Last week I observed that the “famous” verse, “God is not a man that he should lie…” is in the middle of the strange story of Balaam. Here’s another verse that’s frequently quoted out of context:

Be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32.23)

We were told as children, “Now don’t go sneaking around doing bad things. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” But the verse has nothing to do with that sort of thing.

I remember a sermon I heard in my early 20s motivating us to a missions mindset from this very chapter: Numbers 32. It starts this way:

Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock. So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation,… “The land that the LORD struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” And they said, “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.” (Numbers 32.1 – 5, ESV)

This is toward the end of Numbers. Deuteronomy is largely the final sermons of Moses to the Israelites. At this point of the narrative, the people are getting ready to cross the Jordan and take the land (recorded in Joshua). But here are some tribes saying, “Wait a minute. The land right here, east of the Jordan (not the Promised Land) is good for cattle, and, guess what? we have cattle! So let us just stay here.”

Moses will have none of it:

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? (Numbers 32.6, ESV)

This starts a tirade from Moses reminding them of the faithlessness of Numbers 13 and 14. To which they respond:

Then they came near to him and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, but we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance. (Numbers 32.16 – 18, ESV)

It’s in this context that “be sure your sin will find you out” appears:

So Moses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the LORD for the war, and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the LORD, until he has driven out his enemies from before him and the land is subdued before the LORD; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the LORD and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the LORD. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32.20 – 23, ESV)

It’s not the sin of sneaking around doing bad things. It’s the sin of not engaging in God’s mission. The hymn captures it well:

Shall I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease

While others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? – Am I A Soldier of the Cross?, Isaac Watts

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4.7, ESV)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6.10 – 13, ESV)