Checkers, played by Queen Hatasu, of Egypt, dates back to 3000 BC. The game of ‘Life’ got its start in 1860. Monopoly and Scrabble had their beginning in the early 1900’s. But, the oldest game, although not a board game, originated at the dawn of civilization. It is called “The Blame Game,” and Adam registered the patent for the entire human race.
After Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden by eating the forbidden fruit, he and Eve heard the sound of God walking in the garden. “Quick! Hide!” Adam urged, dashing behind a tree as Eve ducked behind a bush.
God called out, “Adam, where are you?”
Adam timidly stepped out from behind the tree. “I was afraid.”
God asked, “What have you done? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you that you should not eat?”
Adam replied, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
Adam blamed the woman and in the same sentence, he blamed God for giving the woman to him!
When God questioned the woman, Eve blamed the serpent. And the blame game has been around ever since. I can testify to that.
When I was a teenager, four of us girls decided to try smoking in the kitchen of my house since my parents were gone. I had snuck a cigarette the night before from my dad’s pack of Camels. We lit the cigarette and sputtered and choked ourselves silly but persisted until there was nothing left but the sqauashed, lipstick-smudged cigarette butt in the ashtray. We giggled and laughed at our failed attemt at smoking all the way to the corner drug store for a cherry coke.
That evening after dinner and the dishes cleared, my mother asked, “Who would like dessert?” My siblings and I voiced our delight at the rare treat. But instead of dessert, Mom quietly and deliberately placed the ashtray, with its lone lipstick-smudged cigarette butt, in the center of the table.
My mother sat down, clasped her hands under her chin casting her penetrating eyes on me and asked, “Whose is this?”
Suddenly, my face and ears had a temperature of their own. Hot. Fear and guilt gripped me tighter than bark on a tree. “Rob’s,” I said.
Milk shot out of my older brother’s nose! My dad sat with a nondescript look, my younger brother and sister fled the kitchen, and I broke out in a sweat. My heart pounded in my head. I wished I could have run and hid with my younger siblings, but there was no place to run and no place to hide.
When caught and confronted in an intentional sin, fear has a way of quickening the senses. The defense mechanism instantly swings into protection mode. We try to run. We try to hide. We blame others to escape the consequences. Just as Adam and Eve did thousands of years ago. But to no avail. There are always consequences.
The bad news, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourseles and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) But, the good news: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) Forgiveness is not based on our merit, but on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
I attest to the indisputable saying, “There are no winners in The Blame Game.” Since day one, every human being has played The Blame Game, but no one has ever won. Never has and never will.