Have you ever seen someone making a serious mistake, tried to encourage him or her to do the right thing and have him or her do the wrong thing anyway. They might even say something like, “I know it’s wrong, but I just really like to do it.” Maybe they say, “I know it is wrong, but I just can’t stop.” They might even say, “God just wouldn’t want me to be unhappy, and this makes me happy.”

We are really good at making excuses. We can think up all kinds of excuses for not doing the right thing. It has been so since the beginning of time.

When Eve sinned and ate the forbidden fruit, she told God, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:13 NKJV). Adam blamed Eve, but God held all of them, Adam, Eve, and Satan accountable.

When the children of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, Moses left the people to go up the mountain to talk with God. When he came down, his brother, Aaron, had fashioned a golden calf for the people to worship.  Moses saw the people dancing, naked, and worshiping an idol. Aaron’s excuse was, “…you know the people, that they are set on evil” (Genesis 32:22 NKJV). The people wanted the idol, but Aaron was the one that made it, yet he wouldn’t accept the responsibility.

The children of Israel sinned over and over again. They just couldn’t ever seem to understand that obedience to God was the only way. Their sins caused them to wander in the wilderness, lose leaders, be taken captive, be bitten by fiery serpents, and some of them were killed either by God or through wars.

They always had an excuse. It was always someone else’s fault. They rarely admitted their sins; but in the end, the nation of Israel as it was known when they left Egypt was and is no more.

It has been that way down through time. Nation after nation has been defeated when their moral values decayed.

What should that say to us today? Solomon said it best in Ecclesiastes 1:9,  “That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.” We are no different than those that have gone before us. We are making the same mistakes, using the same excuses, and we will destroy ourselves in the same way unless we determine to live in obedience to God’s commandments.

We can make excuses for our behavior; we can justify our actions; we can ignore the words of the Bible; but let’s look at what the Holy Spirit says. Hebrews 3:7-12 says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest.” Then the writer of Hebrews says, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”

Let’s use the examples in God’s word to encourage us to obey Him. Let’s be brave enough to stand for the truth, to refuse to follow the world, to be obedient to the teachings in the Bible.

Don’t look for an excuse to do wrong. Look for an opportunity to do what is right!

Sandra Oliver