The First Blame Game or How can you break “VERY GOOD?
Genesis chapter 3 God is a good Father that asks great questions! God listened to what Adam said (Genesis 3:10 “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”) God heard Adam.
He didn’t ask:
“Why did you do this?”
“What were you thinking?”
“What are you doing?”
“Why did you disobey me?”
“Don’t you realize what you have done????”
Many of us would have gone there. But God’s question was this (verse 11): “Who told you that you were naked?”
What a great question! God listened to Adam and asked this so Adam could qualify his answer. Also, so Adam could have the opportunity to confess and repent. This inquiry clarifies that Adam did not hear God tell him this. Adam cannot turn to God and blame Him. It would have been an outright lie. You can picture Adam standing there, in his fig leaves thinking.
He only had three choices: God, Eve, or the serpent.
Adam had never read a book or watched a movie. He did not know that you must have a protagonist and antagonist and conflict to have a good story. He had never watched anything die. Nor would he have seen disease. God was all he knew. God is love, merciful, and full of grace.
Adam never had his loyalties tested. Adam never witnessed anything except his perfect relationship with God. He had no concept of what love was either (meaning how to love). Adam did not watch God make the earth, the animals, or even his wife (He slept through that). What demonstration of love would he have experienced in the garden before all this? And without people to observe, he had no opportunities to see this. But we have Jesus as our example.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Without these things in his fresh, but now tainted mind, Adam did what any one of us would have done; blame the other person.
He decided that Eve was ripe for the picking and was definitely involved, so he chose to blame Eve. And while he was at it, he blamed God also. Verse 12 And the man said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Insinuating that God has some part of guilt since He gave him this woman. Adam missed the opportunity to love Eve, to take responsibility for his own actions, and to admit he could have changed or stopped things but didn’t.
God intended for Adam to take Eve and to teach her like He was teaching Adam, with the same intensity and love. Not sure what happened there. At this point, Adam turns to his new knowledge of self-preservation. He protects his own skin! Literally and (fig hahaha) figuratively.
Now, we must ask, Who told Adam he was naked? We concluded God did not. Eve did not. Neither did the serpent! The question was asked of Adam, to see whom he was listening to. In Gen 3:17 God says, “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded the saying, Thou shalt not eat of it…” Adam did listen to his wife. Eve did not know everything that Adam knew. Why did he listen to her about this very serious topic and not turn to God?
The rest of God’s question was: “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” Adam answered this question as we have seen. The first blame game had been played. Adam may have neglected teaching Eve some of the important things God taught him. At this point, he did not say to God, “I told her not to do it!” because he did not say this to her.
Try to imagine Eve at this juncture. She is a newbie (an inexperienced newcomer to a particular activity). She knew Adam. She knew of God, and maybe she had some time with God, but probably not as much as her husband. (We are not told how much influence God had on Eve.)
She had never been alone before this. But now she understood what ALONE meant. She was accused and deserted. And she WAS GUILTY. She did do it. (1 Timothy 2:13-15 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression...)
When she saw her man (whom she thought would always be with her), stand against her that day, she had extreme fear. Remember she had shame, and guilt and was as afraid as Adam was. She was standing there in her make-shift fig frock, as God looked at her, and now Adam stood back and pointed at her. She was terrified. And she did learn from Adam after this. As we will see in the next post.
How about you? Who told you that lie you believe about yourself? About your loved one? About the One (God) that loves you?
It is a good exercise to ask yourself this question, “Who told me this thing I am believing?” when faced with something that causes you to fear, to have anger or any other negative emotion. (2 Corinthians 11:13 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.) Did You hear from God on this subject?
Who told you? Ask yourself. Ask God to help you with it. The answer might surprise you. But remember the truth will set you free, and you shall be free indeed!
Side note: We know that God was not alone in Creation, Genesis 1:26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
“Us” and “Our” mean He had some others with Him: we think of Jesus and the Holy Spirit as being with God. It seems consistent with the rest of the Bible.
There was no “good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ” yet. If Adam had access to this Love of the gospel, he would have had the opportunity to think and act differently.
What do you think?
It seems that not a lot has changed when it comes to blaming others. We still don’t want to take responsibility for our own actions. We blame our wives, husbands, work, Covid, our boss, children, the President , etc., for all our troubles. If we are Christian we should stop listening and believe the same old lie, from the same old serpent. We should stop play the blame game and start walking victoriously in Christ, loving our neighbors, and crushing some serpent head!!
Amen, keep writing the truth!!