God created the earth for Adam to rule over. How then did satan get so powerful on the earth when supposed to be under Adam’s dominion? It is not as simple as the sin of eating the fruit. What happened afterwards is just as important. How we respond when our sin is discovered is just as important as the sin itself. An attitude of acknowledging our mistake in humility and repentace can work wonders in restoring relationship with God. Unfortunately fear of having our bad side exposed often causes us to hide instead of facing the truth, just as our first father Adam did.
It is human nature to want to hide from blame and excuse our mistake. After being caught eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge Adam blamed his wife for offering him the fruit. Instead of accepting responsibility as the leader, he forsook his authority and accepted the role of follower. Running away from the blame meant running away from his God-given authority. Adam’s wife did likewise, blaming the serpent.
Genesis 3:6-13, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.””
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Adam blamed his wife and his wife blamed the serpent. Now surely the demonic serpent will find something to blame right? He is noted to be the most cunning beast after all. So who did the serpent shift the blame to? No one, satan accepted responsibility for his sin and the punishment given and thus satan gained authority over the earth instead of Adam. There’s a reason we use the term “taking ownership.” Since satan was the only one who took ownership he was therefore given literal ownership of Adam’s authority over the earth.
The weaker rulers in the Bible tend to blame the people for their own mistakes in judgement. When Aaron created the golden calf idol he blamed the people for pressuring him rather than taking ownership for his mistake. Saul did likewise when he disobeyed clear instructions from God in sparing the foreign king and his property which he was supposed to utterly destroy. Saul blamed the people for pushing him towards his decision rather than accept responsibility as a leader for making his mistake.
In Luke 9 a man was offered the opportunity to be Jesus disciple, but forsook it due to excuses and procrastination:
Luke 9:57-60, “Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.””
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“First let me go a bury my father” If his father had just died, why was this son not already doing the burial? His procrastination is evident in knowing his father had died, yet giving into slothfulness putting off digging the grave, allowing the body to rot openly. He made an excuse that he would bury the body tomorrow and it would not be a big deal and yet that day Jesus came to town and there was no longer time for his task. The man asked Jesus to wait and hold up his whole ministry just so the man could do the job he should have done yesterday.
In Luke 14 Jesus teaches about the human nature to rely on excuses:
Luke 14:16-24
“Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’””
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The first man said “I bought a field and must inspect it” and requested to be excused from having to attend the wedding. But it seems this guy did things backwards. Wouldn’t it be better to inspect the field first and then decide whether to buy it afterwards? Hiram made that mistake and was tricked by king Solomon into purchasing worthless cities for a high price (Kabul).
1 Kings 9:10-13, “Now it happened at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king’s house (Hiram the king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress and gold, as much as he desired), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. Then Hiram went from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, but they did not please him. So he said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” And he called them the land of Cabul [worthless], as they are to this day.”
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The next man said “I have married a wife….” His excuse was that as a newlywed he needed to spend extra time with his own wife. The question can be asked though, why isn’t the man with her right now if he is so concerned about romance? He is roaming around the city by himself. Surely attending a wedding along with his wife for one day would not be too much to ask.
Often our excuses fall apart under inspection. What we thought was a solid bar of silver turns out to be just a wooden plank wrapped in tin foil. The excuse is like the thin wrapping that lets us pretend we have something solid.
Even if an excuse is valid you should still avoid making them. This is due to the spiritual principle activated: when you make an excuse for a failure, the excuse is a prayer to keep that state of failure. An excuse is a prayer telling God you want to stay failing and not overcome. It may seem unfair, especially since there often a “partial” truth behind excuses, but God is more impressed when you forgo the excuse, even when it may even have some validity. When you make an excuse, demonic forces petition legal right to access and hinder that area of your life.
Some people love the self-pity and complaining that comes from defeat. They get a joy from the confirmation that their doubt was right. From being able to tell others of how unfair life is to them. This attracts more loss and defeat as to lose is that person’s true heart’s desire.
Famous trader Ed Seykota said “Win or lose, everybody gets what they want out of the market. Some people seem to like to lose, so they win by losing money.”
This principle is true in many aspects of life. The joy of complaining and blaming others rather than taking ownership can make losing feel as satisfying as winning and thus attracts more loss. Often we consciously wish to achieve victory or success but the deep subconscious has been programmed to enjoy blaming and excuses so much that it leads to double-mindedness, a state where our conscious and unconscious minds conflict. The book of James has much to say on double-mindedness and the self-sabotage it leads to. Modern psychologists term this as “cognitive dissonance,“ beliefs that conflict against each other and yet are both held to be true in a person’s mind.
An excuse is a prayer to keep the spirit of failure in your life.
Notice that when you make a decision which leads to success you will credit your own intelligence for it? But when a failure happens it is often excused as bad luck or other people being unfair or sabatoging your plan. The truth is many of our successes are undeserved gifts having nothing to do with our wisdom and plenty of failures are mostly caused by you and should not be blamed on others.
Every excuse has a partial truth to it, however the winner’s mindset is at least focused on what is in his power to fix and not pretending everything is outside of his control.