We all have a tendency to blame other people when things go wrong or when bad things happen. Naturally, there are indeed times when other people are to blame. People make mistakes. And when they do they need to assume responsibility for their decisions and actions, accept the blame, and work to clean up the mess they’ve made. Not everything, I repeat, not everything is our fault!
But when we’re the leading characters in a tragedy, when we’re at the helm of a sinking ship; then passing the buck just isn’t cool. It doesn’t make us look good. We can find creative ways to look at an error or a disaster and make a scapegoat of others. But people aren’t dumb. They can smell a skunk when they see one. And they don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know who shot who when they catch us with a smoking gun in our hand.
In the anger and panic of the moment we seldom take the time to look at ourself and see if we bear any blame for the nightmare that we’re faced with. We’re so busy blaming others because it makes us look good. It makes us look innocent. But are we?
In these series of posts I’d like to step into the sandals of several Biblical characters. They were human like you and me. You can be dead sure they passed the buck, or were tempted to do so, when they found themselves in hot water.
By looking at these familiar Bible figures I’m hoping we’ll learn from the mistakes and examples of our forebears. I hope we’ll learn not to pass the buck, but accept the guilt and blame that are rightfully ours.
Why is that so important? Because assuming responsibility for our actions is the necessary first step towards fixing the mess we’ve made. We can’t fix something that we’re not willing to fess and face up to. It begins with summoning the courage to be honest with ourselves, with others, and with God. With the help of the Biblical characters I believe we can be honest and say, God, it’s not your fault! It’s mine. And I’m sorry I fingered you for the bed that I made and slept in.
PARADISE LOST
Hi there. My name is Adam. You all know me even if you’ve never met me. I’m the guy who got you into all the mess you find yourselves in as far as sin, suffering, sickness, and death. Sorry about that! I really didn’t mean for it to happen. I had no idea that this is how everything would turn out!
When you live in a perfect, sinless, peachy world like I did, you have no idea how life can possibly be different from the paradise you live in. Once outside of Eden, I learned soon enough how sin was going to make life a deplorable hell. Wow! Am I ever so sorry for what I did!
I wish I could turn the hands of time back and relive that fateful day in the Garden and not make the mistake I ended up making. But it’s too late and there’s no going back.
Honestly, at the start of it all, I didn’t think any of this was my fault. God gave me a woman to wife. She was the most beautiful thing in the world. I would have done anything for her—well, actually I did. She took a bite of the forbidden fruit, then gave it to me to try. In hindsight, I should have never listened to my wife. But when you’re crazy in love you just don’t ever think about crossing your wife. So I took a bite and that was the bite that changed the world and the course of human history.
When God showed up later that same day and asked us if we ate the forbidden fruit, I promptly told Him the truth, Genesis 3:8-12. God, this is all your fault! After all, it was You who gave me the woman to wife. If I didn’t have her around I’d never have taken that bite. I only ate it because she egged me on. So it was her fault. And Yours too! But definitely not mine!
When God questioned my wife about what she’d done, she blamed it on the snake. It’s all the snake’s fault! He fooled me into eating the forbidden fruit!
Well, God promptly pronounced a curse on the snake. Then He told my wife what her punishment would be. I blew a sigh of relief. I thought for sure I was off the hook. But God wasn’t done. He started talking to me and that’s when I knew my world was about to come to an end: Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life. (18) Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food; (19) With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back (Genesis 3:17-19).
His tone of voice told me there was no use arguing the point. God had spoken and that’s the way it was going to be. He told me not to eat the fruit (Genesis 2:16-17). I didn’t listen. I ate it. It didn’t matter if my wife, or anyone else for that matter, suckered me into it. I knew I wasn’t supposed to eat it. And when I ate it I disobeyed God. I had never done that before and it was a hard, bitter lesson learned—namely, DISOBEDIENCE HAS CONSEQUENCES AND THE CONSEQUENCES AREN’T PLEASANT. All of history proves it, as you all very well know.
I tried to pin the blame on God. But I found out God’s no fool. He isn’t taking the blame when it’s we who messed up, not Him. Paul puts it this way in Galatians 6:7, Don’t delude yourselves: no one makes a fool of God! A person reaps what he sows. Take it from me because I know what I’m talking about. I blamed God just like you! But God gave me all the time I needed to change my tune and admit the truth. Believe me, God knows how to get even you to change your tune!
So don’t fool yourself. You’re not fooling God. IF YOU HAVE A PART IN MAKING A MESS, THEN YOU’RE TO BLAME. AND THE SOONER YOU ADMIT YOUR GUILT THE SOONER YOU’LL SEE THE UTTER USELESSNESS OF BLAMING GOD FOR SOMETHING HE DIDN’T DO.
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