Actions have consequences – that isn’t just a lesson for cadets at a military school, marching around in circles because of their bad behavior. It was also something that God’s people experienced in the days after the Exodus.

Now, make no mistake – they had seen God’s mighty power for themselves. They had seen the plagues He had sent on the Egyptians. They had walked through the Red Sea, with a wall of water on their right and on their left, and watched the Egyptian army drown as they tried to pursue them. They had heard God thundering His commandments to them from the top of Mt. Sinai, and they had eaten the manna, miraculous food from heaven. Moreover, God had led them on their journey in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, just so there could be no doubt about where they should go.

But when God led them to the edge of the land He had promised to give them, they refused to go in. They refused to believe that God could overcome all the people in the land, as He had overcome the Egyptians. Even while they had the miraculous manna between their teeth, they cried out against God and decided to go back to Egypt.

Now, that didn’t mean they stopped being God’s people. After Moses interceded for them, God continued to lead them with the pillar of fire and cloud. God continued to give them the manna they needed each day. But God also let them experience the consequences of their rebellion by, in a sense, giving them what they wanted. He said they would not in fact go into the Promised Land – that blessing would be reserved for their children. All the adults who had rebelled against Him would instead wander in the wilderness until they died.

It’s a sobering lesson even for us Christians who have been saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. For doesn’t God also let us experience some of the consequences of our sin? A relationship which begins in selfish lust ends up in broken hearts. Drug abuse permanently damages our physical health. A job taken because of greed or pride turns into years of drudgery.

After all, even physical wounds leave permanent scars even after they are healed, right? Even crimes against the state lead to jail time that lasts long after people become sorry for their bad deeds. So why should we be surprised if sometimes the consequences of our sin outlast our repentance and even our forgiveness?

So of course we should confess our sins to God. Of course we should strive, in His strength, to turn away from anything that is not in accordance with His good and perfect will. We should do this because of the love of Christ and in the confidence of the forgiveness He has provided for us. But we should also repent in order to avoid the consequences of our sin – remembering that our God is as just and righteous as He is merciful and gracious.

Deuteronomy 1:34-40 (ESV)

34 “And the LORD heard your words and was angered, and he swore,
35 ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers,
36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the LORD!’
37 Even with me the LORD was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there.
38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
40 But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’