The Blame Game

"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid, because I was naked: and I hid myself. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou hast given to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." (Genesis 3:8-13)

How sad the human condition when in rebellion to God…

The man blames the woman, and even indirectly blames God as though if God had not given the woman to man in the first place, this never would have happened.

The woman blames the serpent who beguiled (deceived or tempted) her.

No one accepts responsibility for their own rebellious action, especially while standing before the Almighty God and Creator of the Universe. None of us stand before God, yet even though we know we did wrong, we just can't seem to help at times, trying to make excuses and blaming our circumstances, our environment, our boss, our spouse, our children…whatever we can grasp at to try to deflect the gaze of God from looking too closely at us…especially when it is clear that "hiding" doesn't help (as Adam found out).

I recently went to a Celebrate Recovery conference that deals with folks' "hurts, habits and hang-ups" otherwise known as "sin." In this conference the word BLAME was given a little jingle to go along with it that says "Don't Be-LAME." Get it? B….LAME….BLAME. A little corny perhaps but it sure stuck with me. It is even less than lame to cast about for someone else to lay the blame on for our own bad choices and actions. But we see the very first exhibition of this human ailment here in the man and woman in the garden.

One of the things that recovery programs, such as Celebrate Recovery, do to help people understand how they got to be where they are, is by helping them face the reality that no one is to blame except they themselves. No one forced that alcoholic to bring that drink to his lips and drink of it. No one forced the overeater to put that sweet morsel in her mouth.

One of the things that we like to do (and that we do so well) is denying reality. Just as the man and woman in the garden were not ready to face the reality of what their rebellion against God would bring them.

But deal with it we all must. Who was it that said "It's better to deal with sin now, than to deal with it later?" God always offers a way of escape from the just punishment of our sins through his Son Jesus Christ. But to receive that pardon requires two things on our part: humility and confession of sin; continuing to blame anyone or anything will not save us. I wonder how differently things might have turned out if the man and woman in the garden had humbled themselves before God who is so merciful?

But their deed is done. And so for their descendants (us) now it is only Jesus who can save us from the just punishment of a just and holy God; for Jesus IS the mercy of God given to us today. And the Word tells us that today is the acceptable day of salvation; for there is a point in each of our lives where repentance and salvation can no longer be found, and as only God knows when that time will arrive, we are foolish beyond all imagination to wait for another day to confess our sins to Him and receive mercy and pardon from sin, otherwise known as salvation. For that day may never arrive for us. Today He is here waiting for us to turn to Him; not with the arrogance and pride of blame and finding fault in others, but with the humility of a soul that knows he is at fault, that he is a sinner, and in desperate need of a Savior now.

On the next posting, we will look at the consequences of the actions that this first couple faced, and how that affects us still today. However, that posting won't happen til March 1 as I will be out of the country until then.

See you in March!