The Blame Game
Everything I Do Is Somebody Else’s Fault.
“The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12
When Eve sinned, she blamed the serpent. Her excuse: “He beguiled me.” The serpent was wiser than I, and I, being ignorant, he took advantage of me. It was his fault and not mine.”
After Adam sinned, he tried to shift some of the blame onto his wife and some onto God. Adam quickly forgot how he once greeted Eve with all her beauty into his life. She was a gift from the Lord. But now, like a defendant, he points his accusing finger away from himself and says to God, “The woman you gave me as a helpmate, she got me into this mess.” His love for Eve suddenly disappeared as quickly as the dove left Noah’s ark. Notice how, in the blame game, Adam did not call her Eve his wife, but instead said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me.”
The Blame Game continues. To this very day, it’s alive and thriving like a pestilence of locusts. Such excuses abound like fig leaves, revealing the depravity of the human heart. They tend to blame their sins on others rather than taking personal responsibility for them.
A recent case in point is Sirgiogio Clardy, who is presently serving a one-hundred-year jail sentence in Oregon. That sentence is based on three different crimes that Clardy committed. First scenario, he robbed a man. Secondly, he battered an eighteen-year-old teenager old woman, and thirdly, he stomped repeatedly on the face of a fellow who owed him money.
Watch the blame game in action
Mr. Clardy sued Nike tennis shoes for selling dangerous weapons. The reason is that Mr. Clardy stomped on the man’s face while wearing Nike tennis shoes. His rationale was that if he had stomped on his victim with his bare feet instead of the Nike tennis shoes he was wearing, the damage to his victim’s face would have been far less and thus deserved a lesser sentence. It was Nike that got me this one-hundred-year sentence, and so they should pay me $100 million in damages.
What do Adam and Eve, Clardy, and millions today have in common?
It’s not my Fault!”
Another illustration will help us see that the answer to the blame game is forgiveness, because we were all as guilty as Judas, with the thirty pieces of silver burning in his hand.
One of the most influential men of the last century died on December 23, 2013. He was General Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47. The AK-47 became the most well-known machine gun in modern warfare. Armies around the world adopted it because it was simple and nearly indestructible. Of course, terrorist and guerrilla groups also love it. One can only imagine the millions of deaths this invention has caused. Kalashnikov, who died at age 94, said, “I have no regrets and bear no responsibility for how politicians have used it.”
Don’t blame me, the politicians and warlords made me do it.
However, he was not as open about his feelings when he sensed death was near. In a letter written shortly before his death, the general told the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, saying, “The pain in my soul is unbearable. I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle took away people’s lives, then can it be that I am guilty of people’s deaths, even if they were enemies?”
Many have painful thoughts lurking in the deep, dark shadows of their soul; sins too private to be talked about, too dark to forget about, and too recent not to be grieved about.
One of the greatest, simplest, and shortest verses about forgiveness in the Bible is:
John 1:7-b “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
Today, I encourage you not to try the Blame Game but to be assured: the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
Verse 9 of the same chapter continues, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Who hasn’t made their share of mistakes? But like sky-diving and juggling chainsaws and razor-sharp axes, you don’t get very many second chances. One mistake can cost you everything.
There are some mistakes in life that are as insignificant as burnt toast. But there are other things you’d better get right the first time, such as: “He didn’t know the gun was loaded.”
An Islamic terrorist who was a teacher and trainer for ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) was giving lessons to his students in the countryside north of Baghdad. Surrounded by his eager students, he showed them how to make a car bomb. That’s right, a car bomb.
To make a long story short, as more than 35 students gathered around him, he accidentally grabbed a belt with live explosives. It is unclear whether he used dummy explosives, and it’s certain he’ll never be able to explain why. It was a fatal mistake by the instructor, and as a result, the bomb belt detonated.
When the smoke cleared, the instructor had disappeared, and 22 of his students lay dead, and 15 more were injured. Security forces that came to the explosion arrested 12 other potential bombers, defused seven car bombs, numerous explosive belts, and already-in-place roadside bombs.
There are some mistakes you cannot afford to make, and blaming your sins on others is one of them.
The Blame Game is not a roulette wheel you take chances with. The real thing is the Cross of Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
He Took Your Fall!
Pastor Robert Bryant