We Justify Failure When We Shift Blame

Anytime there is a conflict among warring nations, you have to consider who is the greatest and most dangerous enemy. As the people of Israel came into Canaan, there were walled cities and giants, many obstacles and enemies, yet the greatest enemy was within. Think about the sin of Achan and how it ruined the chances of Israel to take Ai. Israel’s greatest enemy was oftentimes Israel itself. I say that because Canaan could not stop Jehovah, yet God’s people stopped themselves.

Joshua 17 talks about the allotting of the land given by God to the nation of Israel. Verse 13 says, “Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, but did not utterly drive them out.” Later, these same Canaanites would take rule over Israel and subjugate them in some sort of slavery. The truth is that sometimes the hardest decisions to make are the easiest to live with and the easiest decisions to make are the hardest to live with. Israel’s easy decision said, “They are going to fight us if we push things. We will just leave them alone.” That is an easy decision to make, but it wrought heartache for them for many years to come.

On the other hand, sometimes you make a hard decision and it is easier to live with. For instance, which is an easier decision to make, a cookie or something that is healthy? The easiest decision would be a cookie. What is the easiest decision to live with, a diet of cookies or a diet that is healthy? The answer is obvious. When I make the hard decision and do the right thing now, it makes it better and easier for my life.

So, these people did not drive the Canaanites out, and in verse 14 the children of Joseph, the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim of whom Joshua was a member, “spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the LORD hath blessed me hitherto?” They were fighting Joshua because they wouldn’t fight Canaan. Joshua answered, “If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.” He was saying, “If you don’t like the land you’ve got, chop down some trees and make some room.”

Notice he calls this mountain Mount Ephraim after the tribe in question. This was called Ephraim by anticipation. Joshua was essentially saying, “Look, God has given you this land, but you have to actively trust God and take action.” The children of Joseph responded, “The hill is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron.” Basically they were presenting a problem that had no answer. Joshua said, “Take the mountains.” They said, “There are trees there.” Joshua said, “Take the valley.” They said, “They have chariots there. We can’t do what needs to be done.”

In essence, these people were sabotaging themselves. You might call this passive sabotage. They were ruining things from the inside out, but doing it not so much by the action they took, but by the action they would not take. It was passive sabotage. The definition of passive aggressive as given by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “displaying behavior characterized by the expression of negative feelings, resentment, and aggression in an unassertive way, such as through procrastination, stubbornness, and unwillingness to communicate.” In the case of the tribes that came from Joseph, they were both procrastinating in obedience to God and they were expressing stubbornness.

We learn from this that we justify failure when we shift blame. Instead of saying, “We are going to obey God and trust Him,” they said, “We are waiting for Joshua or God to do something. We are not going to do what we should do.” I don’t know what kind of obstacles you have in your life today, but your greatest power is obedience to the will of an omnipotent God.

Were the giants and enemies too great for the sons of Joseph? You could argue that they were, but they themselves said they were a great nation. What did they do instead of following God? They asserted their rights. They said, “Hey, one portion is not enough for us.” They asserted their greatness. They said, “We are a great people.” They invoked God. They said, “God has blessed us.” They asserted the impossibility of what they were being told to do. They said, “We can’t take the mountains. They have trees. We can’t take the valleys; they have chariots.” In short, they did not obey God.

Today, obedience will accomplish more for you than any amount of power that you can muster. God is omnipotent and omniscient. When you submit to God, you have access to the all-knowing, all-powerful God who commands you. Instead of giving all the reasons you can’t do what you should do and why someone else is to blame for you not doing what you should do, remember that your greatest power is obedience to the will of an omnipotent God. We justify failure when we shift blame.