Every few months, as I hike the trails above our home, I need to transition between forest lands on a section of paved road. It had been a few months since I hiked that stretch of roadway. On a previous hike, I noticed several discarded bottles of Fireball whiskey tossed into the ditch on the road edge.

Last week, I walked the same roadway and saw even more discarded bottles. I assume the person tossing empty bottles out of their vehicle wanted their drinking to remain a secret.

This morning, I was reading the section of Scripture where a woman was caught in the act of adultery. The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought the woman before Jesus to see what He would do with her.

“They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, ‘All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!’ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust” (John 8: 6-8).

Verse 8 caught my attention. Jesus didn’t just write in the dust one time. Jesus wrote in the dust twice. The second time came after Jesus asked the woman’s accusers to cast the first stone if they had never sinned. In that pause His request created, the Lord stooped down to write a second time. This time, Jesus was verbal, announcing the sins that the religious leaders were hiding.

We think the Lord was only being merciful to the woman caught in adultery. He was also being merciful to the religious leaders. “But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman” (vs. 9). Conviction was taking place in the hearts of the woman’s accusers.

Each man had a chance to review the hidden part of their life now being exposed that was hidden behind the pomp and ceremony of their religious duty. Everyone present heard the list of their individual sins.

The person who tossed empty whiskey bottles to the side of the road was hoping their secret would remain private. But a day will come when either a cop pulls them over for a DUII investigation or when they run off the road. In that moment, their secret will be exposed in greater detail. It will be like Jesus stooping down a second time and revealing what sins each accuser was concealing.

I have prayed for the person who continues to toss out empty whiskey bottles, hoping that whatever exposure awaits them in the future, it will be a chance to bring their brokenness to Jesus.

The Lord has a remedy for the sins we try to hide. He forgives us if we offer our sins to Him. In that exposure, He invites us to a new and forgiven future where we no longer have to hide our sin because we have been forgiven and we are free.