Sin Come to Roost

1 Kings 2:28 KJV

Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

I can never read this chapter without remembering that God does not hold a man guiltless. Adonijah, Joab and Shimei were given much grace.

• David was gracious and long suffering with them.
• Solomon demonstrated that same grace.

But they took that grace as permission to carry on in sin and rebellion. And in every case, judgment was eventually meeted.

• Joab may have thought he had gotten away with the murders of Amasa and Abner. Not so.
• Shimei may have believed that keeping his word for three years was long enough. No true.

Be sure your sin will find you out is a biblical principle of immense proportion.

But there is absolute and final forgiveness available. God has provided one and only one way that our sins may be absolved, removed, never to be mentioned again. Faith in Jesus Christ is the complete satisfaction of God's demands against sin. To come to Him in repentance and humility glorifies God and satisfies the judgment for sin.

To try to carry the burden of unrepentant sin as Joab did or to try to remember to constantly keep up our own good works as Shimei did only results in spiritual failure and ultimately to be eternally lost in hell. Our only hope is to commit fully the safe keeping of our soul to Jesus Christ. And He never fails.