“Genesis 3:8-13”

Friday, October 18, 2019

“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ And the woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”

---End of Scripture verses---

“The sound of the Lord God walking...” God associated with Adam and Eve in ways that they could physically observe, understand and relate to. Somehow God made His presence known to them in tangible ways, but the text does not reveal the nature of that manifestation.

Adam and Eve “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord…” Everything is laid open and bare and all people stand “naked” before Him with whom we have to do. There is nothing we can conceal from Him and there is nowhere to hide from Him. But oh do people give it their best shot anyway! Jonah attempted to flee from the presence of the Lord when He commanded him to go and prophesy to his sworn enemies the Assyrians (Jonah 1:3). God said of Israel in the days of Isaiah that they tried to “deeply hide their plans from the Lord, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, ‘Who sees us?’ or ‘Who knows us?’” (Isaiah 29:15) No dark room or back alleyway can conceal our deeds and ways from the Lord.

David declared rightly of the all-knowing, all-seeing God: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.” (Psalm 139:7-12)

“Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (verse 9) Of course the Lord was not ignorant of Adam’s whereabouts, but desirous to prompt a response from him. Friend, no more important question could ever be asked by our Creator. And even though He knows where we are at all times and what our spiritual condition is, He wants that probing question to plunge the deepest depths of our hearts. Where are you, in relation to where you should be, in the sight of the Lord? “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5)

“Who told you that you were naked?” (verse 11) This forced Adam to admit the truth, even though he did so in a very evasive way. “The woman You gave to be with me…gave me from the tree.” (verse 12) Adam got a two-for-one blame game special with this explanation (accusation)! “You gave her to me Lord so it’s really your fault I ate the fruit. And Eve gave it to me so it’s really her fault I ate the fruit. It’s anybody’s fault but my fault!”

God said to Eve, “What is this you have done?” (verse 13) Well…um…”The serpent deceived me.” “The devil made me do it” will never be a satisfactory excuse for our sinfulness with the Lord God Almighty! Now notice, there was truth in both Adam and Eve’s “confessions”. Eve was culpable in Adam’s sin, and the serpent was partly to blame in Eve’s sin, and the Lord did not deny it. But that did not alleviate the personal burden of responsibility for each of their selfish, sinful actions.

“I ate…but it wasn’t my fault.” This goes to prove that confession unaccompanied by repentance will not illicit the Lord's forgiveness. I can’t help but wonder if Adam and Eve had owned up to the responsibility of their actions and repented from a heart full of godly sorrow if things would have gone much better for them. We will never know the answer to that question this side of eternity, but there can be no doubt that in the mathematics of our relationship with God in Christ, Repentance (Acts 2:38) + Confession (1 John 1:9) = Forgiveness.

As we will see in tomorrow's verses, no matter how “tiny” the sin may seem, and no matter how much someone else might have contributed to it, sin cannot not go unpunished. Sooner...or later...and for eternity if not corrected. “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, still I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly. But it will not be well for the evil man and he will not lengthen his days like a shadow, because he does not fear God.” (Ecclesiastes 8:11-13)

Please read Genesis 3:14-19 for tomorrow.

Hope your day is blessed!

- Louie Taylor

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