Genesis 3:11-19
11 God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?" 12 The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it." God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?" 13 "The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate." 14 -15 God told the serpent: "Because you've done this, you're cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I'm declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He'll wound your head, you'll wound his heel." 16 He told the Woman: "I'll multiply your pains in childbirth; you'll give birth to your babies in pain. You'll want to please your husband, but he'll lord it over you." 17 -19 He told the Man: "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree That I commanded you not to eat from, “Don't eat from this tree,' The very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, Planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt."
From these verses in Genesis we find the fall of mankind. God had made it clear to Adam what Adam should not do. But we find Adam saying to God it was this woman you gave me. We see Eve saying it was the serpent who seduced me. Neither one wanted to take responsibility for their sin. Because of the sin there were consequences for Adam and Eve that also reached out to all future generations.
When life is going wrong who do you blame? Do you take responsibility for your past actions which may have led you to where you are or do you try to place the blame on someone else? Have you ever heard someone blame God for their difficult circumstances and the pain and suffering they are going through? Whose fault is it? Surely someone is to blame, right? All the pain, suffering and death came through the actions of Adam and Eve. Man is to blame for his own actions. But through Christ came mercy, grace and the hope of eternal life. God gave His son to redeem man’s sins. God is watching out for us and while we still experience pain, suffering and death Christ fully understands what we are going through. He experienced the same for our sake although Christ did not deserve such treatment. So if you hear someone want to blame God for their problems, help them remember where the real problem came from man and the resolution came from Christ. Remember these words from James, “Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.”
