What Is This Thing Called Iniquity?

715 Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Sa 24:10 And David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O LORD, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly." (2 Sam 24:10) Iniquity. We often see the word used in Scripture, but we seldom use it today in our “Christianese” language. The Hebrew word is Ay von, spelled awon, and it comes from a root word that means to deviate from the proper path. It's primary meaning is perversity, or depraved action. We most often use the term “perversion” in the context of abnormal sexual behavior. In that context perversion is a deviation from the proper path of sexual expression as laid out in the Word of God. But perversion is not limited to sexual sin. The fact is we all have deviated from the proper path. We all have committed iniquity (sin) and fallen short of the glory of God. We all, (since the fall of Adam and Eve) have strayed from the proper moral path that God has set before us in His Word. This straying, (sin) separates us from God, and we, like David need to be convinced of our meanderings from the proper paths and then take them to God asking Him, as David did, to “take them away.” But there's even more to this word “iniquity,” it not only includes the specific sin, but also its consequences! The chief consequence of sin is the punishment associated with it. When I misbehaved as a child, my parents punished me. There were consequences for my actions. They disciplined me in an attempt to teach me the proper path. So it is with God. Heb 12:6 tells us, “For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves,” David was asking God to forgive his sin and he was asking for mercy in regards to his punishment. It's certainly okay to do that. And God may indeed pass on punishing us for our wanderings. But however God chooses to deal with our iniquities, we can be certain that His motivation behind it is love. It's always “for our own good! So let us be quick to confess, confident that we are in the hands of a perfect loving Father.