The Blame Game - Taking Responsibility in a World of Excuses
Genesis 3:8-13
We live in a word of excuses. Here are some complied by the Readers Digest that have been offered for not showing up for work:
"I dreamed I was fired, so I didn’t want to get out of bed."
"I was up all night arguing with God."
"A raccoon stole my work shoe off my porch."
"I wasn’t thinking and accidentally went to my old job."
"While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog."
"I didn’t have money for gas, because all the pawnshops were closed."
"My dog dialed 911, and the police wanted to question me about what ’really’ happened."
And for not doing your homework, RD reported on the following excuses:
“Another pupil fell in a lake, and I jumped in to rescue him but unfortunately my homework drown.”
“My father had a nervous breakdown and he cut it up to make paper dolls.”
“I didn’t do it, because I didn’t want the other kids in the class to look bad.”
http://laughs.rd.com/content/printContent.do?contentId=164876&KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=500&width=790&modal=true
But perhaps the most creative, and disappointing excuse I found was one that was offered for not filing your taxes. The offender was Charles J. O’Byrne, the top aide to New York governor David Paterson. He neglected to file tax returns for five years. The lame excuse: He suffers from a medical condition called late-filing syndrome, which is caused by depression. And even though this depression did not stop him from being a highly functional professional or enjoying an active social life, it did seem to affect his ability to pay taxes—five years in a row. http://laughs.rd.com/clean-jokes-and-laughs/21-lame-excuses/article166260-3.html#slide
We live in a society of victims
- frivolous lawsuits
- Deceptive diagnosis (Alcoholic, sexual addiction, ADHD). Just this week, US Congressman Anthony Weiner claimed that he needs time to “recover” in a treatment center after his anonymous sexual messages and self-revealing pictures were discovered.
- government handouts
- Bailouts and welfare
THE BLAME GAME is not new. IT comes from our FALLEN NATURE.
We discover the blame game in Genesis 3. It is the record of the sin, exposure, confrontation and consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin. It is God’s revelation to us of the events that occurred in the Garden of Eden. It also represents the pattern of sin and our reacion to our fallen nature. The events in the Garden are a pattern for the manner in every other human has responded to the sinful condition in which we are born.
First, the First Couple’s response reveals Our NATURAL Reaction to the EXPOSING HAND of GOD. Gen 3:8
Here, we find that Adam and Eve respond in the following ways.
We HIDE. Gen 3:8 “they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” We do the same thing. We hide:
From our parents
From our spouse
From our friend
From our church
From GOD.
Notice Genesis 3:9. God asks, “Where are you?” As we mentioned before, this is the SECOND question in the Bible. It follows the question that Satan asked, twisting God’s Word to deceive Eve. God’s question reveals that we cannot hide from Him! Psalm 139:5–7 "You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. " "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. " "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? "
Jonah illustrates the result of hiding from the Lord.
Proverbs 15:3 "The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. " (See also Luke 12:20; Proverbs 6:15; Ecclesiastes 9:18; Isaiah 47:11)
The second thing that we do when our sin is exposed by God is that we PRETEND that we’re OK. Notice Genesis 3:10 "He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Adam does not immediately confess his sin. He wonders to himself, “Will I be discovered?” We call this avoidance. We call this denial.
I do not agree with the concept of the 12 step program because it mixes Christian values with secular psychology. But the first step in the 12 step program is one that does find biblical support. It begins with a recognition that I have a problem. (From there, the 12 step program fails to label the problem as sin, and only vaguely addresses that the solution to the problem is found in repentance and forgiveness based on the finished work of Christ on the cross).
We tell partial truths. For example, when news first broke about Congressman Weiner’s shameful behavior, he admitted only partial truths, hoping that his answers would suffice.
The third thing that we find in Adam’s reaction, and also common to us is that we ADAPT to our environment. We make good use of our surrounding environment. Adam “Hid among the trees of the garden” We abuse the very things God gave for our enjoyment!”
We LIE. ULTIMATELY, our twisting words turn to outright lies!
And finally, (and this is at the heart of our human behavior), we BLAME OTHERS. It didn’t take man long to learn to blame others. In the Garden, Adam blamed his SPOUSE!. 3:12 “The woman” (not “Eve”)
In our blaming of others, we de-humanize people. We bring God down as well.
Adam blamed his CIRCUMSTANCES. 3:12 “you put here with me”
“If you wouldn’t have put me in this situation......”
If I didn’t have such a strong temptation.....
James warns us against such folly. James 1:13 "When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; "
Paul also warns us..... 1 Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. "
SOME believe that they have been unfairly treated by circumstances in life.
Consider my high school friend. At the age of 19, he found himself as the leader of a camping trip with a group of young teens. One of those teens drowned in a lake about an hour’s hike from civilization. My friend was in charge, and needless to say, he was devastated to the point of hopeless despair. He called his father, hoping to find some comfort. Like his 19 year old son, the father understood the despair of the family over this loss of life. He understood that this was a life changing moment for his son, along with the potential consequences and trouble that might lie ahead. But rather than join the son in fear and despair, he said to him, “well son, there are two ways of looking at this. Either this is a tragedy from which you will never recover, or this is God’s indication to you that He has some very great things that He wants to do in your life, and this is the only way that He can prepare you for those things.”
My friend’s perspective on his tragedy changed. That young man indeed went on to great things for God, and fulfilled areas of service and ministry at a very young age that would normally have been reserved for an older man. Today, he continues to use his experiences as a teacher at a Bible college.
He learned that blaming your circumstances is a sure way to lose the blessing and benefit of the learning experience that God puts in your life.
So many of us blame our PARENTS. At least Adam and Eve couldn’t do this! But rest assured, every person since then has blamed their parents for some problem that we have in life.
Adam and Eve did not have a PAST, but if they did, they would have blamed their problems in their past, just like it is tempting for us to blame our problems on our PAST. These are the sins that others have committed against us. All of us have painful memories in our past. For some, the pain is deeper and the hurts more severe. But our painful past and the sin that others have committed against us is no justification to give up, to give in, or to despair. Jesus said, "“Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! "Matthew 18:7
And Paul added in 1 Corinthians 11:19 "No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. "
1 Peter 4:12 "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”
Romans 5:12 "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— "
But the saddest thing that we do (and here we find this as part of Adam’s excuses) is that we blame our GOD. Notice Adam’s words, “The woman YOU put here.” Literally, “Put” = “gave to me.” We blame God for our problems. We complain that we cannot change because, “God, you made me this way!” Oh what a sad condition it is to blame God.
Finally, when all else fails, we blame The DEVIL. Genesis 3:13 "Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” "
Wayne Dyer writes: “All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you…You may succeed in making another feel guilty of something by blaming him; you won’t succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy.”
Susan Jocoby writes about people who profoundly believe they are always losers in the game of life. She calls them “injustice collectors” (Pritchard, “Have You Stopped Blaming Others for Your Problems?”)
* They endlessly repeat how others have mistreated them.
* They view the world as hostile and unfair to them.
* They are “beachcombers of misery” who see each grievance as a treasure to add to their collection.
* They have a hidden need to feel wronged.
* They live by the childish notion that life should always be fair to them.
“The tendency to blame others is deeply ingrained in human nature..... Left to ourselves; we will do anything to avoid taking personal responsibility for our actions. Third, it tells us that blaming others is often nothing more than a subtle twisting of the truth in order to take the heat off of ourselves. Fourth, it tells us that without a deep working of the grace of God within us, we will do exactly what Adam and Eve did” (From a sermon called, “Have You Stopped Blaming Others For Your Problems?” www.keepbelieving.com).
These are the NATURAL RESPONSES when our SIN is EXPOSED
We don’t want to be naked
We don’t want to be embarrassed
James 4:2 "You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. "
What Happens when we are exposed?
Our exposure is sudden.
Our guilt is by self-incrimination (the LORD causes Adam to confess, even though Adam does not want to confess)
“Every knee shall bow”
Luke 12:2 "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. "
When we act in this way, we break fellowship with God. This is what happened to Adam. God was walking in the “cool of the day.” It was the evening time, literally “evening breezes,” at the end of the day.
Think about this, Adam and Eve had an entire day to frolic in their sin, but DISCOVERY CAME. God would not overlook their sin! And precisely who was it that came to talk with them? In terms of the trinity of God, it was not God the Father, for He has a form that no person can see. This was a Theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. They lost a DAY of FELLOWSHIP w JESUS in PARADISE!
We CANNOT avoid responsibility! Unlike the serpent, God addresses ADAM first. You can SHIRK your responsibility, but you cannot avoid it!
So far, we have seen the NATURAL RESPONSE to the discover of our sin, but what is the SPIRITUAL RESPONSE? Since we all are sinners, and since every sinner sins, how should we respond when this sinful condition is revealed to us?
First, we must recognize that only GOD can help us! Here, I find the text of the Bible Knowledge Commentary very clear. “Only God can help us. The motifs in chapter 3—death, toil, sweat, thorns, the tree, the struggle, and the seed—all were later traced to Christ. He is the other Adam, who became the curse, who sweat great drops of blood in bitter agony, who wore a crown of thorns, who was hanged on a tree until He was dead, and who was placed in the dust of death.”
(Walvoord, Zuck, BKC)
Note the following:
God made coverings
They had no response to God
They were completely at His mercy
Second, we must have A HUMBLE heart. Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. "
Lloyd H. Steffen wrote in The Christian Century how when King Frederick II, an eighteenth century king of Prussia, was visiting a prison in Berlin, the inmates tried to prove to him how they had been unjustly imprisoned. All of them were pleading their cases - except one man.
He sat quietly in a corner, while all the rest protested their innocence. Seeing him sitting there oblivious to all the commotion, the King asked him what he was in for. "Armed robbery, Your Honor." The King asked, "Were you guilty?" "Yes Sir," he answered. "I entirely deserve my punishment." At that, the King called for a guard and said, "Release this man. I don’t want him corrupting all these innocent people."(16)
Donald W. Brenneman APO, Miami, FL. Leadership Magazine, Vol. 12, no. 2.
Finally, we must see our sin the way that God sees it, and stop playing the BLAME GAME. 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. "
But here is the most important word to hear in this entire message. Even though it is our human nature to blame others, our circumstances, or even to blame God, there is no need for us to do so! God know our sinful condition. He know every sinful thing that we have done. And He is still willing to forgive us. In fact, it was His plan even before Adam and Eve sinned that He would demonstrate his justice and his love by offering forgiveness through the death of his son.
Romans 8:1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, "
1 Corinthians 1:30 "It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. "
God gave his son so that Adam, and Eve, and you and me might be forgiven of the horrible sins that we have committed.
He asks us to stop blaming others, to recognize our sin, and to come completely and totally to him for forgiveness. When you do, you will be cleansed, forgiven and released from your bondage to sin and the guilt that comes with it.
