Anyone who has dealt with kids knows what blame-shifting is like. From the messes that nobody makes to the “He started it”/“She started it” sibling rivalries, kids are experts at passing the buck.
Adults can be good at shifting the blame when it comes to our sins, too. It’s something we see throughout the Bible. Think back to the first sin:
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’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 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.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
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. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 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.”
Genesis 3:1-13 (ESV, emphasis added)
Neither Eve nor Adam wanted to take responsibility for their sins. We can see a similar pattern a few hundred years later, when the Israelites got tired of waiting for Moses to come back down Mt. Sinai with God’s law.
Related: Sunday Thoughts: Charles Octavius Boothe on Repentance
The people asked Moses’ brother, the high priest Aaron, to make an idol for them, and he took their gold jewelry and fashioned a golden calf from it for them to worship. Aaron didn’t stop this sin, even though he was responsible for the people in Moses’ absence. God told Moses to hurry back down the mountain to address the idolatry.
And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
Exodus 32:21-24 (ESV, emphasis added)
We see this pattern another time in Israel’s history when Saul, the nation’s first king, defied God’s command to totally destroy an enemy, an act that ended up becoming his downfall.
And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
1 Samuel 15:7-9 (ESV)
When the prophet and priest Samuel rebuked Saul, the king passed the buck.
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”
[…]
[And Samuel said,] “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
1 Samuel 15:13-15, 19-21 (ESV, emphasis added)
I recently read Joe Rigney’s excellent book “Leadership and Emotional Sabotage: Resisting the Anxiety That Will Wreck Your Family, Destroy Your Church, and Ruin the World,” and in it, he cites these three biblical counts as examples of men who passed the buck on their sins. When we refuse to take responsibility for our failures and faults, we not only shirk our responsibility, but we lie as well. Instead, we should confess our sins.
Related: Sunday Thoughts: Punching Back at Temptation
As the Apostle John wrote in his first letter:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:5-10 (ESV)
May we avoid passing the buck and shifting the blame with our sins and confess them so that we can experience the freedom of having them off our chest.
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