The Red Thread: The Garden and the Blame Game
The Blame Game
Have you ever played the blame game?
I remember when I was a kid I was next level at playing the blame game. I have a younger sister and if I could blame her for something so I wouldn’t get in trouble… you better believe I would do it in a heart beat. I wouldn’t hesitate to throw her under the bus!
And now… I can see that there must be something genetic about the blame game because I’ve noticed my kids are really good at it, too!
If I see trash in the living room, candy wrappers or something like that, it’s amazing how quickly the blame gets shifted. “I didn’t do that!” “It wasn’t me!”
And you know what the blame game does… The blame game separates us, divides us, and disrupts our relationships.
A World of Blame
It’s amazing to me how some people grow out of playing the blame game but other people never really do.
Turn on any news channel for 5 minutes and you’ll likely see a panel of people arguing, pointing fingers at someone else, blaming another person or another party or another group or another country or another… fill in the blank.
No one takes personal responsibility anymore. No one can own up to whatever it is they did or didn’t do and just say, I blew it! I’m sorry.
For some reason we would rather blame someone else, shift the responsibility, hope no one notices what we did, make it someone else’s fault, and move on as quickly as possible before anyone notices what we did!
And just in case you’re wondering, this isn’t anything new. This is exactly what happened thousands of years ago in the Garden of Eden.
In the Beginning BEFORE there was Blame
If you open your Bible to the very first book, the very first chapter, the very first verse, you’ll find these words…
Genesis 1.1:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The word used for God here and many times throughout the Old Testament is the word Elohim. What you may not know is that the word or this name we use for God is plural. Literally, you could translate it as “gods.” But throughout scripture it is used to refer to the One True God of Israel.
Remember, we’re looking for Jesus. In the beginning, when God began creating, there was Divine Community. There was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
God creates the sun, moon, and stars. Plants and animals. And then this happens…
Genesis 1.26-27
Then God said, “Let US make human beings in our image, to be like US. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Did you catch that?
God didn’t say, let ME make human beings. NO! Elohim, the Divine Community, God the Father, God the SON, and God the Holy Spirit said let US make human beings!
Created FOR Work, Created FOR Relationship
After God creates Adam, this is what happens…
The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
So we have this beautiful garden in Eden. And this is where God gives Adam his purpose. His job. His work.
Maybe you didn’t know this, but we were created to work. Work at it’s best is good and holy and we were created for work. To use the gifts, talents, and abilities we have for the good of others and the good of the world.
You may not like your work, you may want a different job, maybe you can’t wait to retire… but in the DNA of every human being is this divine design… we were created FOR something. We were created FOR a PURPOSE. We were created FOR WORK.
Yes, we need rest. On the seventh day after God had spent SIX days doing the work of creating, God rested. But this is one way we are made in the image of God, we are created FOR WORK.
Adam’s work?
To tend the garden located in Eden that God created for his benefit and for his pleasure.
And then, we also see this… God is in this garden with Adam having a conversation. Not only were we created for work, for purpose, we were created FOR RELATIONSHIP.
Adam was welcomed immediately after his creation into the Divine Community, into unhindered fellowship with Elohim, with God the Father, God the SON, and God the Holy Spirit.
Choose Love
What were some of God’s first words to Adam? In chapter 2, here are the first words God speaks to Adam…
“You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden…”
His first words are blessing and freedom.
We have this picture of God standing in this beautiful garden with Adam, can you see it?
Close your eyes and imagine this scene. The most beautiful garden, fruit ripe and ready on the branches of every tree. Then God says… this is all for you. Tend this garden, and eat anything you like! And by the way, it’s all organic!
But these words of blessing and freedom come with a word of warning.
“You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” – Genesis 2.16-17
I know what some of you are thinking… Why did God do that!? Why put a tree in the garden that Adam and Eve couldn’t eat from?
And do you know what happens when you ask that question?
You immediately start playing the blame game. if God hadn’t have done that… we would all still be in the garden of Eden!
But God knew in His divine love that for us to truly be a part of the Divine Community, we have to come to God by choice.
The human beings God created would need to be able to choose to love Him back in the same way that He has already chosen to love us from before time began.
After giving Adam these instructions, God says…
“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
– Genesis 2.18-25
At this point in the story… everything is the way it’s supposed to be! Creation is perfect. There’s no such thing as hurricane’s and tornadoes. There’s never been an earthquake or a wild fire. Everything is perfect.
At this point in the story there’s no such thing as cancer, unemployment, or wars between nations. Adam and Eve are perfectly healthy in every way, they have the perfect job taking care of the garden, and they haven’t even had their first fight as newlyweds!
This is what Scripture calls Shalom. Peace. Everything is the way it’s supposed to be. This is how things were in the beginning. And this is the way God intends things, all things, to be.
The Table is Set for the Blame Game
But in the garden there was God, there was Adam, there was Eve, but there was also a serpent in a tree.
Turn the page to Genesis 3 and we find the next part of the story where the plot thickens…
Genesis 3.1-3
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
TIMEOUT: We don’t have time to break this entire story down word by word or verse by verse, I wish we did. There’s so much here to unpack. But I do want you to notice what the serpent says… the serpent asks a question that contains an accusation. “Did God really say…?”
With that, the blame game has been set up.
And the question contains an element of truth.
“Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
Eve responds…
“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
Which is interesting… because God gave this instruction to Adam before Eve was created. So the only way that we’re aware of that Eve could have known about this instruction from God was that she heard it from Adam. The original instruction found in Genesis 2.16-17 given to Adam was that…
But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden–except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
Maybe Adam, just as a precaution, told Eve… let’s not even touch it!
I don’t know. But now, the table is set for Eve’s deception. As soon as she touches the fruit and discovers that she didn’t die, she’ll be even more convinced that she can eat it, too!
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. – Genesis 3.4-7
The Fall of Man
This story in Genesis 3 is often referred to as The Fall of Man, because it’s the story of the first temptation, the first sin, and the result of that first decision to disobey God. But the Fall didn’t happen when they ate the fruit.
The Fall happened as soon as they stopped believing the word of God.
I think there’s actually a better, more hopeful name for this story. You could call it The Fall of Man if the story ended here. But this isn’t the end of the story. It’s only the beginning. We’re still “In the beginning…” And before there was sin, there was God!
So…
Genesis 3.8-15:
When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the LORD God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Don’t miss that picture… that in the beginning it was not uncommon for the God of the universe, YHWH Elohim, the Divine Community to come walking in the garden of Eden to spend time with Adam and Eve. How beautiful is that?!
Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
“Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
There it is… THE BLAME GAME HAS BEGUN!
Remember: The blame game separates us, divides us, and disrupts our relationships.
She made me do it!
Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”
There it is again! The serpent made me do it! The BLAME GAME continues!
Remember: The blame game separates us, divides us, and disrupts our relationships.
The Plan BEFORE
But God isn’t looking for who to blame. God knows every heart. God isn’t trying to find out who started it. He isn’t interested in a game of he said, she said. God already knows exactly what went down in the garden. He was watching as the entire scene unfolded.
And…
God had a plan in place BEFORE temptation, BEFORE sin, BEFORE the fall to bring the human beings he created and he loved back into unhindered relationship with Himself.
The plan?
JESUS!
Listen to what God SAYS next and what God DOES next…
God says….
Then the LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
God himself predicts what will happen and foreshadows His plan to bring humanity back into unhindered relationship with Himself…
He tells the serpent that there will be a descendant of Eve, “her offspring,” who will come as our Rescuer and Redeemer. And although He will be wounded… “you will strike his heel,” He will be victorious! “He will strike your head!”
In other words, you may “wound” Him, but He will strike the “fatal” blow!
The GRACE of God
We know the rest of the story. We know what happens at the cross! Jesus was was wounded for our transgressions. That’s the way the prophet Isaiah described it. Satan thought that he had dealt the fatal blow, but what he didn’t know on Friday was that Sunday was coming!
On Sunday, Jesus defeated death, he conquered our enemy, Jesus dealt the fatal blow to that crafty serpent humanity first encountered in the garden and now, through Jesus, through the shedding of his blood on the cross, our sins are covered, forgiven, and we are welcomed into unhindered fellowship with God the Father, God the SON, and God the Holy Spirit! – Ephesians 2:4-6
There’s the Red Thread, there’s Jesus in Genesis 3.
He’s the one who strike the fatal blow to our enemy so we can walk with God in the garden again!
But that’s not the end of the story.
One day, Adam and Eve will die. They will return to the dust of the ground from which they were created.
But that isn’t punishment, it’s GRACE.
God in his mercy couldn’t allow Adam and Eve to remain in the garden in their fallen state where they would live forever in sin. He had to cast them out of the garden so that he could redeem them, save them, and ultimately be reunited with them! He knew they had to go through death so they could experience resurrected LIFE!
You can see God’s grace when you look at what God DOES next…
And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. – Genesis 3.21
When Adam and Eve first sinned, first ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they realized they were naked! Their solution? They sewed fig leaves together for clothes.
But those fig leaves were insufficient. So God in his grace, God in his mercy, did what only God could do for them. He made them clothes from animal skins. Which means, Something had to die so they could live.
They would have to leave the garden because of their sin, but before they left provision was made. That provision cost God something. Creatures he made were sacrificed, blood was shed, so that Adam and Eve could live.
There was CREATION.
Then there was CORRUPTION.
And now, there is COVERING.
God’s anger is NOT the final word.
In his love and kindness, blood is shed and garments are made for Adam and Eve. Kindness. Grace. Sacrifice. Provision. This is how the story ends!
And it is through the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God, JESUS, that our sins, our corruption, is covered, forgiven, and we are welcomed into unhindered fellowship with the Divine Community.
In the final analysis, God isn’t looking to blame. He is looking to clothe. Blame tries to expose someone else and put them at fault. God says let me clothe you and provide a covering for you and offer grace.
The blame game separates us, divides us, and disrupts our relationships. Grace unites us and brings us back into loving relationship.
This story is often called, The Fall of Man.
Maybe it should be called, The Grace of God.
God isn’t looking to shift responsibility. He’s looking to restore relationship.
The End of the Blame Game
Can I ask, who do you need to stop blaming?
This is what blame does. Blame separates.
I wonder if that was the serpent’s intent all along. To get Adam and Eve to start pointing fingers. Here we are thousands of years later still pointing fingers at each other!
But God isn’t interested in blame. He’s interested in restoration.
God is interested not in assigning blame, but in extending Grace.
There’s always grace!
Little Gardens
I think there’s a sense in which Jesus started the church so that there could be little Garden of Edens all over the world. Places where people could come and experience the grace of God. Places where people could be welcomed into fellowship with other people and with God.
Maybe that’s why we’re here church. Maybe just maybe, someone needs to know, there’s always grace. God has made a way.
Before time began, God had made a way. From the moment sin first entered the story, God had already made a way.
And that grace, it’s there for me, for you, for the world. For anyone who has sinned, for anyone who feels separated from God, there’s grace. And the grace of God welcomes us back into full relationship with God the Father, God the SON, and God the Holy Spirit.
There’s always grace.
Breath Prayer
So here’s the Breath Prayer I want to encourage you to pray this week:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, clothe me in your grace and cover me with your love.
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