When God created Eve in the garden of Eden, Adam became overwhelmingly happy. He had been living by himself, seeing all the animals with their partners, but not having someone exclusively for him. At last, the Eden harmony was fully complete, for his moments of loneliness were finally over.
As soon as the first problems began this apparent happiness and harmony disappeared. When God came wanting to know who had disobeyed his instructions, Adam did not hesitate in pointing to Eve, and she did not hesitate in pointing to the serpent. The first transferred the responsibility for the error to the second and the second transferred it to the third.
Interesting that the Eden harmony was not interrupted by the Serpent but by Adam and Eve’s incapacity to obey God and assume their responsibility for the disobedience committed. To launch the blame over the Serpent did not exempt Eve. Adam and Eve were accomplices in the disobedience.
Frequently we act in the same way, thinking that by blaming others we can be exempt from our errors. The truth, however, is that we are the only ones responsible for our sins. We cannot transfer that blame over to others neither can we blame the Devil. We alone are responsible for our mistakes.
At times I wonder if God would have given another destiny to history if Adam would have just assumed his blame and taken responsibility, instead of hiding himself behind Eve and the Serpent. This we will never know, but what we do know is that, in the New Testament, the prodigal son assumed his guilt, went back to the father and was forgiven.
Instead of blaming others for our own mistakes, let us take responsibility for our sins, confess them to our good heavenly Father and be forgiven. If we do that, our joy and harmony will be complete!
- Why do we have difficulty confessing our sins?
- How much do we trust our heavenly Father?
(Men’s disobedience, Genesis 3:1-13 / The prodigal son, Luke 15:11-24)