Bulletin

Does "Somebody" Visit Your Home?

Bob Bauer

There was always an extra person around the house while our two daughters were growing up. Although they are married and gone, that other person still comes around the house every so often. That person's name is "Somebody." Somebody caused a lot of trouble in our home because he was constantly taking things from our daughters or causing them to misbehave. I know this is true because they would cry, "Somebody took my hairbrush," or "Somebody tripped me and I fell in the mud hole." He would even take things from my wife and I, or eat the last piece of cake in the fridge. When ever something went wrong, we always knew Somebody could be blamed. Somebody must get around to other homes as well, for I often hear others saying, "Somebody did this" or "Somebody did that." Maybe he visits your home also.

Blaming someone else for our mistakes and blunders is almost as old as the earth. When God confronted the first man about eating fruit of the forbidden tree, Adam responded, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (Genesis 3:12). It was a characteristic that man refined as the years went by. When Moses was upon Mount Sinai receiving the commandments from God, Aaron and the children of Israel were molding a golden calf to worship. When Aaron was confronted by Moses, he responded, "Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, 'Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' And I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.' So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out." (Exodus 32:22-24 NKJV). Again, excuses were made and blame was shifted. Later we come to an account concerning King Saul of Israel. Saul was commanded to utterly destroy the wicked nation of Amalek. Instead of obeying God, Saul spared the king of Amalek and the best of the livestock. When confronted by the prophet Samuel, Saul's response was, "But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal" (1 Samuel 15:20-21 NKJV). In each of these cases, the guilty person tried to pass the blame onto someone else.

Things haven't changed much in a few thousand years. Today, criminals are freed because they had difficult childhoods, abusive parents, or a host of other excuses. On a recent talk show, some psychologist said the executives of those major corporations under investigation were suffering from a certain type of mental disorder. Translation: they are not accountable.

We may dodge accountability in this life but the Bible teaches that there will be a day of reckoning. In Second Corinthians 5:10 we read, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Our old house guest Somebody will not be with us to blame on that day. We will stand alone before the Lord with our life laid out before us. Because of this, the Christian constantly assesses his life and assumes accountability for his sins. It is only by doing so that forgiveness and a clean slate can be realized (I John 1:9). God said, "Their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12).