Human Rationalization
We should not rationalize our sinful behavior
or avoid taking responsibility for our actions.
Here's Gene to explain:
What happened here is quite incredible.
And it's almost laughable, but it's also very, very serious.
Notice what happened:
Then Moses turned and went down the mountain
with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. ...
And God told him, you know:
Go down and see what these people are doing.
By the way, on one occasion God said:
Go down and take a look at what your people are doing, Moses.
And by the way, Moses came back to God and said:
My people? God, they're Your people.
And who asked for this responsibility?
It was very interesting. You see some very open communication
between God and His servant Moses.
But Moses turned and he went down the mountain
with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands.
They were inscribed on both sides--
inscribed front and back.
[And] the tablets were the work of God,
and the writing was God's writing,
engraved on the tablets.
And so he goes down, and a little further on in the chapter:
Then Moses confronted Aaron
once he saw this incredible scene.
Now remember, he's been gone 40 days, 40 nights.
He comes on this scene.
He sees all of this immorality.
He sees the golden calf.
He sees what has happened.
Can you imagine being Moses under those circumstances?
Coming from the presence of God with
the Ten Commandments. The first one saying:
Thou shalt have no other gods before you.
And what he comes down to is a very significant illustration, because God said:
No graven images as well.
And then Moses asked Aaron,
What did this people do to you? ...
I wish I could recreate what that must have
been like when Moses confronted Aaron.
I'm sure it was not a simple, little, quiet conversation.
...What did this people do to you
that you have led them into such a grave sin? ...
Aaron, what in the world have you been thinking?
And I'm sure he reiterated what God had already done.
And Aaron, on the defensive:
...Don't be enraged, my lord, Aaron replied.
You yourself know that the people are intent on evil. ...
You know them.
...And they said to me,
Make us a god who will go before us
because this Moses, the man who brought us
up from the Land of Egypt--
we don't know what has happened to him! ...
And that's a true statement.
And that makes me think that there probably was some threats.
Can't prove it. But knowing these evil people, they may have been threatening Aaron,
even threatening his life. But he says:
I said to them, 'Whoever has gold, take it off'...
That's true.
...and they gave it to me. ...
Now here is the humorous part:
...When I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!
I mean, you're desperate when you
rationalize like that.
And that's why I underscored those
earlier statements that he used a tool to do this--to engrave it.
And he is the one who made that calf, and he says:
Out came this calf.
It just sort of popped out of the fire!
Well, obviously that's not true.
In actuality, what happened here takes us back
to Genesis chapter 3,
verses 11 to 13, where God asked:
Who told you that you were naked? ...
This is God confronting Adam and Eve.
...Did you eat from the tree that I had
commanded you not to eat from?
And then the man replied,
The woman You gave to be with me--
she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate. ...
And that's true, but he didn't take any responsibility.
And so we see:
...The LORD God asks the woman:
What is this you have done?
And the woman said: It was the serpent.
He deceived me, and I ate.
And that is true as well, but you notice the truth mixed with error and not taking responsibility.
Rationalization--and that's where a rationalization process began.
So it shouldn't surprise us that one of the first things we want to do is defend ourselves--
to rationalize--when we're confronted with wrongdoing.
We don't want to take responsibility.
And so when we went through Genesis, we looked at a Principle we called Avoiding Rationalization:
We should be on guard against our tendency
to rationalize disobedience and to put the
blame on someone else.
Because that is exactly what can happen in our lives.
It's a natural tendency, even as believers.
And that's why, when Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he warned them:
Let no one deceive you...
And we could take that a step further and say:
Don't deceive yourself. Because in rationalization, we are deceiving ourselves.
...Let no one deceive you with empty arguments,
for because of these things God's wrath is
coming on the disobedient.
Therefore, do not become their partners.
For you were once darkness, but now [you are] light in the Lord. ...
There's no room for deception,
either outwardly or inwardly. And so Paul says:
Walk as children of light-- for the fruit of the light [results]
in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth--
discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. ...
Aaron was not discerning what was pleasing to the Lord. Either when he fell into this
trap and created this calf. Or when he was confronted by Moses.
What he did was displeasing to the Lord.
...Don't participate in the fruitless works of darkness...
Aaron fell into that trap of participating with these people in their works of darkness.
And regardless of their threats, he was without excuse as far as God was concerned.
...Don't participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead, expose them.
Do you think God would have stepped in to protect Aaron?
I think He would under these circumstances.
But the fact is, he succumbed to this temptation, and he failed the Lord.
Well, the R & R question--Reflection and Response:
In what ways do Christians rationalize sinful behavior today and often blame others for what they have done?
Well, that's a rather personal question, but I think that if we look at our own hearts,
it's very easy to rationalize.
One of the first things I wrote down there is paying taxes. Owing Caesar what is due him.
And in a day and age in which we live, when we see the abuse in our government,
there are some Christians who say:
I'm not going to give my money to be misused and to violate the will of God.
Well, what about the Roman Empire? Where you had the Caesars who were horribly evil and God says:
Render to Caesar what is Caesar's.
They're responsible but so are you.
You can't take that matter into your own hands.
I've seen some Christians rationalize and actually lie
and deceive on their income tax. And they say:
I'm not going to participate in the evil that exists in our world through my taxes.
God's not pleased with that. That's rationalization.
Because God made it very clear through Paul as well:
Owe whatever you owe. And Paul was dealing with that issue.
Other aspects of truth--twisting the truth and then rationalizing it--based upon what
we think is a more noble goal.
It's so easy to do.
Or immorality in our culture, in our society--
to rationalize, be participants. Or to blame other people.
For example, to blame our parents to justify our own behavior. And what we're engaging in
that is a violation of the will of God.
Now the fact of the matter is, it may be a serious issue and they were terribly wrong.
But we'll never, ever heal from sin in our lives if we keep blaming somebody else.
Regardless of how evil it was.
And so, there are many areas. And you could just add to that list many things that can
lead us to rationalization.
So here again is the Principle:
We should not rationalize our sinful behavior
or avoid taking human responsibility for our actions.