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Sin Opens Your Eyes...
Sin opens your eyes, but what you learn will haunt you forever!
During the time of the conquest of Canaan, the two and one-half tribes (Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh), which settled east of the Jordan, built an altar for a memorial so that they would have a portion in Israel. The other nine and one-half tribes falsely accused them of making this altar for idol worship. They made the statement, “Is the iniquity of Peor tool little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day?” (Joshua 22.17).
This “iniquity of Peor” was a sin that had been committed many, many years earlier, when the Israelites committed whoredom with the daughters of moab and had fellowship with the Moabits in the sacrifices of their idol gods (see Numbers 25.1-3). For this, “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.” It was this sin about which the statement was made years later, “…from which we are not cleansed until this day.” The lingering after-effects of sin committed made the Israelites unclean: the fornication that was learned, the pleasures of sin for a season, their eyes opened to the lewd, lustful behavior of the Moabite women… So it was with Eve, when her “eyes were opened.” We are told of the church at Pergamos, “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Barak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication” (Revelation 2.14).
The statement “from which we are not cleansed until this day” necessarily implies that fornication, such as was learned in the iniquity at Peor, was still being committed by some of the Israelites. Idols of the heart plagued the children of Israel all their existence. They gave lip service to Jehovah, but their heart was far from him (see Deuteronomy 12.8; Judges 17.6; 21.25; Jeremiah 13.10; 16.12; 18.12). They did what was right in their own eyes instead of what God commanded them. Lip service given to God still exits within the Lord’s church because of idols in the heart. Many are “not cleansed until this day” yet regard themselves as “in Christ.”
Be not deceived, God is not mocked;
whatsoever you sow, you will reap.
Galatians 6.7; cf. Colossians 3.1-3,5-6
