Where the Blame Actually Belongs

by Terry Wane Benton

Humans have a terrible habit of shifting blame. We saw it in the Garden of Eden when Adam blamed the woman and God who gave her to him, and we saw it in the people of Jeremiah's day. God brought the truth before their consciences, saying, "Your ways and your doings have procured these things for you" (Jeremiah 4:18).

What had their values and actions procured for them? It procured the Lord sending the Babylonian armies to besiege, capture, and destroy their world. They brought this on themselves by forgetting God, adopting all kinds of sexual deviancy, and coveting the absurdity of false religion that gave sanction to their evil ways.

For a time Jeremiah had appealed to them to repent, but they turned a deaf ear and tried to act like he was the bad guy. They said they would not turn away from their ways or turn back to God. So, God unleashed the limitations He had placed on the Babylonians, and they came in and took over.

When America is overrun, will not the history books say, "They brought it on themselves?" Individual consequences of reaping what we sow are also true of nations. We reap what we sow (Galatians 6:6-9). If you sow to the fleshly desires and forget your responsibility to God and righteousness, you "procure these things for yourselves" the unhappy consequences.

Let us listen to God and turn our hearts back to Him!