Two guys were having a brick throwing contest, to see who could throw the
brick highest in the air. The first one threw it pretty far. When it came back
down, it cracked the pavement. The second guy said, "That was pretty
impressive. But not as impressive as MY throw's gonna be." And he chucked
it. And they waited....and waited.
But the brick never came down.
If you don't know the story of David and Bathsheba you can read it
here. The
super quick version is that King David has sex with Uriah's wife Bathsheba and
gets her pregnant. In order to hide his sin he has Uriah killed and marries
Bathsheba. A prophet by the name of Nathan tells David about a rich man
with a lot of sheep who steals his poor neighbor's sheep to feed to a
visitor. Enraged, King David sentences the man to death! And the poor man
is to be given four sheep to replace the one that was taken from him.
Nathan then utters the condemnation to David, "You are that man."
The King repents and God does not exact his own pronouncement of death...But
God does promise that the fourfold reimbursement will occur. That is the
awful truth of sin. It has terrible and far reaching consequences.
First there are the immediate results of sin. For David it was the
death of his first child with Bathsheba.
While we may not see such tragic a result, a parent can hurt a child and
cause them sorrow. A husband or wife can cause anger, resentment or depression
in their spouse.
Even hidden sins have a
direct and immediate effect on our souls.
Then there are the callbacks.
In
comedy, a callback is a reference a comedian makes to an earlier joke in a set.
Callbacks are usually made in a different context and remind the audience of an
earlier joke, creating multiple layers and building more than one laugh from a
single joke. When used at the end of a set, callbacks can bring a comic's
routine full circle and give closure to the set. Sin’s callbacks are not for
comedy, but tragedy. David’s penchant for disregarding God’s laws for
marriage show up again when his son, Amnon, rapes his half-sister, Tamar.
Tamar’s full brother Absalom ends up killing
Amnon.
Absalom and David have a five
year break in their relationship.
Absalom ends up trying to overthrow David’s thrown and has sex with
David’s ten concubines on the same roof where David first spied Bathsheba.
Classic Devil comedy.
Absalom’s head gets stuck in a tree during a
battle with David’s army and is stabbed in the heart with three javelins.
Again, our children will probably never try to usurp our authority, but if
we do not resolve sin and teach our children a better path we can lose them to
the world.
If we sin again our children
and do not seek their forgiveness, we can create breaches in the relationship
that never gets mended.
Finally, there are the unseen results of our sins.
After David died, his son Solomon has his
half brother Adonijah murdered for wanting to marry a girl they both liked.
(Okay there was more to it than that.)
There are some results of sin, that while we may not see them, are very,
very real.
We have an entire generation of
children growing up without fathers.
I
applaud the women who are trying to provide, care and raise these kids.
But I have to ask, “Where are the men?” What
kid of hurt will these kids have to endure knowing their fathers abandoned
them.
These worthless men may never see
the pain and struggle their sin caused, but they are to blame.
If we mistreat or sin against our children, they may take that same sin and
pain and inflict it on THEIR kids.
Thank the Lord that sin does not run rampant.
Thank the Lord that through the blood shed by
Jesus we can find redemption.
But let us
never take that grace for granted. As Romans 6 begins, “
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us
more and more kindness and forgiveness? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to
sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we
became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died
with him? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we
also may live new lives.”
Let us never forget the serious and long reaching
effect of sin. And let us never forget
the healing and restorative power of Jesus Christ.
A man and a woman were on a plane. The man lights up a cigar (this is back
in the days when one could smoke on a plane) and the woman has a cat with her.
Before the plane takes off, the woman asks the man to put out the cigar because
the smoke is making her cough. He asks her to move the cat, since he's allergic
to cats. They start yelling at each other, and finally the man reaches over,
opens the emergency exit, and throws the cat out the door. The woman throws the
cigar out the door.
The stewards and stewardesses manage to separate them and close the door, and
the plane takes off without any more problems. Midway through the flight, one
of the stewardesses looks out the window and is surprised to see the cat sitting
on the wing!
And do you know what the cat has in its mouth? It's a brick!
