If we make a lot of excuses, we might be suffering from “Excusiosis”

Judges 15:1-5 But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat, and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours instead.” Samson then said to them, “This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.” Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning up both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves.

A Magazine ran a contest for the best excuse for not doing homework. The entry that won was from a little boy and went like this: "I went on a hot air balloon ride and we were going to crash because there was too much weight in the basket. So I threw my homework out and it saved our lives."

We are looking at Samson’s life and considering the dangers of “rationalization.”

We saw that one dangerous mindset that comes when we try to rationalize our wrongs is we try to justify our actions.

Second, when we rationalize we have no real context for our actions. Samson states:

“I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.”

The Philistines did not do this to Samson, his father in-law did. He is about to destroy all of the grain and crops for what one man did. Remember, I realize God is allowing this and using it, but that does not get Samson off the hook for his actions. When we rationalize we do not place our actions in the context of reality, instead we supply a context that helps us deafen our conscience to the truth. In other words, “I am going to sin, because someone sinned against me!” We alone are responsible for our actions, no matter what anyone else does.

Consider what Pilate did with Christ:

John 19 & Matt 27 Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him…Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him…So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him…As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him…When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves…So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.

Pilate knew Jesus did not deserve any punishment, yet he kept moving to a context that would allow him to pacify the crowd. First he had Jesus scourged hoping that would settle the issue. When that did not work every attempt he made after to release Jesus did not work, so he changed the context by washing his hands and trying to make it look like the Jews had the power to do this. However, the reality is no one but Pilate that day could decide whether Jesus would be crucified or not. That is the real context and by avoiding it, Pilate doomed himself for eternity by participating in the killing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

King Saul was sent by the Lord to judge a very evil group that even sacrificed their children. God wanted this cancer on the human anatomy removed. However, Saul did not obey completely and when confronted he tried to manipulate the context:

1 Samuel 15:20–22 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.

The third mindset of rationalization is where we experience its final outcome; it has no basis in reality. This is summed up in Samson’s statement found in verse 11 of this chapter:

Judges 15:11 So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?” But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.”

That really has no basis in reality. They did some terrible things to Samson, but his actions destroyed their food and he took many of their lives. Samson was motivated by vengeance, and we do not know if he understood the Lord was using him to break the bondage the Philistines had over Israel.

Later in their history, the Lord had to deal with Israel harshly due to this mindset. She acted liked she had done nothing wrong and complained about the troubles she was going through, but God used the prophets to bring her back to reality.

Jeremiah 13:22–25 You may ask yourself, “Why is all this happening to me?” It is because of your many sins! That is why you have been stripped and raped by invading armies. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil. “I will scatter you like chaff that is blown away by the desert winds. This is your allotment, the portion I have assigned to you,” says the Lord, “for you have forgotten me, putting your trust in false gods.

Malachi 1:6–7 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to the priests: “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name! “But you ask, ‘How have we ever shown contempt for your name?’ “You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. “Then you ask, ‘How have we defiled the sacrifices?’ “You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect.

Malachi 2:17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. You have wearied him by saying that all who do evil are good in the Lord’s sight, and he is pleased with them. You have wearied him by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

Malachi 3:8, 13 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’ “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me…“You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord. “But you say, ‘What do you mean? What have we said against you?’

A Diagnosis of “Excusiosis”

1.  People who keep making them never run out of them.

2.  People who keep making them expect you to keep accepting them.

3.  People who keep making them seldom improve themselves.

Meditation:  When you do something that someone else questions, how do you handle that? Give an explanation first and then consider their point or vice-versa? Do you ever move ahead even though you doubt your decision? Why? Is that moving in faith? How should we finish this statement: If I doubt, _______!

How important is a clear conscience before God to you?