Genesis 1:26-28 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God BLESSED them and said to them, “BE FRUITFUL and INCREASE in number; FILL the earth and SUBDUE it. RULE over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
God gave Adam and Eve an incredible opportunity that came with responsibilities and rules. There was just one off-limits tree in the Garden. Tempted by Satan and relying on self, they ate from the forbidden tree. When they did, Scriptures says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”
They hadn’t needed coverings before the sin. There was no recognition of nakedness or need to cover shameful feelings. Now there was an internal brokenness, a sense of betrayal and shame that they would never be able to cover or fix. Their fig leaf clothing line was an attempt to deal with what had happened in their hearts.
Now things were awkward with God and also between the two of them. They actually tried to hide from God, something quite laughable considering God knows where we are at all times. Instead of letting them hide in shame, God called them out. I mean, if you are hiding you aren’t being fruitful. If you are hiding you aren’t exercising authority. If you are hiding you aren’t ruling. Do you see how sin immediately and negatively impacts your effectiveness? So, God came looking for them.
He asked them if they had eaten from the forbidden tree. Instead of answering the question with a simple “yes” or “no,” Adam blamed God for putting him with Eve in the Garden, and then he blamed Eve for giving him the fruit. Eve blamed the serpent.
Unfortunately, this quick-thinking, self-preserving measure we take when we are caught and we know it, this shifting of the blame is all too common. God asked Adam and Eve the question because He wanted to give them an opportunity to take responsibility for their actions. Even God and the devil were blamed for Adam and Eve’s sin. Isn’t that interesting? Are we ever guilty of the same? Do we blame God for bad decisions we make because we are trying to escape some painful life circumstance, that if it hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have been tempted to do something stupid? And if God really loved us, why couldn’t He just make our lives all unicorns and rainbows so that we didn’t have to ever feel sad or mad or depressed or have anything tough to overcome or whatever? And so, we get mad at God.
I remember when I was a little girl, there was a TV show called the Flip Wilson Show. He made the phrase, “The devil made me do it,” a popular phrase. Believe it or not, that has been a defense used in many a murder trial since 1981 when Arne Johnson claimed demonic possession and denial of any personal responsibility for killing a man.
The truth is that there is no power except our own that can force us to sin. We cannot blame God. We cannot blame the devil. We cannot blame each other. Our choices are our choices.
Adam and Eve couldn’t say the other person had been more favored by God and that the playing field was somehow unfair. They both had been equally blessed by God. They also couldn’t say they didn’t know what God expected. They couldn’t say they didn’t know the speed limit, so to speak. God had been clear. He told them in Genesis 2:16-17, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you MUST NOT eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
He didn’t say, you must not eat from the tree unless you think it looks too good to pass up. He didn’t say, you must not eat from the tree unless someone else suggests you could. He didn’t say, you must not eat from the tree unless someone else does it first and gives it to you. He said, you MUST NOT, under any circumstances, eat from the tree. Violating the rule would come with a stiff consequence. Death. Now, spiritual death was immediate as there was a separation, a change in their relationship with God, and physical death would come at God’s appointed time, but nonetheless, it was a stiff penalty. So, neither could say they didn’t know what the consequence would be for violating God’s law. The rule and the consequence were clear. God will never suspend His Word or the consequences for violating it just because we claim something isn’t our fault.
Here are a few observations:
- Shifting the blame never changes the facts. Adam and Eve sinned. There was no way to sugar coat it or excuse it. God knew what they had done. They knew what they had done. Satan knew what they did. Nothing was accomplished by blaming anyone.
- Shifting the blame will harm our relationships. When we don’t accept personal responsibility for our actions before God, we will harm our spiritual health, our spiritual relationship with God. We need a relationship with God that is based on truth and transparency in our inner being. The Psalmist says in Psalm 51, “Surely you desire truth in the inner parts.” When we can’t acknowledge our sin, our prayers go unanswered. (Psalm 66:18) I couldn’t make it without knowing that God is hearing and answering my prayers. I want to be right with God so that I can be a steward of the blessings He has given to me. I want to have the authority, the dominion, and the fruitfulness that He has proclaimed I can have. God is not to blame for my sin and blaming Him impairs our relationship. I can’t be as close to Him as I would otherwise want to be because I want to hold Him responsible for why I am suffering from my own bad choices.
And in our human relationships, when we wrongly point fingers at other people, we destroy trust between us. We downgrade people to pawns to be used. Who wants to be in fellowship with someone who tries to cast false blame on them? I don’t want to be the scapegoat for someone else’s bad behavior, what about you? Adam and Eve had a great marriage until they started blaming each other for their own personal choices. Have you ever considered that when they made the fig leaf coverings, they were in essence also closing themselves off from one another? Or at least they were no longer able to view each other in the same light? And I’m not just referring to the way they saw each other physically. Their sin and the fallout from it through the blame game caused them to see things differently, to see each other differently. The Bible says their eyes were opened. Oh, they were opened alright! They were opened to the reality of what happens when you violate God’s law, when you choose evil, when you choose your own will. They experienced it firsthand. Their eyes were opened to the destructive power of evil, something only God had understood previously, and as a result they could no longer look at each other the same way. Genesis 3:16 even talks about how conflict came into the marital relationship as a result of their sin. No doubt the blame they had cast on each other played a role in that conflict.
Adam and Eve also saw God differently. They didn’t view Him as the Source of Blessing, as the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift, as the Friend to walk and talk and fellowship with, but as one to be feared, and so they hid. When Adam sinned, he actually viewed God as part of the problem, as part of the reason that he sinned. What? God can never tempt us to sin. (James 1:13)
- Blaming God will keep us from growing into the people He desires for us to be.
We have an incredible opportunity and personal responsibility to be a steward of the blessings of God, but when we won’t accept responsibility for our actions, we will stifle our ability to be effective and fruitful. Personal progress and the progress of a community, a country and a world are stifled when people refuse to be accountable for their actions. God’s blessings won’t keep flowing in our lives if we won’t own what we need to own.
It’s time to quit blaming everyone else, including God, for our bad choices, for our lack of initiative, poor planning, and miss-steps along the way. And here’s the thing, we have nothing to fear when we admit we have done something wrong. God says He will forgive anything we confess. (I John 1:9) Don’t destroy your relationship with God and others by trying to shift the blame. Just confess your sin, receive healing, and go on to exercise authority and to have dominion. Be a steward of the blessings God has given you. Live the blessed life and reject a life of shifting the blame to others.
