January 11 - Dunb and Dumber

January 11

Dumb and Dumber Excuses

Ex 32:24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.

So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. 

Webster’s Dictionary is a great Bible study tool.  I often start a study by looking up words I already know the meaning of. When I looked up excuse I found a number of related words and several shades of meaning. Webster's 11^th collegiate dictionary has four major definitions of the word which include “…1b; to try to remove blame from…”  I think that is the sense of the word Excuse we are looking at today. People offer reasons why they should not be blamed.
 

We have all heard people come up with the dumbest excuses. A time management seminar came to a large city near where I worked.  A couple people showed interest so I signed them up to attend. They were both very busy people who needed to learn time management skills but they did not attend. They said they didn’t have time! Yes, Sometimes excuses are laughable.  Other times they are just illogical, as when people say they didn’t have time. Wrong!  We all get the same 1440 minutes per day. We do have time. We had to or chose to spend them on something else. But we did have time.

Aaron and the children of Israel had the opposite problem. They had too much time on their hands.

 Ex 32:1 ¶ And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount,…

Moses was gone longer than the people’s ability to wait for him.  The idolatry of Egypt still clung to them. And Egypt was a land filled with idolatry. If you study the plagues that freed the Israelites you will discover every one of the plagues God sent upon the land was directed against some god they worshipped. 

We understand some of the reason they may have taken up idolatry when Moses was gone but it was inexcusable after all the miracles they had witnessed.  

But what about Aaron? He really was inexcusable.  But he still offered excuses to Moses, even if they were dumb and dumber.  

“Hey Moses, don’t get mad at me. You know how bad these people are. This is all their fault.”

Ex 32:22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot:

 thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.

Blaming other people is dumb. But it is such an effective excuse that it is still widely used today.  It is used in churches. It is still used by Christians. Gentle reader, do you blame others for what is your own fault? 

“Look, Moses, I can explain. The people were demanding I do something, so I just gathered up their gold and threw it in the fire. I didn’t really do anything wrong. Throwing gold in a fire is not wrong, is it?”

Ex 32:24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold,

let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire…

OK now it is starting to get dumber. Who throws gold into a fire? Here he was trying to excuse the circumstances.  That is also a common ploy still used today. “Well, under different circumstances…”  “I didn’t have any choice…”  “What else could I do?”  These statements may be reasonable explanations. Or they may be dumb and dumber excuses. Christians who want to avoid being blamed still blame cicumstances.

How could it get dumber? Well it did and Aaron found a way to the dumbest excuse.  

“Moses, I know you are angry, but listen. The people were demanding I do something. You know because you had been gone so long, and so I gathered up their gold and threw it into the fire. How was I supposed to know a calf would come out of the fire?? “

“…then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.”

The Bible does not record what Moses did to Aaron after this really dumb excuse. I would like to think Moses took his rod and hit Aaron over the head while yelling “Do I really look that stupid”?   

Aaron tried to blame a thing, a golden calf. He used people, circumstances and things to avoid blame.    Christians may also resort to blaming people, circumstances, or things to avoid admitting their own blame.  Yes, unforeseen events may require an explanation. But the excuses I want to think about are the ones used to avoid blame. Had Aaron deceived himself and thought his excuses would work?  Do we think our excuses will work any better?  They won’t. We may just wind up looking dumb.