As I travel home, I pass a pothole at the entrance to our subdivision. It has been there for several months; and, of course, it is getting bigger by the day. I suspect the reason it hasn’t been fixed is because there are two houses under construction in the neighborhood, and the heavy trucks would just open it up again.
The short-term fix is to fill it and know that it will require a paving job when the construction is completed. We can only hope they actually do that! For now, it is a quick fix to pacify the people that travel this road day after day.
This causes me to wonder about the way we live our lives. Do we look for quick fixes to issues that really need a more permanent solution? Do we put a cover on a problem and expect it to never surface again? We can find examples of such from beginning to end in the Scriptures.
Cain murdered his brother and hid his body. When God confronted Cain with questions about Abel’s whereabouts, Cain told Him, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9 ESV). His quick fix was to hide the body and probably make up some story to tell Adam and Eve about what happened to his brother.
King David did that with Bathsheba. He killed Bathsheba’s husband, thinking he could cover up the fact that he was the father of her child. But God knew; and He sent Nathan, the prophet, to confront the king with the truth (Second Samuel 12).
Elijah tried a quick fix when he ran away from Jezebel. He thought he could just disappear, and God would take care of her some other way. He should have thought that through more carefully.
God came down and spoke to Elijah directly on a mountain. In a dramatic story, He sent Elijah back to do the work he was chosen to do (First Kings 19).
Peter fits this somewhat in his denial of Jesus. Three times he was confronted with the accusation that he had been with Jesus, knew Him, or talked like Him. All three times Peter denied even knowing Him.
He tried to cover up his relationship with Jesus to save himself. His lies did not change the facts.
In Acts 5, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, sold some land and gave some of the money to the apostles. That sounds generous, doesn’t it? What they really did was lie. They sold the property but held back part of the money, making everyone think they had done some great thing. Peter knew; God knew; Ananias and Sapphira both lost their lives because they tried to cover up the truth.
All these attempts at “fixing the problem” are like putting lipstick on a pig. You can try to make that pig into something with a little lipstick, but underneath it is still a pig. You can try to cover up sin with lies, deception, and even good deeds; but the truth will most certainly come out.
This is true for young and old, rich and poor, red, yellow, black, or white. It is true for males and females. No one is exempt from the consequences of sin.
The prodigal son is one of the best examples of this. A young man took his inheritance and traveled to a far country. He tried to make himself appear wealthy and successful. When his money ran out, he ended up in a pig pen. No amount of lipstick could have made the young man believe he was anywhere but in a pig pen!
There was no covering up his wastefulness or the desperate situation in which he found himself. He could not cover up the stench as he made his way home. There was nothing to do but confess to his father what a mess he had made of his life and beg for forgiveness.
The same is true for us. We cannot hide our mistakes from God. We cannot paint a beautiful picture out of our sinful lives.
What we can do is bring our sinful lives before the throne of God and ask Him to forgive us. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (First John 1:9).
Sandra Oliver