But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
To refuse to do what was agreed, especially to seek ease and personal prosperity while leaving others to bear hardship and labor in God's cause, is sin against the Lord whose wrongdoing will be exposed and bring its consequences. No dishonesty, double dealing, selfishness, avarice, deception, or fair outward show can stay covered, for God sees and marks every work and every secret thought and action, which darkness and night cannot hide, and there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and nothing hid that shall not be made open as day. Exposure brings a penalty that cannot be escaped by hiding or by avoiding human justice, even when consequences are long delayed, and this holds for violations of the laws of the body as well as for moral wrong. Joseph's brothers recognized their present distress as God visiting them for their cruelty toward Joseph. David learned this when conscience recalled his adultery and his plan for Uriah to die in battle, holding him guilty though he did not kill with his own hand. His humiliating flight was God's retributive justice fulfilling the judgment given through Nathan that the sword would never leave his house and that he would reap what he sowed, showing after long delay that God keeps His word and hates sin with terrible righteous acts even when a leader brings sin upon Israel.
Achan's concealed theft was uncovered by investigation, and his confession only after being identified, made too late in hope of escaping punishment, did not show true repentance. Those who deceive God's people and bring confusion into the church will have their sins exposed and punished on the day of fierce anger. Sins hidden from fellow men will be found out too late in the final judgment after every case is decided for life or death, when each sinner is found in his true place with the wicked in the second resurrection and sin can no longer be purged by sacrifice or offering. When the heavenly records are opened the Judge convicts with a penetrating glance rather than a spoken sentence, every deed and transaction is vividly impressed on memory, hidden sins are proclaimed to the whole world, and the wrongdoer's own lips confess shame from awful condemnation and fearful expectation, which cannot save him. The verse therefore calls professed Christians to share hardship rather than leave it to others, calls parents to watch earnestly over their children's souls as faithful stewards against deceptive ways, and calls sinners to genuine repentance that sees sin's offensiveness and confesses specific known wrongs instead of general admissions while continuing in sin.
To refuse to do what was agreed, especially to seek ease and personal prosperity while leaving others to bear hardship and labor in God's cause, is sin against the Lord whose wrongdoing will be exposed and bring its consequences. No dishonesty, double dealing, selfishness, avarice, deception, or fair outward show can stay covered, for God sees and marks every work and every secret thought and action, which darkness and night cannot hide, and there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and nothing hid that shall not be made open as day. Exposure brings a penalty that cannot be escaped by hiding or by avoiding human justice, even when consequences are long delayed, and this holds for violations of the laws of the body as well as for moral wrong. Joseph's brothers recognized their present distress as God visiting them for their cruelty toward Joseph. David learned this when conscience recalled his adultery and his plan for Uriah to die in battle, holding him guilty though he did not kill with his own hand. His humiliating flight was God's retributive justice fulfilling the judgment given through Nathan that the sword would never leave his house and that he would reap what he sowed, showing after long delay that God keeps His word and hates sin with terrible righteous acts even when a leader brings sin upon Israel.
Achan's concealed theft was uncovered by investigation, and his confession only after being identified, made too late in hope of escaping punishment, did not show true repentance. Those who deceive God's people and bring confusion into the church will have their sins exposed and punished on the day of fierce anger. Sins hidden from fellow men will be found out too late in the final judgment after every case is decided for life or death, when each sinner is found in his true place with the wicked in the second resurrection and sin can no longer be purged by sacrifice or offering. When the heavenly records are opened the Judge convicts with a penetrating glance rather than a spoken sentence, every deed and transaction is vividly impressed on memory, hidden sins are proclaimed to the whole world, and the wrongdoer's own lips confess shame from awful condemnation and fearful expectation, which cannot save him. The verse therefore calls professed Christians to share hardship rather than leave it to others, calls parents to watch earnestly over their children's souls as faithful stewards against deceptive ways, and calls sinners to genuine repentance that sees sin's offensiveness and confesses specific known wrongs instead of general admissions while continuing in sin.