Gen 3:8 "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in
the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden." I wonder what God was
saying in this verse - maybe singing? We see right away that while Adam and Eve
had felt no need to hide from Satan, they have a different reaction when God
enters. The guilt that they expressed in verse 7 is followed by shame. This is a
key point: guilt produces shame in the presence of the holy.
Adam and Eve do something that is impossible for man to do:
they try to hide from God. When you sin, and we all sin, don’t run from God -
run TO him and tell him the truth about what you did. God is looking for an
honest heart, someone who will stand before him and say "I SINNED!" and who will
honestly tell him what was done. God already knows about it, but he simply wants
us to admit it so we can be forgiven and KNOW that we are forgiven and what we
are forgiven for. In this way, the forgiveness comes from God himself and the
sin is destroyed.
But Adam and Eve did not take this route, instead they tried
to cover their sin themselves: they picked some fig leaves and made themselves
aprons. This is self-effort. It didn’t work then and it still won’t work today.
We will watch Adam take this route and watch God try to get him to do the right
thing.
Gen 3:9 "And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him,
Where art thou?" Did God know where Adam was? He sure did. We can’t hide from
God. Then why did he ask Adam where he was? To draw out an admission of guilt.
Gen 3:10 "And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I
was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." Adam was afraid because sin
produced guilt, guilt produced shame, and shame produces fear. Why was he
afraid? He said, "Because I was naked." Adam skipped right over the fact that he
knew he was naked only because he had sinned. He apparently didn’t consider that
God already knew he was naked, in fact had created him that way and didn’t think
it was necessary to clothe him, and previously there had been no shame due to
nakedness. I believe they had been clothed with holiness, the robe of
righteousness: this is one of the things they had lost and this is why Adam had
shame: he was no longer fit to stand in the presence of God.
So he tried to hide from God. I find it interesting that as
soon as God called his name and asked him a question he spoke right up and
answered. He knew he had been found out. There are lots of people living today
who harden their hearts to the voice of God, but they are wasting their time
because whether they believe it or not, whether they like it or not, there will
come a day when they present themselves before God and give him a full report.
Gen 3:11 "And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not
eat?" Who told thee...? Have you eaten...? God already knew the answers to these
questions, but the shame is now connected with breaking the commandment. God
brings the whole matter to the issue of disobedience.
Gen 3:12 "And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." This is a really stupid
response. Adam blamed Eve first, God second, and himself third. He totally
leaves out Satan: his new god. In this verse Adam does finally admit his guilt
but actually blames Eve first, then God, for the situation. Even though Eve was
not yet created when the command was given. Even though God himself had given
the command and stated what the result of disobedience would be.
That result was death but Adam and Eve did not physically die
that day. Gen. 5:5 says Adam lived a total of nine hundred thirty years. So the
death prophesied in Gen. 2:17 was not physical death, meaning it could only be
spiritual death, which is separation from God.
In Gen 3:13 God speaks to Eve. "And the LORD God said unto the
woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat." Eve doesn’t try to blame anyone, even the serpent.
She makes a simple statement of fact and fully admits to what she had done.
What happened in the garden that day? In Luke 10:30-37 Jesus
teaches the parable of the good Samaritan. Verse 30 says, "And Jesus answering
said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him
half dead." The certain man was Adam and the thief was Satan who stripped him of
his raiment (the robe of righteousness) and wounded him (he now felt guilt and
shame) and left him half dead (spiritual death, separation from God). Just as
the parable presented a very good outcome for the man who fell among thieves,
even so God had a plan for the restoration of man. It would take thousands of
years to complete, but God had a plan.
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