“Good understanding giveth favor: but the way of transgressors is hard”. (Proverb 13:15)
While man-made rules are sometimes permitted to be bent or even canceled outright, God will never bend His own rules to suit anybody, not even his children.
Why is this so? It’s not that God is mean but because God will always elevate His holiness above sin.
God is unapologetically holy.
God will not condescend to our level but we must elevate our life to God’s standards. Remember, God said to Moses “ Come up to Me on the mountain and be there” ( Ex 24:12). It was Moses that went up to God and not God coming down to meet Moses at the basement of the mountain.
No matter how much we love God, one little act of disobedience is enough to earn us an ugly scar for the rest of our lives. Therefore there is a need for extra caution and vigilance in our walk with God knowing that He will not bend His rules for us if we flagrantly disobey Him.
The scars of disobedience are not a thing of spiritual beauty as they often mar our lives even after asking for forgiveness from the Lord.
If any sinner would come to the Lord in repentance He would definitely forgive but forgiveness will not always wipe off the consequences of sin. After forgiveness comes restoration but even restoration may not remove the ugly scar of disobedience.
For example, Isaac knew the will of God concerning Jacob at birth but would choose to follow his fleshly urge to arrange a fatherly blessing for Esau without asking for his wife’s opinion who received a promise concerning the children during her pregnancy.
Rebecca who knew the will of God and who overheard Isaac’s plan did not confront Isaac openly about his plan but decided to introduce a deceptive dimension into the whole process leading to painful separation from his son as part of the plan to escape Esau’s fury. The ugly fallout had Esau threatening to kill Jacob.
Rebecca never saw his son again until she died.
Jacob who played along with his mother’s deception knew little peace in his life going forward, to the extent that he told Pharaoh: “ few and evil are the days of your servant”. (Gen.47:9).
His life was a mixture of avoidable pain and of course God’s abiding mercies with the supposed loss of Joseph standing out as one of the most agonizing times of his life.
Because everyone in the piece of this narrative did not trust God but tried to help God to fulfill his promise or bend his rule, they all lost peace, and gloom was cast over the journey of their lives.
David was beloved of God but no stranger to disobedience and the aftermath of his dubious actions bore a deep searing scar. Even though an anointed of God, he was not spared the rod when he took another man’s wife against explicit rules contrary to such an action.
Even though David would marry the widowed Bathsheba, their first child died as punishment from God for David’s adultery and murder of Uriah. Though forgiven, the rules were not bent nor were God’s standards lowered for him.
Prophet Uriah’s harsh words to David far outweighed the pleasure David shared with Bathsheba in that ugly moment of sin:
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes, I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all of Israel.” (2 Samuel 12:10-24).
God will swiftly strike at sin in the life of His children even though it may appear harsh to casual observers.
God will never allow his children to be comfortable with sin, and will surely act with punitive consequences. God will always elevate His holiness above the human standard of morality because God is holy and will not compromise with sin.
He will always act to protect His honor and holiness wherever sin reigns even if He has to bruise his children.
Therefore we should all be concerned by the effect of sin and how terrible its scar could mar our lives. As we make our choices in life we should always be conscious of the fact that the terrible wages of sin far outweigh its pleasures.
We must kill sin before sin leaves an indelible scar on us. All we need to do is to ask the Holy Spirit to give us the grace to overcome sin.
Remember this sure promise from Jesus? It’s enough inspiration to deal with a deadly blow in our lives:
“ He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write to him My new name”. (Revelation 3:12).
Reading
Genesis 27
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