thinks that
his father and mother will never know anything about it. Many a robber breaks
into a house at night, and steals what he wants, because he thinks that no one
sees him, and so his sin will never be found out. But here in our text, we have
a warning against sin because it is sure to be found out.
I. And the first
thing which must make it sure that sin will be found out, is--the presence. Of
God.
II. The second
thing which makes it sure that sin will be found out, is--the power of God.
III. And the third
thing, which makes it sure that sin will be found out is--the purpose of God (Ecclesiastes 12:14). (R. Newton,
D. D.)
Murder will out
I. The common
fault. In every human being there are two sides, one seen by the world, and the
other known only to himself and God. We perform before our fellow men; but to
ourselves and God, one’s true character
is revealed. Few men and women commit great crimes. But people who commit great
crimes first begin with the little faults, such as “white lies,” or “white
dishonesty,” or “white speculation,” with other people’s money. You know how
hard it is sometimes to heat anything in your oven or on your fire; but when
you obtain the first degree of heat, it is much more easy to get the second,
the third, and the fourth. So it is hard at first to prevail upon yourself to
do wrong, but after the first step has been taken it is very easy to go on with
the second and the third. Dalliance with sin is a common fault.
II. The sure
result--“Be sure your sin will find you out.” When sin has found you out, you
often resolve to give it up, yet you go to it again. Many people forsake sin as
a man who goes to his work forsakes his house, but comes to it again after a season.
And your sin finds you out in that you keep on doing the wrong, each year
consenting to neglect something good, and more pleased to do something evil.
Your sin finds you oat because as rust destroys your iron tools and vessels, so
sin rusts your inward character. A splendid oak tree is blown down in a great
gale of wind. But was it the wind that ruined the monarch of the forest? No;
the wind merely completed the ruin. The cause of the destruction began years
ago, when a drop of water settled itself in a crevice of the oak tree and
gradually worked its way within until ultimately the rain and the outside air
got into the heart of the wood, and it became diseased, corrupt, anal hollow.
So when we see a man fall, we know it is a cankering and corrupting sin which
has been surely finding him out. Sin will surely find you out because it is
opposed to God’s eternal law of right.
III. Thank God,
there is a cure for sin; but no outward salve can heal its wounds. No external
restraint, no prison, no muzzle of human device will keep you from it; the only
cure is a new creation in your heart; and this God promises to every human
heart that asks it. God cures us of our sin-disease, not only effectually but
with tenderness. (W. Birch.)
The entail of evil
I. Notice the fact
that this appeal, in regard to a
great spiritual truth, is not made in the first instance to
individuals, but to two tribes in their national capacity. The life of a tribe,
or of a people, is a reality. A tribe, a nation, a Church, a people, cannot
commit a wrong act or follow a wrong course, without, as a tribe, or nation, or
Church, or people, suffering the consequences of its act. The sin which a
nation commits is found out in the long-run. It brings forth its own natural
fruits. One generation is to the next generation as spring is to autumn, and as
boyhood is to manhood. And just as a man suffers for his carelessness, his
folly, his dissipation, in youth, so does a generation suffer for its
predecessors.
II. We may make the
subject one of wider and more general application, and find that this saying is
universally true.
1. By the very constitution of man’s being, the sin of the individual
who commits a wrong reappears in his own mind and character. Not only every
act, but every thought or purpose or desire which passes through the mind,
gives a tinge to the mind itself. In the attitude and character of the mind
itself, every man’s individual sins, even the most secret, will find him out.
2. There may be some who will be more influenced by another
consideration, and that is, that his secret sins wilt grow and gather, until in
some way or other they will discover themselves in act, and find him out. (A.
Watson, D. D.)
The sinner found out by his sin
Both the unconverted who resist not evil, and the converted who
resist it but imperfectly, not aiming at the total renewal of their nature,
offer a parallel case of guilt to that of the unbelieving Israelites. And we
are now to examine how the warning of the text appears to each class--“Be sure
your sin will find you out.”! Now we suppose that the delusion which chiefly
hardens the sinner in the commission of the crimes he so daringly perpetrates,
is the hope that he may commit them in secrecy and with impunity. There can be
no doubt that it detection followed immediately on the commission of
crime--night throwing no mantle of darkness round the culprit, and accomplices
unable to screen
him from public scorn--those monstrous forms of wickedness would not so often
appear which disfigure the annals of our race. But such a speedy retribution
would go counter to the whole tone and texture of the revealed plan of
salvation. Sins punished as soon as committed cannot be repented of, and
therefore cannot be pardoned. If then, long-suffering is to be shown, if remission
of human guilt is to be proclaimed through the interposition of a Mediator,.
judgment must not follow so speedily upon crime. And it is this delay, rendered
necessary for the display of mercy, that men interpret as if it meant
indifference. We must, therefore, fling open the mysterious portals that
enclose the future world, and reveal to the gaze of the sinner the destinies of
the lost, ere we can
hope successfully to urge him to commence the great business of religion. Who
among you is deluding himself by the hope either of secrecy or impunity? “Be
sure your sin will find you out!” You are pursued by the sin which yourselves
have committed! That which before had no being, has received an individual, a
personal existence by your own act, and is afterwards mysteriously connected
with you, following your footsteps and tracking you in all your journeyings.
Nay more, each sin which ye commit may be said to swell the numbers of the
throng of pursuers that are behind, making it less possible for you to escape. Noiselessly
they follow you. And ye yourselves have witnessed some of the results that
follow on the sinner being overtaken by his sins. For what is it but sin
finding the sensualist out, when he sinks beneath the ravages of premature
decay, a virtual suicide? What is it but sin finding the gambler out, when with
tottering reason and broken fortunes he finds a dishonourable grave,
bequeathing nothing but an unhonoured name to those who once called him husband
and father? And what is it but sin finding the dishonest trader out when,
though he once stood high in public estimation, his reputation and his gains
are proved to have been alike unfairly won, and he is sent an exile from scenes
where he once moved a king? Happy for him if these temporal calamities, which
are but heralds of others more fearful, would drive him to take refuge beneath
the Saviour’s Cross, while yet the avenger has not fastened on his soul. If the
sinner passes through life with his future tormentors always on his track, how
can he, if found among the impenitent, hope to escape? But the text contains
indirect notices of the future life which need a fuller examination. I gather
that there will be an exact adaptation between the crime and its
punishment--the punishment being nothing else than the crime itself
re-appearing in another state of being to take vengeance on him who committed
it.
II. But we must now
proceed to the second point we proposed to examine, how the text may be applied
to the case of one who is truly a child of God. The believer who stands at
God’s bar, having squared his conduct when on earth, according to God’s
commandment, for Christ’s sake, shall not come under any measure of
condemnation. If pronounced righteous then, his justification will be complete.
But is he never impeded in his Christian course by the habits he had formed
while living “without God in the world”? Those habits are gradually being
overcome by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The roots of that sin, not yet
eradicated, send up their bitter fruit, even when the sin itself has long
disappeared. And thus his former sin, though pardoned, finds the believer out.
Nor is this all. Sin will mark the believer’s course all through, and greater
infirmities will appear in one than in another. There may be spiritual
indolence--a desire to pass lightly over some infirmity, as if it did no great
violence to God’s law--a fixing of the heart on something which forthwith
becomes an idol, excluding Jehovah from His proper place. And then this sin
finds the believer out. The child, or the husband, or the friend, who was too
much loved, is taken away, that nothing may interfere with the total surrender
of the soul to God. Or the uninterrupted prosperity which caused a
forgetfulness that “all things come of God,” is brought suddenly to an end, and
the storm sweeps over the stream of life which before flowed calmly along, that
God’s voice may be heard bidding the tempest subside. Oh! the believer should
never feel the rod, without searching for the sin that brings the chastening. I
am sure that God keeps a stricter reckoning, in this world, with the righteous,
than with the ungodly. (J. P. Waldo, M. A.)
Our sin finding us out
Audley was an old English usurer, who used to lend money to the
thoughtless young men of his day, at ruinous rates of interest. He counted out
the pounds for them, with many well-affected remonstrances on their
extravagance, but his pity never led him away so far as to make him forget his
securities. As long as he knew a debt to be safe, he was quite indifferent as
to delay of payment, and many an unsuspecting victim was lulled into false
security by the old usurer’s apparent unconcern; and they were only awakened,
on some dark and unfortunate day, by the terrible discovery that interest and
principa1 had swallowed up all their estates. Such is the ruinous percentage
which thousands will be called on to pay to the great Enemy of Souls, for what
are commonly described as “the pleasures of sin.” There is a presumption on the
part of such as wilfully disobey God, which, sooner or later, will receive its
due recompense. The most dangerous and deadly quality of sin is its
deceitfulness: so deceitful, indeed, that it can conceal itself even from
conscience. But nothing can be hidden from God. Hundreds of well-authenticated
facts have occurred in all ages, enforcing the declaration that sin will be
sure to find out the guilty. Even if sin be undiscovered in this life, the
appointment of the great day of retribution, at the last, puts the matter of
final exposure beyond the possibility of doubt. (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
Sin’s detection and punishment
I. Let us notice
the emphatic expression, “Your sin.” There are shades of moral character, and some sins are
of deeper dye than others. There are sins peculiarly characteristic of some
people. It is important that we should inquire what is our sin--the sin that is
more especially peculiar to any of us. Your sin is that which is most agreeable
in its commission to your circumstances and constitutional temperament--that
sin which you can commit with the greatest facility, and against which you have
the least power of offering resistance--that sin for which you study to find
out the most plausible excuses. What is the cause of your carelessness as
regards your spiritual and eternal condition? That cause, whatever it may be,
is your sin.
II. Let us now
consider the certain detection and punishment of sin. It has often been
remarked that “murder will out.” Blood has a voice which will make itself heard
sooner or later. The blood of the first victim of violence cried from the
ground on which it was shed, and it appealed to the God of justice in heaven
for vengeance. Let us watch and pray, lest we eater into temptation. The young
are especially exposed to danger from pride and vanity: let them guard against
the beginnings of sin. (S. Walker.)
Concealment of sin no security to the sinner
I. That men
generally, if not always, proceed to the commission of sin, upon a secret
confidence of concealment or impunity.
1. That no man is induced to sin, considered in itself, as a thing
absolutely or merely evil, but as it bears some resemblance or appearance of
good in the apprehensions of him who commits it.
2. The other assertion to be laid down is, that God has annexed two
great evils to every sin, in opposition to the pleasure and profit of it; to
wit, shame and pain. He has, by an eternal and most righteous decree, made
these two the inseparable effects and consequents of sin. They are the wages
assigned it by the laws of Heaven; so that whosoever commits it, ought to
account shame and punishment to belong to him as his rightful inheritance.
II. The grounds and
reasons upon which men take up such a confidence. And, no doubt, weak and
shallow enough we shall find them all; and such as could never persuade any man to sin, did not
his own love to sin persuade him much more forcibly than all such
considerations; some of which are these that follow. As--
1. Men consider the success which they have actually had in the
commission of many sins; and this proves an encouraging argument to them to
commit the same for the future; as naturally suggesting this to their thoughts,
that what they have done so often, without either discovery or punishment, may
be so done by them again.
2. A second ground, upon which men are apt to persuade themselves
that they shall escape the stroke of Divine justice for their sins, is their
observation of the great and flourishing condition of some of the topping
sinners of the world.
3. As we have shown holy mightily men are heartened on to their sins,
by the successful examples of others as had as themselves or perhaps worse; so
the next ground upon which such are wont to promise themselves security, both
from the discovery and punishment of their sins, is the opinion which they have
of their own singular art and cunning to conceal them from the knowledge, or,
at least, of their power to rescue them from the jurisdiction of any earthly
judge.
4. The fourth and last ground which I shall mention of men’s
promising themselves security from the punishment of their sins, is a strong
presumption that they shall be able to repent, and make their peace with God
when they please; and this, they fully reckon, will keep them safe, and
effectually shut the door against their utmost fears, as being a reach beyond
them all.
III. To show the
vanity of this confidence, by declaring those several ways by which, in the
issue, it comes certainly to he defeated; and that both with reference to this
world and the next.
1. For this world; there are various ways by which it comes to be
disappointed here: as
The consequences of sin
The text leads us to consider the consequences of a single
sin, such as a breach of their engagement would have been to the Reubenites and
Gadites.
I. It is natural
to reflect on the probable influence upon us of sins committed in our
childhood and even infancy, which we never realised or have altogether
forgotten. Children’s minds are impressible in a very singular way, such as is
not common afterwards. The passing occurrences which meet them rest upon their
imagination as if they had duration, and days or hours, having to them the
semblance, may do the work, of years.
II. What is true in
infancy and childhood is in its degree true in after-life. At particular
moments in our later life, when the mind is excited, thrown out of its ordinary
state, as if into the original unformed state when it was more free to choose
good or evil, then, in like manner, it takes impressions, and those indelible
ones, after the manner of childhood. This is one reason why a time of trial is
often such a crisis in a man’s spiritual history.
III. To these single
or forgotten sins are not improbably to be traced the strange inconsistencies
of character which we often witness in our experience of life.
IV. Single sins
indulged or neglected are often the cause of other defects of character, which
seem to have no connection with them, but which, after all, are rather
symptomatic of the former than themselves at the bottom of the mischief.
V. A man may be
very religious in all but one infirmity, and this one indulged infirmity may
produce most disastrous effects on his spiritual state, without his ever being
aware of it. His religious excellences are of no avail against wilful sin. The
word of Scripture assures us that such sin shuts us out from God’s presence and
obstructs the channels by which He gives us grace. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)
The sins of sinners finding them out
I. Sinners are in
their hearts utterly averse to be found out by their sins, and they have many shifts
for that vain purpose.
1. They will excuse and justify their sins as if there were no evil
in them.
2. They will carry the matter so quietly as that it shall be hid from
the eyes of the world, while in the meantime God’s watchful eye is still upon them,
though they do not regard it.
3. They will deny it when charged upon them, and so cover one sin
with another. “They wipe their mouth and say we have done no wickedness.” Oh
what pains do many take to ruin their own souls. Credit before the world is bought
at prodigious rates of soul, and consciences, lies, and perjury.
4. They will keep out of the way, where their sin is most likely to
find them out. They live strangers to themselves, dare not examine themselves
impartially.
II. To show in what
respects sin shall find out the sinner.
1. By discovering and bringing to light their works of darkness.
2. By presenting sin in its native colours to their awakened
consciences.
3. By giving them the due reward of their works.
III. Snow whence it
is that sin certainly will find out the sinner. How can it be otherwise, if we
consider--
1. That none can sin without witnesses, who will surely at length
discover the sin. Let sinners choose the most secret place for their works of
darkness, they have always two witnesses present with them.
2. God has said it.
3. There is a watchful eye of Providence over the world that never
closes, but takes notice of all men’s actions at all times and in every place.
Use
1. Of information. This lets us see--
2. Of warning,
I. The general
kinds of sin, which the Lord makes to find out the sinner. As for open sins
confessed by the sinner, I need not speak of these, the sinner meets with them
every day. But--
1. Sins which men will not own to be sins, the Lord makes to find out
the sinner. Crucifixion of Christ.
2. Secret sins to which no man is witness, the Lord makes them find
out the sinner.
II. The time in
which the Lord makes sin to find out the sinner. Times and seasons are in the
Lord’s hand, and the time fixed by His providence is always the best time, and
whoso considereth circumstances will be obliged to own it. The best time for
his own honour, and for the conviction of the sinner in mercy or in wrath.
III. The place,
where sin finds out the sinner. Many times there is much of God seen in this,
and God reserves the discovery always to the fittest place. And He can make the
sinner’s own feet carry him to the place of this heavy meeting, while he has no
mind of any such thing.
1. God can make sin find out the sinner sometimes, where he can have
least support under the awful meeting with his sin. Joseph’s brethren.
2. Where they may have least help to shift, their sins finding them
out. Companions in sin are ofttimes farthest to seek when their help is most
needed, and some time or other they will all prove physicians of no value.
3. Where it will confound the sinner most and pierce his heart most
keenly. God makes secret sins, which no eye has seen committed, find out the
sinner publicly before many witnesses, and in the face of the sun.
IV. The means by
which the Lord makes sin find out the sinner. There is much of God seen in this
also. He never wants means to discover the most secret sins, which He wishes to
bring to light. Sometimes this is done--
1. By the natural product of the sin, by which the sin is made to
discover itself.
2. By some act of indiscretion and folly in the sinner himself.
3. By some unforeseen accident which the sinner by his own utmost
diligence could not prevent. Man’s capacity is but narrow, there are many things
which he cannot foresee. When he goes out of the way of God, he may, ere he be
aware, be caught fast in such a snare as will hold him till his sin finds him
out.
V. The way and
manner of sin’s finding out the sinner. This many a time is such as must needs
make men to say, “This is the finger of God.” Providence appoints the meeting,
and wonderfully brings matters about for the keeping of it.
1. Ofttimes sin finds the sinner unexpectedly and surprisingly when
they are not looking for it.
2. Often does the way which sinners take to hide their sin prove the
way of its finding them out.
3. Sin always finds out the sinner securely, that there is none
escaping, no getting beyond it, but the sinner is hedged in on every side.
4. God’s writing the sin upon the punishment, so that the sinner
shall be forced to say, “As I have done, so God hath requited me.” Thus God
makes men’s sins so to find them out, that they cannot fail to see that He
remembers such a sin against them. Sometimes the punishment is the same in kind
with the sin: as in the case of Adoni-bezek. Sometimes there is a visible
likeness between the sin and the punishment. The Sodomites burned with lust,
and God sends fire and brimstone on them to burn them to ashes. Sometimes there
is a certain relationship betwixt the sin and the punishment. Jeroboam’s hand
withering, the belly of the adulteress swelling, and her thigh rotting.
Finally, sometimes there is a direct contrariety betwixt the sin and the
punishment. Thus God threatened the Israelites: “Because thou servedst not the
Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of
all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall send
against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all
things; and tie shall put a yoke of iron on thy neck, until He have destroyed
thee.” Adam would be like God, and he became like the beast that perisheth. I
shall now confirm the doctrine.
Here consider--
1. That no man can sin without witnesses. This has been already
illustrated under the third head.
2. Consider that God both can and will make sin find out the sinner.
How then can the sinner escape? Many a time atrocious crimes escape among men,
because such as would cannot find them out, and such as can will not do it. But
there is neither cannot nor will not with God in this case.
Sin finding the sinner out
I. Inquire what it
is to be found out by sin. The expression is singular as well as striking, and
means to be overtaken by convictions; to be alarmed, and brought under a sense
of condemnation and danger, on account of sin. A man may be said to be thus
found out when he feels the awful consequences of sin in his conscience, when
his peace is disturbed by the recollection of his iniquities, when he feels the
fatal sting of them in his soul. When a man’s sins find him out, convictions
fasten as a worm upon his mind; and conscience, though before unheeded, or
perhaps silenced and kept down by numberless worldly cares and pleasures, rises
up, as it were, with renewed vigour and tormenting energy, and at length forces
the sinner, with wretched Ahab, to exclaim, “Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?”
The sinner is made alive to the evil of sin. The effects of sin, as they
frequently overtake the sinner in this world, are generally serious and
painful; but, considered in a more extended view, as reaching through eternity,
and as having to do with our everlasting doom in the world of spirits, they
must be unutterably awful. They are not only ruinous to a man’s present peace,
and injurious to the body, but pernicious, fearfully pernicious, to the soul.
Oh, let us think of our sins while we are privileged to hear the sound of a
Redeemer’s name! Let us implore forgiveness while mercy exhibits to our view
the atoning blood of the Cross!
II. The certainty
of this finding out.
III. To illustrate
the text, by adverting to the times and occasions when men are usually found
out by sin.
1. Sin is sometimes made suddenly to overtake and find out the sinner
by an unexpected stroke of Providence. One circumstance often calls up another
to remembrance, or discovers events with which it is connected, involving
crimes and guilt which have been long buried in concealment, and long time
escaped detection. How singular and striking the case of the brethren of
Joseph!
2. Sin finds men out at the time of conversion.
3. That sin fails not to find out the sinner, if not sooner, at least
in the day of adversity, sickness, and death. (J. Jacques, B. A.)
The punishments of the wicked
Experience proves that the punishments visited upon an iniquity
are often greater than the advantages or pleasures which that iniquity could
possibly have secured. A man gains £50 by forgery, and his whole life becomes
an utter wreck. A youth rejoices for a moment in the indulgence of his
appetites, and consequences of a lifelong duration are entailed on him.
Sometimes, also, the punishments are delayed until long after the actions
occasioning them are forgotten. This is not infrequently the case. Years roll
away, and the transgressor settles down quietly and respectably in life. The
calm joys of home, the lapse of time, the eagerness for new pursuits, have
obliterated from his memory the recollection of the long-gone, sin, when
suddenly up rises, from the dark background and abysm of the past, the grim spectre of an
unavoidable retribution. A doctor once asked a man dying of cancer, whether he
could recollect ever having done an injury to the breast in which the cancer
had formed. “Yes,” he replied; “some thirty years ago I had a heavy fall, which
sorely bruised this breast.” “That fall of thirty years ago,” said the doctor,
“is the occasioning cause of your cancer now.” So is it with the cancerous
consequences caused by sin. They repose silently for many years, and then, long
after the occasioning iniquity is forgotten, they break forth in fatal,
calamitous, irrepressible malignity. Terrible, slow, subtle, long-delayed, are
the punishments accorded to sin in this present life; and no transgressor can
ever be quite sure that the remote, perhaps forgotten, iniquity of long ago
will not, ere life is over, be punished by exposure, shame, and ruin. And these
long-delayed punishments often come, not by degrees and after many warnings,
but suddenly and with violence. At the meridian of the brightest summer day the
avalanches come down irresistibly, overwhelmingly. Moreover, it is not active
and heinous misdoings alone whose footsteps are thus dogged by the pursuing
Nemesis. Extravagance, rashness, folly, negligence, procrastination, are often
attended by terrible consequences. Most people have their opportunity in life,
and every man his day. But if the day is unused, it cannot be recalled. And
daily experience teaches that there is a certain bound and limit to imprudence and
misbehaviour and negligence which, being transgressed, there remains no place of repentance in
the natural course of things. Every life, like every year, has its cycle of
seasons, and when the season is passed it is for ever and irrecoverably gone.
Moreover (and the consideration is of serious moment), the punishment for
neglecting opportunity or for committing iniquity is final. Considered in their
temporal duration, the punishments visited upon vice and negligence are
everlasting. Nor does it make the smallest difference to the fact and the
certainty of these consequences whether we believe in them or not. Men may
ignore consequences, but consequences come all the same. Considerations such as
these appear to shed some light upon the vexed question of punishments after
death. By thoughtfully reflecting upon the method of God’s dealings here and
now, men may fairly conjecture what will be the method of God’s dealings with
them hereafter, seeing that the same Unchangeable God presides over the
destinies both of the embodied and the disembodied man. And, in this present
world, we find that mere folly, wilfulness, feebleness of will, want of
exertion, entail consequences almost as pernicious as those which attend upon
actual transgression. We find, moreover, that the plea of ignorance or
inexperience does not avert the retributions which await the transgressor. So,
to this extent at least, the misdoings and the negligences of man’s mortal
state may be punished everlastingly, in that eternity may prove too short for
the full undoing of the ravages inflicted on the soul, by wrongs committed or
duties omitted, during the temporary period of its habitation in the body. And
if this be so--if the same principles which permeate natural punishments in
this world extend to the punishments of the world to come--then it follows not
only that the disbelieving or the ignoring of these punishments will neither
moderate nor avert them, but also that habits of disbelief may induce practical
neglect of laws, resulting in heavy retribution. Pain and suffering are facts
which doubters may discuss or condemn, but can neither prevent nor divert. The
belief in future punishments has an evident and direct tendency to diminish
those punishments, and even to lead to an escape from them altogether, inasmuch
as it assists in prevailing upon men to avoid the causes of evil upon which the
tread of punishment follows ; whereas doubt of, or disbelief in, future
punishment tends toward a recklessness of living calculated to make hell in
life here, even if hereafter there were no life in hell. (J. W. Diggle, M. A.)
Sin never forgotten
Let a man try to forget any dreadful thing of which he hates the
remembrance, and the more he tries to forget it, the more surely he remembers
it, the more he bodies it forth, and every thrust he makes at it causes it to
glare up anew, reveals some new horror in it. Doubtless, this peculiarity in
our mental constitution is destined to play a most terrific part in the
punishment of men’s sins in eternity; for there can be nothing so dreadful as
the remembrance of sin, and nothing which men will strive with more intense
earnestness to hide from and forget, than the recollection of their sins; and
yet every effort they make at such forgetfulness only gives to such sins a more
terrible reality, and makes them blaze up in a more lurid light to the
conscience. Oh, if they could but be forgotten! But the more intense is the
earnestness of this wish, the more impossible becomes the forgetfulness, the
more terribly the dreaded evil stands out. There are cases, even in this life,
in which men would give ten thousand worlds, if they possessed them, could they
only forget; but how much more in eternity! The man that has committed a secret
midnight murder, how often, think you, though perhaps not a human being
suspects it, would he give the riches of the material universe, if he bad them
at command, could he but forget that one moment’s crime! But it is linked to
his very constitution; and every time he tries to cut the chain, he does but
rattle and rouse the crime out of its grave into a new existence. (G. B.
Cheever, D. D.)
Life’s mistakes
We sleep, but the loom of life never stops; and the pattern which
was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up to-morrow. He
who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the
flaw when he may have forgotten its cause. (H. W. Beecher.)
Verse 38
Their names being changed
Changes of name
Many persons live in names.
This is fatal to the grasp of complete truth and relation. The poet asks,
“What’s in a name?” The name of a friend may be necessary to his
identification, but the name is not the man. Character is to be studied, motive
is to be understood, purpose is to be appreciated, then whatever changes may
take place in the mere name, love and confidence will be undiminished. The
change of names, both in the Old Testament and the New, deserves careful study.
The name of Abram was changed, so was the name of Jacob, so was the name of
Saul of Tarsus. Those changes of name symbolise changes of trust and vocation
in life. The name should enlarge with the character, but the character should
be always more highly valued than the name. The solemn application of this text
is to the matter of great evangelical truths and doctrines. For want of
attention to this matter, bigotry has been encouraged, and men have been
separated from one another. Some persons do not know the gospel itself, except
under a certain set of names, words, and stereotyped phrases. This is not
Christianity, it is mere literalism; it is, in fact, idolatry, for there is an
idolatry of phrase as well as of images. The truth is not in the letters which
print it, the letters but stand to express the inexpressible. All life is
symbolic. God has spoken in little else than parables. Revelation addresses the
imagination, when imagination is used in its highest senses. It is not the
faculty of mere cloud-making, but the faculty of insight into the largest
meanings and the innermost relations of things. The letter in which you
endeavour to express your love, is a poor substitute for the living voice and
the living touch; it is indeed invaluable in the absence of the living
personality; but what letter was ever written that quite satisfied the writer
when love was the subject and devotedness the intention? There is a change of
names that inspires the soul with hope. God is to give His servants a new name
in the upper world; their name is to be in their foreheads; but in the changing
of the name there is no changing in the burning love and the rapturous
adoration. (J. Parker, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》