Quit Making Excuses!

Quit Making Excuses!

We all have our moments when we say dumb things and speak before we think. Each of us from time to time will type the same way and hit SEND without thinking through our words. Take a look at some funny statements found on resumes showing that people often do not think before they speak, or print.

"Please call after 5:30 p.m. because I am self-employed and my employer does
not know I am looking for another job."
"I am very conscientions and accurite."
"I am also a notary republic."
“The firm currently employs 20 odd people."
"My consideration will be given to relocation anywhere in the English-speaking
world and/or Washington, D.C."
Under physical disabilities: "Minor allergies to house cats and Mongolian sheep."
And reasons given for leaving the last job: "The Company made me a
scapegoat—just like my previous three employers did."

Have you ever heard someone publicly lie in a way that was as dumb as it was obvious? “Did he just say that out loud?” Sometimes we hear such intellectually-challenged lies in an effort to make excuses to cover up sin. All you have to do is turn on the news on any given day and see people with poker faces offering conspicuous and dumb lies in an effort to make excuses for their sin. When we make those excuses we often don’t think before we speak.

Take for example the pathetic and deceitful excuse for sin given by Aaron in Exodus 32. When Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to seek the face of God, the children of God turned to idolatry in the valley below. Moses was instructed by God to go down off the mountain. When he arrived back at camp, he found the people behaving badly.

But when Moses confronted Aaron and the people with their sin, Aaron gave the most ridiculous excuse ever recorded in the Bible. Obviously, he did not think before he spoke. Take a look at Aaron’s brain-damaged response.

Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (Ex.32:22-24).

Wow! I have no response to that. In that very moment, there must have been a massive hemorrhage in the speech center of Aaron’s brain, a complete synaptic collapse. If not, we have the most amazing moment of sheer stupidity in the Bible recorded here in Exodus 32. COME ON MAN! Own up to your sin!

We are really quick to judge Aaron for his sin but how many times do we do the same thing? When we, like Aaron, seek to justify or side-step our sin, we only magnify our guilt. From now on, let’s commit together to call sin what it really is, that is, confess it and accept the forgiveness that God offers.

Aaron