You can't hide from God. But you can know He comes offering grace, mercy and peace.
Genesis 3:7-10 (NIV)
CONTEXT: We'll begin this passage today and come back to it later this week.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring a and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 17: The Recovery of Fallen Man
We believe that our good God,
by his marvelous wisdom and goodness,
seeing that man had plunged himself in this manner
into both physical and spiritual death
and made himself completely miserable,
set out to find him,
though man,
trembling all over,
was fleeing from him.
And he comforted him,
promising to give him his Son,
“born of a woman,”
to crush the head of the serpent,
and to make him blessed.
Summary
What a tremendous thought of what paradise will be like: The LORD God, walking amongst His people in the cool of the day. We're at that time of the year here in the upper Midwest again, where the evenings get longer, the sunsets are spectacular, and we often get a chance to set our work down and relax in the cool of the day. Imagine doing so in the direct presence of our loving heavenly Father!
But this particular evening recorded in Genesis 3 was anything but relaxing. God came to walk, as was His habit, but this time He walked alone. His image bearers trembled in fear, having gotten exactly what the serpent promised: opened eyes. But the only thing their eyes could see was their own nakedness and shame.
It's what happens next that sets the tone for the entire rest of the Bible.
The omniscient creator and sustainer of all things called out to them, asking where they were.
Certainly God knew the answer. He knew that these two, to whom He given dominion over everything He had made, had rebelled against Him, having taken the one thing they'd been commanded not to. He would have been perfectly justified to send fire and brimstone down upon them from on high.
But He came looking for them, beginning a pattern that He would follow countless times throughout history with His wayward people. And instead of the wrath they deserved, He met them with the same grace, mercy and peace that He offers to you.
Dig Deeper
It's not that God ignored the awful sins Adam and Eve had committed. There would be no more sunset walks with their loving Creator. Life in paradise was over, and now they'd never really experience true rest again. The work that they'd been created to enjoy would be cursed, and in its place would come thorns, sweat, and rebellious children who'd be born infected with the sin they'd unleashed.
Adam's sin ruined God's good and perfect creation. His instinct was to hide the resulting shame from God. I wonder if as he hid from God he thought for a moment he might get away with it. But he couldn't stay hidden. God came looking for him.
Notice here that Adam never once asked for God's help. Adam would have kept right on hiding and covering up his shame with fig leaves. But God saw what Adam needed, because God came looking for him.
This is the essence of the Christian gospel: that the perfectly holy Creator of all things comes looking for his image bearers who are hiding from Him in their sin and misery. There's all sorts of different reasons why you're here today, reading these words, but never forget the primary reason: God came looking for you.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who comes looking for His fallen and broken children;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for coming to find you;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Romans 5
