NUMBERS 32:23 [DEATH OF SIMON WIESENTHAL]
Be sure your sin will find you out
Simon Wiesenthal was probably one of
the most remarkable men who ever lived. As a Jew, he survived German
death camps during WWII and spent his entire post war life tracking
down those Nazis who had fled from justice. He was born in what is now
the Ukraine in 1908 and was an architect before the war. He died in his
sleep this week in the USA at the grand age of 96. I'm sure there will
be a few still alive breathing a sigh of relief as they have one less
enemy in the world.
Our text is much greater than the incident which surrounds it. Another
Jew (Moses) warns a group of people that their failure to keep their
promise would result in their sin finding them out. This is a solid
Biblical principle. There is no sin that will ever go unpunished. There
will be a great audit - the books will be opened - and every last sin
ever committed will either be or will be seen to have been punished.
Picture the scene again/again as some erstwhile Nazi, perhaps hiding
under a new identity in a faraway land, receives the fatal knock on his
door. Or he is picked up in the street or at his place/work and
he is formally identified as having played his part in the holocaust
and he sent for trial and then imprisoned or (in some cases) executed.
His sin found him out. Wiesenthal tracked him down and he is brought to
face the consequences of his previous life.
We may parallel this work/Wiesenthal with the work/Almighty God and how
sin (if still unpardoned) finds every last sinner out. 4 points:
1) WIESENTHAL HAD A RIGHTEOUS ANGER TOWARDS NAZI'S:
A/ The whole world has (Never forget their atrocities) but Simon Wiesenthal had reason to go further.
He himself suffered: Mauthausen death camp (5th death camp/12 prison
camps) He lost 89 family members, among them his mother, stepfather and
his stepbrother. The blood of his family cried out from the ground -
not against him, but against the Nazi war machine and he set out to
find justice.
B/ What is sin?
Sin is the transgression of the law/God.
Every sin is a blow struck at God.
We are not Deists. Deists believe that God is far removed from his universe.
To the Deist, God is an absentee God …one who perhaps sends us
good things in His absence, but otherwise leaves us to our own devices.
Not so. God has given us a moral code - a legislative law (10
Commandments) and failure to observe any/all of them both in
spirit/letter 100% of the time constitutes a chargeable offence i.e. is
considered as sin.
God cannot but take sin personally.
When the prodigal returned home, he said to his father: I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight (Luke 15:21)
Even though David sinned against Bathsheba and especially Urijah, yet in his confession/God:
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight…(Psalm 51:4)
We do not need to have God in mind in order to sin, but it is all sin
against God. It is a striking out at Him in a very real way.
C/ As a righteous God who cannot know indifference, God must/will punish sin.
One man of Weisenthal:
"When the Holocaust ended in 1945 and
the whole world went home to forget, he alone remained behind to
remember. He did not forget." God cannot forget about sin.
Sometimes in our lives, it is for our glory to let some things go.
The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. (Proverbs 19:11)
but not so God.
God is the great Moral Judge/Universe.
For Him to let one sin remain would be an impeachment upon Himself. His campaign therefore is most just.
D/ If I say it carefully enough…there is a sense in which God lost His Son to the ravages/sin.
I know/rejoice that God sent His Son to redeem sinners (1 John 4:14/Romans 8:32)
I know/rejoice that Jesus said: No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay
it down, and I have power to take it again. (John 10:18)
But I also read that the COI were the betrayers/murderers of the Lord
Jesus (Acts 7:52) and (hypothetical) if the world had not sinned,
Christ would not have suffered/died upon the Cross.
But it did and He did and so God has every right to pursue sinners.
God has every right to set up a Day of Judgement.
It is an established/no compromise principle: sin will find us out.
It'll float to the top. It will emit its poisonous stench. It's
covering will melt away or peel back and it will be exposed in all its
ugliness/filth.
2) WIESENTHAL HAD THE RESOURCES TO TRACK THE NAZI'S DOWN:
A/ It must've cost a lot of money as well as other valuable resources for Wiesenthal to engage in its work.
This wasn't a mere hobby or something to wile away a few lonely hours now and then.
I assume this work of over 50 years was being bankrolled by more than mere public subscriptions.
B/ I wonder if Wiesenthal ever ran out/short of money and resources and had to cut back?
But I know this…God has resources to track down guilty sinners and bring them to justice.
Already seen that he has the willpower/desire to do it, consider also:
[i] God has the insight/wisdom to do it. Wiesenthal's quarry had all
the wicked ingenious/Nazi war machine to cover their tracks. Many of
them got through the Allied lines and made it to South America etc.,
and were/are able to bluff police forces etc., Wiesenthal had to be one
step ahead to locate them and bring them to justice. It was painstaking
work. Many false trails, laid to cover tracks. Perhaps it was this
ability to uncover them etc., makes us admire this very determined
Ukrainian. God has the wisdom/know how to trace every last sinner. Who
can plot against God? He searches the hearts of sinners (Revelation
2:23) There were many plots laid to ensnare the Lord Jesus, but every
last one failed because He needed not that any should testify of man
but knew what was in man (John 2:25)
[ii] God has the power to do it. Once Genesis 1:1 is realised, little
else needs said. Evidently Wiesenthal had his resources too. The
Israeli secret service came to his assistance. No amateur detective
with big ambitions but no way of working them out. He got results
because he had the resources. What does God lack to bring sinners to
justice? He has legions/angels ready to do His bidding. He is at once
almighty omniscient, and omnipresence. What more is needed? It is by
Him that kings reign and princes decree justice (Proverbs 8:15) He
raises up and casts down as He sees fit. The withholding/wrath is not a
weakness but a strength. He can move at any time and is never
hurried or bullied or embarrassed into a premature action. It is
never now or ever with God. No delicate balancing of the books -
either/or scenario's which depend on other factors. God is self
sufficient and all efficient in everything He puts His hand to.
3) WIESENTHAL KNEW MANY SUCCESSES:
A/ Over 1100 Nazis were tracked down/brought to justice.
Among most famous: Located Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.
Another success: Franz Stangl, commandant of the Polish death camp: Treblinka.
B/ Consider all/needed to be done before justice was finally served:
(Wiesenthal said that he wanted justice…not revenge. The latter
would have been easier to secure. But he nobly went for justice.)
[i] Locate and positively identify the criminal.
[ii] Bring him physically to an appropriate authority.
[iii] Lay proper charges against him.
[iv] Produce reliable witnesses of these crimes.
[v] Secure an actual conviction
[vi] See that the punishment matched the crime.
Only then…(and it grew harder as the decades rolled by) only then could he truly rest satisfied with his work.
C/ What successes God has seen.
From Adam's sin through to Cain's (where God was very quick to follow
up and secure justice) through to the most heinous sins ever committed,
God has tracked those responsible and those who are now in hell are
evidence: severity/God which we are to behold (Romans 11:22)
Remember: if God does not execute immediate judgement, it does
not follow that he will not execute any judgement.
All those things listed before, have either fallen or will fall all into line and God's justice will be satisfied.
4) WIESENTHAL KNEW MANY FAILURES:
A/ Salute the magnitude/his successes.
But there were thousands of Nazi's to be found and only 1100 were convicted.
Many escaped.
Doubtless, Wiesenthal had gone up many cul-de-sacs and blind alley's
and after much painstaking research etc., probably had to let some
suspects go.
I wonder did he ever feel like giving up?
B/ God knows no failure.
It is with the greatest/ease and without any problem whatsoever that He locates/convicts and punishes the guilty sinner.
Listen to a prophesied account of the future Day of Judgement:
Now we know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under/law: that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans
3:19)
No long legal argument etc., The sinner is caught and judged.
C/ Something else Wiesenthal could not do.
He could never pardon those whom he tracked down.
He could never change their hearts and turn from vicious heartless beasts into gentle, loving human beings.
Here's where God scores: He can!
Consider Saul/Tarsus etc.,
Why? Earlier reference to Christ's willingness/come and die.
Gospel. Appeal.
