I notice today, more than ever we are buying into the idea that all of my troubles in this world are the fault of someone beside me. If I get pulled over for speeding, I was late for work, or my alarm didn’t work. The fact of the matter is I was speeding, it was my foot on the peddle. Or, I got into trouble for talking in class today because Sean would not shut up, he just kept talking to me. What we are saying in these two examples is that, yes I did this thing, and got caught, but it wasn’t my fault. The blame for that thing falls on someone else… I am innocent!

Getting caught

I knew this guy at one time. He had spent a good portion of his life in prison for running drugs into the United States. He told me the story one day of how he got caught with his load. He was smuggling the stuff in a very cleverly built boat. The boat had a removable deck, that was not noticeable. The deck was lifted away, the cargo was placed inside hidden compartments below the deck, then the deck was lifted back into place.

On this particular day my friend left Nassau with his boat loaded with “cargo”. He would make his way to the island of Bimini, refuel and the next day cross to Florida where his cargo would be delivered.

My friend arrived as planned to the fuel dock in Bimini. The fuel attendant came out to meet him, and assist him with refueling his boat. My friend was not interested in waiting around for the boat to be refueled, so he gave the fuel attendant more than sufficient money to fuel the boat, and told the guy to keep whatever was left for himself. The fuel attendant did not fill my friends boat, instead he kept all of the money and put no fuel in my friends boat.

My friend was interested only in going to the local bar and partying all night, and that is what he did. In a drunken drug fueled stupor he stumbled aboard his boat in the wee hours of the morning and set off for Florida.

He didn’t get too far out to sea when his engines died, and his boat was dead in the water. He had no water, no food, and no way to make land one way or the other. He was stuck.

After a couple of days my friend passed out on the deck of his boat from severe dehydration. As he lay on his deck a fishing boat came lumbering along, not paying attention to what was in front of them. They did not see my friends boat and their port stabilizer dragged across my friends boat tearing the center console out of its place, revealing his cargo below the deck.

The Captain of the fishing boat quickly realized that this was a drug boat and called the Coast Guard. My friend was caught, and the rest did not go well for him.

In his mind the reason he was caught is because the fuel attendant ripped him off. It was not his fault that he didn’t check his fuel levels.

God’s thoughts on our blaming others

Gen 3:12-13

The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

When Adam sinned and did that which God had said not to do. He blamed both the woman and God, then the woman blamed the serpent. I think it is important to note that God had nothing to ask the serpent. But what we have here is Adam especially not taking responsibility for his sin.

How did God react?

The serpent was punished. Vs 14 and 15 Then the LORD God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

Then the woman was punished. Vs. 16 Then he said to the woman,

“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.”

The man was held responsible Vs 17-19 And to the man he said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”

Since you “listened to your wife”. Adam had chosen to listen to his wife rather than God. God held Adam responsible for the sin, not his wife, even though Adam had tried to pass the buck on to her and ultimately to God.

We are guilty of the same behavior: The devil made me do it, my wife made me do it, my friend got me in trouble, the fuel guy didn’t fill my boat.

God does not accept the blame shifting, he will hold us all personally responsible. There are no excuses that will be considered valid.

The only way to please God is to do life God’s way, and only His way.