No small thing

I kind of debated writing about this passage or not.  It’s one of those “uncomfortable” passages in the Bible, as well as being a passage that seems to come out of nowhere.

One moment Moses is being told to go to Egypt.  The next, God is trying to kill him.  Why?

Apparently, Moses had disobeyed God and didn’t circumcise his son. 

And it wasn’t something that God took lightly.  He was ready to kill Moses for not doing so. 

Why?  Was it really such a big thing?

Actually obedience always is. 

So many times when temptation comes, the thought comes, “It’s such a small sin.  It doesn’t really matter does it?  God won’t really get so upset about it will he?”

And so we give in to the temptation.

But what we forget is that no sin is really small. 

The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death.”  (Romans 6:23) 

It doesn’t say that the wages of big sins is death.  It says the wages of all sin is death, whether we think they’re big or small.

When we think about the very first sin that was committed, the eating of forbidden fruit, surely that’s much smaller than the sin of say, murder or rape or something else like that. 

But it led to death and separation from God. 

It was so serious, that Jesus had to come down to this earth to die to take the punishment for our sin.

By saying our sin is “small,” we’re actually minimalizing the necessity of the death of Christ. 

If any sin was such a small matter, then Christ would never have had to die.  But as it is, without his death on the cross, all of us would be separated from God forever.

Moses had to learn that no sin is too small.  All sin needs to be dealt with. 

God had probably warned him that his son needed to be circumcised.  It was part of the covenant God had made with Abraham. 

But for whatever reason, Moses had ignored the warning. 

Maybe he thought it was a minor detail that God wouldn’t be too concerned about. 

Maybe his wife was against the idea.  She certainly seemed unhappy that she had to circumcise her son. 

But whatever the reason, Moses sinned, and God took it seriously.

Are we ever like Moses and ignore the things God has told us. 

Do we ever trivialize sin in our lives and say, “Surely God won’t mind too much?” 

Remember that God considers no sin too small to be ignored.  All sin needs to be dealt with. 

To trivialize sin in our lives would be to trample Jesus underfoot, to treat as an unholy thing the blood he shed to cleanse us, and to insult his Spirit of grace.  (Hebrews 10:29)

It is no small thing to tolerate sin in our lives.  Let us never do so.