“Now we have him; let us slay him and cast him into a pit, and say that some beast has devoured him.”
Later they sold him, and took his coat of many colors and dipped it in the blood of a kid, and, taking it to their father, said: “This have we found; know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.” And he knew it and said, “It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him.”
Now notice: Jacob deceived his father with the skin of a kid, and his sons deceived him with the blood of a kid. Jacob lied to his father, and his sons lied to him. The lie came home. Every lie is bound to come back to you. You cannot dig a grave so deep but that it will have a resurrection. Tramp, tramp, your sins will all come back.
“Be sure your sin will find you out.” You may think you are very shrewd and far-sighted, and can plan and cover up, but it is the decree of high heaven that no sin shall be covered; God will uncover it. You cannot deceive the Almighty. Jacob found that out. He had to reap what he sowed.
Again, look at David. A man said to me some years ago:
“Don’t you think David fell as low as Saul?”
Yes, he fell lower, because God had lifted him higher. The difference is that when Saul fell there was no sign of repentance, but when David fell, a wail went up from his broken heart; there was true repentance. No man in all the Scripture record rose so high and fell so low as David. God took him from the sheepfold and placed him on the throne. He gave him riches and lands in abundance. He was on a pinnacle of glory, and was loved and honored among men. But one day, you remember, David was walking upon the roof of the king’s house, and he saw Bathsheba, and lusted after her, and committed the awful sin of adultery; and then, to cover up that sin, he made Bathsheba’s husband drunk, and had him murdered. The decree came: “I will raise up evil in thy family and the sword shall never leave thy house.” Amnon, David’s son, commits adultery with David’s own daughter. Absalom makes a feast for Amnon and has him murdered. Not long after he comes with an army to drive David, his father, from the throne, and publicly commits adultery with David’s concubines on the roof of the king’s house; if God had not been overruling, he would have killed his father.
David sowed adultery and reaped it in his own family. He sowed murder and reaped it in his own family. I believe that what brought the bitter wail from that father’s heart when he said, “Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee,” was the fact that these were the wages of his own sin. From the time he fell into that sin with Uriah’s wife until he went down to his grave, it was one billow after another rolling over him.
If God did not spare David, do you think He will spare us if we fall into sin and do not confess and turn from our sins? If ever a man had an opportunity to cover his sins, David had. No judge or jury dared to pronounce judgment against him. The thing was done in the dark, but his sin found him out. Nathan was sent across his path, and, young man, Nathan will appear to you some day. Some messenger will smite you in the way if you do not repent and turn from your sins. My friend, why not call on God now as David did when he came to himself? make the same prayer—how thankful we should be that we have the prayer! why not make it on your knees now?