sin

The problem of sin

Israel’s first act of idolatry occurred shortly after they had been brought out of Egypt. While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving God’s commandments, his brother Aaron made a golden calf for the people to worship. As they were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses reminded the Israelites of their mistake and said, “You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day I knew you” (Deuteronomy 9:24). Then Moses defined God’s great requirement of his people, “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12).

The Hebrew word translated rebellious in Deuteronomy 9:24 is marah, which means to be bitter. “Marah signifies an opposition to someone motivated by pride” (4784). In the context of a relationship with God, marah primarily means to disobey. Therefore, the Israelites were guilty of sin even before they entered the Promised Land. In fact, Micah knew there had never been a period of time in their history when Israel had fully obeyed God’s commands. In an attempt to make the people realize they had a problem that would never go away, like Moses, Micah articulated the requirement for a relationship with God.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8).

Something Micah tried to make clear was that the only way God’s people could meet his requirement was through an act of salvation. Micah stated, “The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among man…Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me” (Micah 7:2,7). Micah eluded to a day of judgment in which those who had been held captive by sin, would be declared innocent. Speaking on behalf of the people of God’s kingdom, Micah said, “I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me” (Micah 7:9).

The key to God’s plan of salvation was an undertaking of the responsibilities for sins of others by substitution. Micah declared, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He will turn again, he will have compassion on us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19. Like Isaiah (Isaiah 1:18), Micah identified a way for God’s people to be completely free from the effects of sin. Sacrifices would no longer be necessary and God’s people would be able to overcome their problem with sin.

A destructive pattern

A common phrase found in the record of the kings of Israel is “he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin” (2 Kings 15:24, 28). Jeroboam the son of Nebat was a servant of Solomon who was “ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph” (1 Kings 11:28). During the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, Jeroboam led the people of Israel in rebellion against the house of David (1 Kings 12:19). After establishing his kingdom, Jeroboam thought:

If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (1 Kings 12:27-28)

A hundred years later, Jehu was commissioned by God to wipe out king Ahab’s entire household because of their wickedness. Jehu led a massacre of all the Baal worshippers, “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin” (2 Kings 10:31). It says in 2 Kings 10:32, “In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short.” The exact meaning of the phrase “to cut short” is not clear, but it appears that God began to reduce the population in Israel until they reached a point where they could no longer adequately defend themselves against their enemies. In 722 B.C., they were conquered by the Assyrians and absorbed into that empire.

About 20-30 years prior to their exile, there was a destabilization in Israel’s leadership. A series of assassinations caused the throne to fall into the hands of Hoshea the son of Elah (2 Kings 15:30). “Hoshea probably represented the faction in the northern kingdom that favored cooperation with Assyria rather than resistance” (Note on 2 Kings 15:30). Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria had already taken possession of several territories in Israel when Hoshea took the throne (2 Kings 15:29). The initial phase of Israel’s captivity took place sometime around 738-732 B.C., within a decade of the death of Uzziah (a.k.a. Azariah) king of Judah.

Uzziah’s son Jotham probably began his reign amidst a great deal of turmoil and confusion in Israel. Jeroboam II’s military conquests (2 Kings 14:28) seemed to be turning the tide in Israel’s favor, but most likely the reduction in size of Israel’s population made it impossible for the expanded borders to be maintained. Even though Israel’s army consisted of seasoned warriors trained over decades due to continual warfare with Syria, the expanded borders may have spread them too thin and caused the people of Israel to become easy prey for the Assyrians.

Extremes

Wisdom does not keep us from committing sin. Sometimes people say, if I knew then what I know now, I would have done things differently, implying that you will make better choices as you grow wiser. The truth of the matter is that we make bad choices because we have a sin nature or tendency to sin, not because we are stupid and don’t know any better.

Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, disobeyed God by marrying multiple foreign wives. It says in 1 Kings 11:3 that Solomon “had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.” Initially, Solomon was committed to the LORD God of Israel who appeared to him on two separate occasions (1 Kings 11:9), but when Solomon was recognized by the people for his gifts of leadership, wisdom and justice (2205), he began to care more about pleasing his wives that he did about pleasing God (1 Kings 11:4).

The interesting thing about Solomon’s situation was that Solomon’s disobedience wasn’t punished. When David committed adultery with Bath-Sheba, the child that was conceived died shortly after he was born. Solomon’s disobedience continued throughout his life, to the extreme that he accumulated 1000 wives and concubines, a direct violation of God’s command (Deuteronomy 17:17).

Deuteronomy 17:14-20 makes it clear that God knew in advance that Solomon would turn away from him and may even have set up or prearranged the situation by giving Solomon extreme wealth. In ancient times, the number of wives a man had was closely tied to his wealth. From a cultural perspective, it was appropriate for Solomon to have an outrageous number of wives because he was the wealthiest man on earth. The problem was that Solomon had foreign wives that wanted to keep worshipping their own gods and Solomon let them.

In says in 1 Kings 11:9 that “the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice.” The word translated turned, natah “connotes ‘extending something outward and toward’  something or someone…This is a figure of God’s active, sovereign, and mighty involvement in the affairs of men. So this phrase means ‘to stretch out’ something until is reaches a goal” (5186).

God had a purpose for allowing Solomon’s disobedience to continue unpunished. It may have been that God wanted Israel to see that they could be like everyone else, enjoy  peace and prosperity, but they would be miserable without him at the center of their lives (Ecclesiastes 12:8).

 

 

Darkness

The first few years of my marriage were very happy ones. Becoming a mom was the best possible thing that could have happened to me, but after having three children, my ex-husband decided to have a vasectomy. My independent nature caused me to rebel against his decision and before long I found myself unhappy with my situation. I didn’t wake up one day thinking this sucks, there was a gradual change in my disposition. I went from being a very happy, contented wife to a miserable wretch over the course of about three years.

Proverbs 4:19 says, “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” The Hebrew word translated darkness, aphelah means duskiness (653). Aphelah is another form of the word aphel which means to set as the sun (651). The transition from day to night happens slowly and gradually, not in an instant like the flipping of a light switch. The problem with duskiness is that you can still see well enough to function, but your vision is distorted because of insufficient light. A wicked person that is guilty enough to deserve punishment, but does not, is probably avoiding punishment because his behavior overall is still pretty good.

What I didn’t see during the years when my marriage began to unravel was that I was becoming cold and indifferent to the people around me. Of course, the primary target of my selfish behavior was my husband, but my bad attitude affected everyone. I was difficult to get along with and I expected God to bless me even though I was living contrary to what it says a wife is supposed to in the Bible. I didn’t realize my unwillingness to submit to my husband was a serious sin that could ruin my marriage.

Actions & Consequences

If sin were a disease, it would be feared and dreaded more than any other because of the pain and suffering it causes those who contract it. Sin is a killer and like cancer, it often spreads so quickly, that by the time it is detected, it’s too late to do anything about it. Sin is both hereditary and contagious. You have to be careful to not get too close to someone infected with it and be aware that you may be predisposed toward a certain type of sin because of the sins of your parents.

“And Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister” (2 Samuel 13:4). Amnon’s confession of love to his friend Jonadab was understood to mean that he wanted to have sexual relations with his brother’s sister, Tamar. In response, Jonadab lays out a plan for Amnon to rape her. These two men were not only related to each other, they were both related to king David, the father of the woman Amnon was planning to rape.

David’s sin with Bath-sheba had caused his family to become infected with sin. In the same way that David had given in to his lust for Bath-sheba, Amnon decided he was going to have sex with Tamar. What was different about Amnon’s situation was that Tamar was a virgin and unlikely to agree to have sex with him outside of marriage.

Amnon’s friend Jonadab is described as being very subtil. The Hebrew word for subtil, chakam actually means wise (2450). Jonadab’s plan was not some sinister plot, but a well thought out means of obtaining what Amnon wanted, a private encounter with Tamar. Most likely, the intent was to have sex secretly, so that if anyone found out, Amnon could deny it.

“And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel; do not thou this folly” (2 Samuel 13:12). The word translated folly, “nebalah is most often used as a word for serious sin. It signifies ‘disregarding God’s will'” (5039). In other words, Amnon knew what God’s will for him was regarding Tamar and he decided to do the opposite. Jonadab was an accessory to his crime, and together, the two of them planned to deceive king David and trap his daughter Tamar, so that Amnon could have sex with her.

Rather than keeping it a secret, Tamar displayed her shame openly after Amnon raped her. “And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying” (2 Samuel 13:19). The word used to describe Tamar’s condition afterward, desolate or shamem in Hebrew means ruined (8076), but the root word shâmêm (shaw – mame´) means to stun or intransitively to grow numb (8074). Tamar was traumatized by what happened to her and most likely suffered from what we know today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) the rest of her life.

You’re going the wrong way

The Global Positioning System (GPS) that enables electronic car navigation to work properly has a feature that is comparable to forgiveness. Once a destination has been identified and a route planned, GPS recalculates the route if the driver get’s off course.

David used three key words in Psalm 32 related to navigation, imputeth, transgression, and iniquity, that describe how God’s forgiveness works. David said, “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity” (Psalm 32:2). The word translated imputeth, châshab (khaw – shab´) “signifies a mental process whereby some course is planned or conceived” (2803). When God charts the course of a person’s life, it is similar to entering an address into a navigation system. Once the coordinates are locked in, the system makes adjustments as necessary.

As with reaching a desired destination in traffic, life sometimes causes us to intentionally veer off course. David said, “I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD” (Psalm 32:5). The word translated transgressions, pesha‘ (peh´ – shah) signifies a revolt, “a willful rebellion from a prescribed or agreed upon path” (6588). Sin and transgression are sometimes used interchangeably to describe an offense against God. The important thing to note is that these words do not represent mistakes, like taking a wrong turn, they describe actions that are taken that ignore or circumvent the course that God has charted for us.

Occasionally, due to an accident or road construction, we are forced to take an alternate route. Iniquity is an alternate route that we take because we choose or want to avoid reaching our destination. David said, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid” (Psalm 32:5). The word translated iniquity, ‘avôwn (aw – vone´) portrays sin as “a perversion of life (a twisting out of the right way)” (5771). When David said that he had not hid his iniquity, he was not talking about it being hidden from God because that would be impossible. David had been deceiving himself, he thought that because he had Uriah killed in battle (2 Samuel 11:15), he was not guilty of murder. David’s navigation system tried to tell him he was going the wrong way, but his iniquity caused him to turn it off, so he didn’t have to listen to its annoying reminders.

After Nathan the prophet confronted him, David said, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1). Nathan did not tell David he had sinned. David knew he had sinned before Nathan came to see him. God sent Nathan to tell David to turn his navigation system back on so God could start giving him directions again and correct his course. That’s what it means to be forgiven.