blame game ...

 Genesis 3:11-24  {scripture reading linked here}

I know you have heard the oldest excuse in the book ... "the devil made me do it!" 

Well, today we are gonna give credit where credit is due & I am sorry to report that our girl, Eve, is the first person to have uttered those words ... but first things first ... 

We left off with God having discovered Adam & Eve running around the Garden of Eden wearing fig leaves and hiding from God behind the very trees he created two shakes ago. They had disobeyed God & eaten fruit from the Tree of Knowledge ... the ONE thing God had told them NOT to do. UGH! God opened the door for them to explain themselves by asking, "where are you?" ... you can find all of my thoughts about that HERE.

Now let's move on to the next couple of questions God asks them ...

In verse 11, after Adam tells God they are hiding because they are naked & afraid (not to be confused with the unfortunate reality show of the same name) God asks ... "who told you that?"  They had been prancing around perfectly happy in their birthday suits the entire time & never even noticed ... one bite of the forbidden fruit & all of a sudden they had a sudden urge to cover up ... what made them realize they were, in fact, completely nude???!!?? What changed? What made them feel something ... shame ... they had never felt before? Their disobedience ... 

Well that one question starts an avalanche of other questions, blame, and finger pointing that rivals the time I carved my brother’s initials into my mama's piano bench!

 

{you can barely make out the JBT now}

Of course she went straight to him ... because they were his initials. I was smart enough to know not to use my own ... mama wasn't raising a fool! However, the real culprit was quickly identified ... me ... & I spent a good stretch of time that afternoon polishing that piano bench. 

Back to Genesis ... God asks Adam another question ... "did you eat that fruit I told you not to?" 

And my goodness ... Adam throws Eve & God completely under the bus! Can you imagine?!?!? Adam says ... well, that woman YOU gave me gave me the fruit! {I love how he says "THAT woman" ...  can't you just hear him now?}  So, Adam is like ... don't look at me! & begins to blame everyone else. Sound familiar? Don't we have a tendency to do the exact same thing? It's easy to blame somebody else and even God for what we've done to screw things up. O, the times I have done that! Most of the time when we have made a mess of things the one thing we need to do is LOOK INWARD!

God shifts His attention to Eve & asks her ... "what have you done?" & her's is the literal oldest excuse there is ... Eve says ... the devil made me do.

Again, God didn't ask a single question that He didn't already know the answer. He gave them both the opportunity to explain themselves ... what a gift. He didn't smite them. He didn't deny them a relationship with Him. He didn't shoot first & ask questions later. He gave them a chance!

He also doled out punishment ... because ... while God is merciful, He is just. He rebuked their lifetime membership pass to The Garden of Eden & their sin had eternal consequences ... hello painful childbirth & weeds. He was kind enough to replace their fig leaves with animal skin ... so there's that. At least they can be warm & fashionable while toiling with the earth.

Sin and disobedience has consequences ... it never happens in a vacuum, but God made a way for them {& us} to be reconciled. What a gift!