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In 1967, the Principal of our college entered the staff room and informed us, the tutors, that somebody had stolen a pant of one of our female students. We left immediately to look for the place the thief must have hidden it. I entered the Science Laboratory and scarcely had I reached the gable end of the building, when one of our female students started crying aloud, pleading for mercy. Her conduct caught my attention. There, I found the pant, concealed at a corner. Had she not cried, I might not have seen it. Her sin found her out, if not, nobody would have associated her with the theft as it was a common knowledge that her dad was extremely rich.
Prophet Samuel told King Saul that God wanted him to destroy everybody and everything in Amalek, including animals and sucking babies, because of their sin. One day, Prophet Samuel visited him and he rendered to the Prophet a beautiful account of how he had carried out God’s instruction to him. At that moment, the birds and animals he did not destroy, as he was instructed, started to make noticeable noise. “What about these I am hearing?” The Man of God asked him. Not only did he not destroy all these birds and animals, he even spared Agag, their king. Saul had done his utmost to conceal the things he brought home, but it was his sin that announced his disobedience to God’s instruction.
God’s instruction during a war, that the gold and silver they would come across should belong to Him, was not strange to God’s children. Though Achan was aware of this, he still concealed some gold and a Babylonian garment inside the ground. Nobody knew it. During the battle, Israel lost many of their soldiers in the hands of Ai, a community with only a few soldiers. It was too much for Joshua, their military leader to swallow. He went into mourning and fasting. God told him that there was no need for that, that sin was the consequence for their defeat. After a thorough searching, Uncle Achan was found culpable. It was his sin that found him out. He was executed with every member of his family.
Israel was at war with the Philistines. Unlike King David, he stayed at home and curiously, it was the time that kings led their soldiers to battle. A lady, for no reason, chose to bath, where he could see her. David could have changed his position but he did not. Enquiring, he was told that she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his soldiers on the battle field. He sent for her and slept with her, sleeping with another man’s wife! May those, who sleep with single ladies, know that the ladies are future wives of some men. What a way to reward Uriah, who was risking his life, fighting to protect King David’s head and crown! What brings good news normally brought bad news to him – pregnancy! Bathsheba was pregnant! Their sin had found them out.
To cover their sin, David caused Uriah to be sent home, believing that he would go home to sleep with his wife and then become responsible for the pregnancy. Uriah refused to go to his house, when he returned. David drugged him so as to compel him to go home but Uriah reasoned that he would not go home to enjoy the embrace of his wife, when he was not sure of the fate of his fellow soldiers and the Ark of God on the battle field. That was another way God intended that their hidden sin would find them out. David then ordered his GOC to execute this loyal soldier by sending him to the fiercest sector, where the enemy soldiers would kill him. And they did! Bathsheba joined the king’s harem shamelessly. That was how their sin also found them out. Rev. Nathan came and confronted King David for their evil deeds. We thank God that he accepted them and pleaded with God for forgiveness. God forgave him but he paid the price.
We can go on, mentioning various individuals, who committed evil deeds and concealed them until the sins they committed found them out. There is no instance I can remember, where someone indulged in evil deed and nobody knew about it at the end of the day. At first, people may not know, and some may know and keep quiet. I wrote on this column many years ago, how a youth would sleep at night with his father’s youngest wife. In the morning, to ridicule his father, as he was spraying water on his climbing rope, he would say, “Night is long and dark. Nobody knows all the things that take place”. Being uncomfortable with that, his dad sought for counsel from some wise men. “After listening to your son,” they told him, “tell him that people know what other people do, but they decide to keep quiet”.
The next morning, in his proud manner about his exploits in sin, the youth recounted how long and dark the night would be and nobody could know all the things that happen. “My son, it is not true, we know but keep quiet,” he told him. Like magma, the youth melted. He left the house, sober and came back with some elders and some bottles of wine, pleading with his dad for forgiveness, for the abomination he had been committing, by sleeping with his stepmother.
Wisdom demands that we learn from other people’s mistakes, while foolishness makes someone to learn from his own mistakes. People indulge in all sorts of evil because of their belief that nobody knows what they do. This is the essence of the Word of God. It makes it clear that God, who knows all the things we do, from mere thinking of it, to its execution, is the ready to forgive us, if we repent and turn our back to them. This is why the Gospel is called ‘Good News’. Is it not so to the sinner? I benefitted from it that April 16, 1972, I gave my life to the Lord Jesus. His blood cleansed me from my evil deeds. My sin can no longer find me out because the Lord Jesus has wiped them away. Glory!
Hell is the reward for proud men, who lived in the deception that God and man did not know their evil deeds. After hearing the Gospel for repentance, some people still harden their hearts and refuse to come out to be ministered to. They do not want people to know that they live in sin. They may even fear that they will lose the important offices they hold, should the Church leaders know their evil deeds. At death, the Church will bury them and announce that their beloved member has gone to be with the Lord. Some spouses and their children, who knew the person very well, may continue to mourn deeply, because they knew that the person was living a double life, one at home and the other in public, and therefore could not have made Heaven.
Good things might be said about the person, in hell, he would open his eyes. Regretting his deeds will not change anything. His sin has found him! May that not be our portion!
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471; [email protected]
