The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Numbers 32:20-23, “So Moses said to them, ‘If you will do this, if you will arm yourselves before the LORD for the war, 21 and all of you armed men cross over the Jordan before the LORD until He has driven His enemies out from before Him, 22 and the land is subdued before the LORD, then afterward you shall return and be free of obligation toward the LORD and toward Israel, and this land shall be yours for a possession before the LORD. 23 “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.’”

The news has overflowed this week concerning high-ranking officials who have engaged in unlawful tactics to get their college-aged children into some of America’s most prestigious universities. My purpose is not to negotiate their guilt (or innocence) on this page, but to emphasize that sinful acts, even acts that might have escaped the fine points of the law, will ultimately come back to haunt them.

Hermeneutics is the science of biblical interpretation. One of the principles of that science is that interpreters must look at the context – the overall aspect – in which a word or phrase appears. In other words, we are not free to just pick a verse and apply it willy-nilly to anything that suits our fancy. We must ask, “What did the word or verse mean when it was originally used in Scripture?”

At the same time, strangely enough, there are those verses that apply universally to almost every

aspect of life, irrespective of the verse’s biblical context. One of those emphases lies in the verse above: “…be sure your sin will find you out.” It’s another way of saying, “You can’t do wrong and get by.” Somewhere, someday, our acts of fraud or evil-intention will come to the attention of some-one, and we will pay the penalty. “Oh,” but you say, “a lot of people get away with wrongdoing. Maybe I can, too” Someday you and they will stand before Almighty God and will be forced to account for all sin. There is no “getting by!”

People called into court to accout for wrong-doing, spend serious time preparing their case. They seek the finest legal advice money can buy. Doesn’t it make even more sense that we, too, prepare, seeing that we will be called to answer to the King of Kings, the LORD God Almighty? There is no Advocate like the LORD Jesus Christ. If we know Him in the free-pardon of our sins, His counsel will be adequate to present to His Father, the Supreme LORD of Lords. Get on God’s side! Let Him clean up your act! If you don’t, “be sure your sin will find you out.”

We pray for you daily, and sometimes more often,

Nana & Dado III

(Rose Marie & Gene)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”