The Blame Game
“And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Genesis 3:12-13
Lots of folks play the “blame game”. They do not want to accept the blame for something that they did or something that they caused to happen because: 1. Folks hate to be embarrassed. 2. They can’t accept the fact that they did something unscrupulous, harmful, or stupid. 3. They don’t want to soil their reputation, which most people have already managed to do at one time or another because no one is perfect. The likely solution then is to find someone else to blame.
There are several people in scripture who played the blame game. Adam, first man on earth, ate of the forbidden fruit after Eve gave it to him. God confronted them. Adam blamed God: “This woman whom You gave to me gave the fruit to me, and I ate it” (paraphrased). At least he did admit eating the fruit. He could have said, “She shoved it in my mouth and before I could figure out what it was, I swallowed it”. But that was not what happened. Adam ate the fruit willingly knowing that it was forbidden by God. Eve also got caught up in this blame game. She blamed the serpent. “That sly old snake tricked me into eating the fruit” (paraphrased), so, of course, it couldn’t possibly be her fault. God wasn’t buying it.
Fast forward a few thousand years to the major incident at Mt. Sinai. The people became restless waiting for Moses to return from his meeting with the LORD, so they approached Aaron, Moses’ brother, and asked him to make them a god to worship. He gathered their gold jewelry and made a molten calf and an altar on which they could place the calf and worship it. When Moses came down from the mountain and saw what they had done, he was furious. He questioned Aaron as to how this happened, and Aaron replied that these mischievous people desired it, so he threw their gold into a fire, and the calf just magically appeared. What small part he played in this scenario was done because the people practically made him do it. Another blame game occurred in Jeremiah 44. The Judeans who had survived the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians had been led into Egypt defying God’s command to stay in Judah. God, through Jeremiah, reminded them of the reason for Jerusalem’s destruction: the worship of false gods by the Judeans, but the people were still defiant. They blamed the destruction on being forced to stop worshiping their false gods, an excuse which made no sense.
There are two examples in the New Testament that we could include as contestants in the blame game. One was a servant who received one talent from his master, but instead of investing it to make more talents like the other two servants did, this servant hid his one talent in the ground. Who did he blame for his lack of fiduciary responsibility? He blamed his master. He said that he knew that his master was a “hard man, reaping where he had not sown, and gathering where he had not strowed”, and he was fearful (Matthew 25:24-30). We don’t know why he was afraid. Perhaps he was fearful of losing that one talent in a stock market collapse. The other example is the Apostle Peter. He promised to never forsake Jesus, no matter what, but when Jesus was arrested, Peter ran like a scalded dog, as did the other disciples. While Jesus was on trial, Peter had joined some people outside by a warm fire. They began to accuse Peter of being one of Jesus’ associates. “It wasn’t me”, Peter proclaimed. He, too, was fearful. Fear can make us do things that we wouldn’t ordinarily do. Peter didn’t blame any others, but finally, he did blame himself and wept bitterly.
What happened to all these folks who played the blame game? Adam and Eve were banished from their paradise home and worked all their lives to eke out an existence, suffering the death of one son at the hand of another son. Three thousand people at Mt. Sinai were killed, although Aaron survived and became the high priest. In Egypt, God promised to kill all the Judean men by allowing Nebuchadnezzar and his army to invade the land of Egypt. The servant who had his one talent was cast into outer darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth, and Peter was abundantly ashamed of his own behavior, but Jesus forgave him, and he became a great preacher of the gospel.
If folks would only own up to their sins, mistakes, and bad judgment calls, this world would be a different place. Politicians are notorious at placing the blame for whatever troubles are affecting the U.S. on the opposite party. They are also notorious at blaming the other party for something that they are doing themselves, the height of hypocrisy. We are all guilty of placing blame where it doesn’t belong rather than saying, “It was my fault, I take full responsibility and assume the consequences of my error, and I am truly sorry. Please forgive me”. It is surprising how quickly people will usually forget all about it if a person is honest and forthright. It takes a big man, or woman, to admit that he or she was wrong, but it is the right thing to do.