Blame Game

In this morning’s Bible reading I was in Genesis 3 and as I’m reading and trying to pay attention to a section that I have read or heard what feels like a thousand times.

1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" 2. And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3. but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" 4. But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6.So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" 10. And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." 11. He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12. The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." 13. Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

So, are you bored yet? I was until about verse 9. Then as I’m reading. It strikes me. God, our Father, comes to the garden, KNOWS what is wrong and what has happened, then asks Adam, “Where are you?” Now, who reading this thinks that God didn’t know where Adam was? If this isn’t a clear picture of free will I do not know what is, The stranger thing is it sounds like the course of a conversation with Libby, who when discovered doing the wrong thing is given the chance to confess. Moving on, God then asks “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Hard stop, Right here. God gave a singular directive. DO NOT EAT OF THIS TREE. OK, so we failed. What other directive is singular for the church that we have failed at? Here is what hit me the hardest, Adam’s response. “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate” I’m not interested in the debate of why Adam gave into Eve on eating the fruit, that has it’s place but not today. I’m interested in the fact than when caught, the first instinct after disobeying God’s singular law, Adam goes, “Wasn’t me, not my fault, I was forced by circumstance to disobey you.” How many times in our day to day walk do we do the same thing, How many times, corporately as the body of Christ do we go, not our fault, XYZ Church down the road should be reaching that people group. The buck should stop here. It gets worse in that Eve follows Adam’s example and goes, “Wasn’t me, it was the snake!” So now the actions of Adam have affected Eve’s actions. YOUR responses and actions are and example to other “younger” Christians. Take ownership, be willing to admit a mistake before you are a stumbling block to others.