Numbers 32:23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out. |
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