Three more points about sin

Back in Leviticus 4-6, I mentioned five points about sin that should be noted.  You can find them here.

As I read this passage, I find three more things God would have us learn about sin.

First, when we sin against another person, we’re also sinning against God. 

God says in verse 5 that when we wrong another in any way, we are really being unfaithful to God. 

When you wrong your husband or wife, you’re being unfaithful to God. 

When you wrong your daughter or son, you’re being unfaithful to God. 

When you wrong your father or mother, you’re being unfaithful to God. 

When you wrong your neighbor, your friend, your coworker, or even the stranger on the street, you’re being unfaithful to God. 

King David knew this. 

When he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then killed her husband in order to marry her, he was confronted by the prophet Nathan. 

And in his psalm of repentance, he wrote,

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.  (Psalm 51:4)

Second, no one’s going to get away with nothing when it comes to sin. 

Okay, that’s bad grammar.  But no matter how well you have hidden your sin, it will come to light, either in this world, or in the next. 

You may hide your sin from even the people closest to you, but you’re not going to be able to hide it from God. 

That’s what you see in the latter part of this chapter.

When a husband suspected his wife of adultery but had no proof, he could bring her before the priest, and she was given a bitter drink. 

If she miscarried or was childless after that, it was considered proof of her guilt. 

On the other hand, if nothing bad happened to her, it was considered proof of her innocence.

There was nothing magic in the water itself, nor in the dust of the tabernacle that was put into it.  But it was a provision made especially for the Israelites by the God who knows the heart. 

Through this test, God brought judgment on the guilty, while protecting the innocent.

Finally, there’s no room for revenge when someone wrongs us. 

The impression that I get from this test that God gave was that it was to prevent the husband from sinning because he thought his wife was unfaithful to him. 

It prevented him from wrongfully divorcing his wife.  And it also prevented him from even going to the extreme measures of beating her or  murdering her because he thought she did something wrong. 

God’s last word on the subject was that by doing this test, a guilty woman would bear the consequences of her sin, while the husband would retain his innocence. 

In other words, even when the woman wronged her husband, he was not to take revenge on her in any way.  Rather, he was to leave that in God’s hands. 

It’s the same with us.  We are never to take vengeance into our own hands.  We are to leave that in the hands of God.

As Romans 12:19 says,

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.