Sin Will Find You Out

I know of a Christian leader who was well respected by those close to him. He was bright, gifted, seemingly a man for young men to follow.

But he had a secret. And secrets, like wildfires, are hard to control.

A participant in his sin told a relative. That relative told it to my relative. He was living a double life. His was an ongoing kind of sin, a big-deal kind of sin, a career-ending kind of sin, a hell-threatening kind of sin.

Hearing it, I went from disbelief to sadness to anger to fear. I trembled — how creative was the Lord in exposing his sin. The sin crossed river and road until, like Bilbo with the ring of power, “It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable” — one who knew just whom to contact next to follow up with whether the scandal was true.

That’s when a phrase leaped into my mind: “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

Reader, are you living in secret sin, big sin, ongoing sin, hell-threatening sin? Are you tempted to? Or perhaps you’re harboring “smaller sins,” pet sins, lazy sins. Either way, this one verse unmasks the true nature of sin: that it will always be found out and find you out.

The Sin of Sitting

“Be sure your sin will find you out.” What was the sin?

We pick up our story with Israel on the border of the promised land.

Israel, fresh off two victories in the wilderness, prepares to follow Joshua across the river Jordan and war with the Canaanites for the land promised to their fathers. But on the eve of this holy war, two of the twelve tribes of Israel — the tribes of Reuben and Gad — look around at the land they have just conquered and say to themselves, “This land isn’t too bad. It rather fits our needs!”

These two tribes have cattle and sheep, and this land is perfect for cattle and sheep (Numbers 32:1). They decide they don’t need the land flowing with milk and honey. They go to the elders and Moses with a request: “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan” (verse 5).

Sounds reasonable. They say it politely. Look at the response: “But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, ‘Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here?’” (verse 6).

What sin would Moses soon warn would find them out? Idolatry? Had they stashed another golden calf away somewhere? No. It was the sin of just sitting there. Sitting there — while their brothers went off to war. Sitting there — building houses, raising families, herding cattle. But for all of that, just sitting there, deserting God’s people and abandoning God’s mission.

Brother’s Keeper

What would be the result of their sin? First, it would harm the other tribes.

“Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them?” (verse 7). Gad and Reuben’s inactivity, their self-focus, their worrying about their cattle more than their brothers, would dishearten the other tribes, just as the fearful spies dispirited their fathers from entering the land the first time. And the same disaster would ensue, as their sitting there would invite a repeat of God’s judgment. “You will destroy all this people,” Moses says (verse 15).

And notice that if they do not go forward, if they leave the other ten tribes to fend for themselves, if they retreat, halt, break their word and forsake the mission, behold, they have not ultimately sinned against Judah, Benjamin, Levi, and the other tribes; they have sinned against the Lord. “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord” (verse 23).

Do you take sins of inaction seriously? We tend to think that real sins are doing something evil, while failing to do the good that we ought to do appears almost negligible. Failure to evangelize, pray, serve the church, or go forth in God’s mission — these seem like relatively small oversights. We think of these sins like recycling — you know you probably should do it, but it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t.

“Why does the church have only a marginal impact upon America today? Partly because we take sins of inaction lightly.”

Why do moralistic people think they deserve heaven because they have not committed adultery or abused children? Because they know nothing of sins of omission — they believe refusing to love God, trust in Christ, and care for his people are inconsequential. How startled many will be (outside and inside the church) when on judgment day the Lord separates the sheep and the goats based upon their failure to feed him, to clothe him, to visit him in prison — that is, by not doing so to the least of his saints (Matthew 25:41–46).

And why does the church have only a marginal impact upon America today? Partly because we take sins of inaction lightly. We too can be caught just sitting here. In a lush and comfortable land, we also excuse ourselves from God’s Great Commission. We build homes, but not the church; make money, but not disciples; win luxuries for earth, but not souls for heaven. How many of our backyards have little bumps where we have buried our talents and opportunities? May none of us be barren fig trees who spend our lives dismissing ourselves from what was our greatest privilege — serving the Lord Jesus in his war effort, riding with him into the conflict alongside those who love him.

Sinners in the Crosshairs

Now, what will the second result of their sin be? This time the harm will fall on themselves. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” What does this mean?

It means they won’t get away with it. It means that sin — even sins of omission — will not go unnoticed, unaccounted for, or unvisited. If they ascend to the clouds, their sin shall follow them there; if they descend into the grave, it will be waiting; if they take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea — even there their sin will find them out. The title over every sin is never abridged; it is always “Crime and Punishment.”

Imagine aircraft combat. One plane is in pursuit of another and fires a heat-seeking missile; the other aircraft swerves to escape but cannot. Every sin fires a sinner-seeking missile. Lust after a woman — one is deployed. Lie to a friend — another. Give in to sloth and gluttony — two more. Every sinner has a sky full of missiles behind him! A few might find you in this life, but God has fixed a day in the next life when every single one shall catch you.

Your good works will not deflect them. A priest’s absolutions can’t slow even one down. Forgetting they are there, overlooking them, or ignoring them shall not stop them from finding you. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” And not because karma will boomerang them back to you, but because God will repay you to your face. Another way to put it is, “Be sure the Lord will find you out.”

From the beginning, we have failed to take such warnings seriously. Though God says clearly, “On the day you eat of it, you will die,” we are too prone to be persuaded by, “Did God really say? On the day you eat of it, you will not surely die.” God says sin will be found out and hated; sin says God can neither find us out nor hate us in our sin (Psalm 36:1–2).

And the lie seems plausible because God’s patience — which is meant to lead to repentance — delays his judgments.

The pattern began in the garden but didn’t stop there. The world of Noah’s day was sure their sin would not be found out. They ignored Noah’s preaching — until the door shut, and the rain began. The proud and lustful inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah never dreamed God would visit them. Until fireballs fell from heaven. The Egyptians believed the Hebrew God to be only a shadow and mist. “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” (Exodus 5:2). Until water turned to blood, firstborn sons died, and the Red Sea fell. The Jews of Jesus’s day thought no penalty would arrive for killing God’s Messiah. Until Rome surrounded them, and not one stone of the temple was left upon another.

Time fails to tell of Achan, Saul, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, the host of fallen angels, or all the unrepentant sinners at judgment day. The signpost beside the lake of fire reads, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”

A Divine Target

Finally, consider what God does to sin.

He punishes sin. What ought to be clear by now is that God sees sin, hates it, and ensures that it will find the sinner out. But he does more! Can I boast about what he has done for me?

My sin — oh, the bliss of this glorious thought —
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

He pays for sin. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). His very name is called Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Jesus shut the door to Noah’s ark from the outside and sank under the floods, that you might be safe inside. He stayed behind, buried with Sodom and Gomorrah in your place, that you might escape with your life. The sky full of homing missiles — where did they go? Each suddenly redirected, falling downward, and every sin of each of his people detonated upon him at the cross — not one was missing.

He finds sin out. Sin did not find him; he found sin. He hunted what hunted his people, thus it is written: “He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). God sat in the judgment seat, your sin stood before him in the flesh of Jesus, and he condemned that sin on the cross.

Thus, to all who repent and believe, he forgives it — all of it.

Have you not yet trusted in Christ? Come quickly. Why do you wait?

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6–7)

And finally, he delivers from sin. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). He saves us from hell and makes us holy as we behold him, trust him, walk with him by his Spirit.

Do not confuse atonement for sin with enablement to sin. “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2). The Lord’s wrath may not find you out, but sin is still unsafe. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Condemnation is gone for the Christian, but consequences remain. If he loves you, he will come after you, discipline you, which is always good for you, but always painful. Our text still stands.

So, confess known and secret sins. Turn back to God. Believe his gospel of grace. Live for his glory. Go to war alongside your brothers. Ride forth behind the Captain of your soul, Jesus Christ, until you cross the River Jordan and enter the promised land.