Unexploded Bombs
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. – Psalm 32:1-4.
A Romanian taxi driver took a small bomb from a warehouse, not realizing what it was, or the danger. He drove around for two hours with it on the backseat of the car. Then, he and some other taxi drivers, played a game of rugby with the bomb; until finally, one of them realized that it was really a Second World War bomb. At any time, the bomb could have gone off, injuring, or killing all of them. Claudiu Jalba a spokesperson from the Civil Protection Inspectorate said: “The missile is meant to destroy everything within a certain area. Although it has suffered physical and chemical changes, its warhead is armed and may explode any time and shards from the bomb would have been blown up to 900 meters.”
Are you carrying an unexploded bomb around with you? King David did. After he had arranged the murder of Uriah, and had taken Uriah’s wife Bathsheba as his own, David did not confess his sin to God. David knew what he did was wrong, but he hardened his heart, resisting the pleadings of the Holy Spirit. His heart was so hardened, that when Nathan the prophet confronted David with his sin, he did not even understand that the story Nathan told was about him. Nathan had to say to David, “You are the man! …Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight? …Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me…(2 Samuel 12).”
David did not realize until after the fact that the bomb of sin, and unconfessed sin, had exploded in his life. David says of when he had unconfessed sin in his life, “When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer.” It was like Samson, who had not realized the Holy Spirit had departed from him and rose up to fight off the Philistines as before; but the power of the Spirit had departed, leaving him helpless (Judges 16:20). We too, can carry on in the functions of life for some time, resisting the pleadings of the Holy Spirit. We can witness, teach, and preach; but there will come a point when our witnessing, teaching, and preaching are without power. For the anointing will have departed.
So, what do we do if we are carrying around an unexploded bomb? We must turn back to God; confess our sins to God just as David did. Psalm 51 is David’s great prayer of confession. The consequences of David’s sin could not be erased, but David could now live with himself, and he says in Psalm 32, “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin…You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble…Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”
Defuse the bomb before it explodes! Turn from sin, confess, and you will find yourself shouting for joy as well.
(Unconfessed sin is like carrying a bomb around in your back pocket that could go off at any time.)