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Genesis 3:8-10

As I mentioned in my Friday email, we’re starting a 7-week sermon series called Seven Questions God Asks of Us. As some of you know, for the week of Christmas, I went up to TN to visit Lauren and her three-year-old daughter, Audrey. Let me just say that I forgot how many questions toddlers ask. “Why is that man standing there?” “Why do I have to take a bath?” “How does Santa fly?” “When can I go outside?” “Wee, are those your boots?” It seems that every conversation is a game of 20 questions.

And I got to thinking, “Are our conversations with God any different?” Our questions for Him are often just as numerous and certainly just as simple as those of a three-year-old. After all, when you’re speaking to an all-knowing and all-wise God, our questions, although more complex from a human perspective, are no less easy for Him to answer. But have we deeply considered the questions that He asks? If His reason for questioning us isn’t to discover something new, since He already knows everything, then perhaps they’re meant to challenge us to consider the state of our own hearts?

Well, let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Genesis 3. Like some of you, I endeavor to read through the Bible each year and most of the time we start on page 1, chapter 1, verse 1, “In the beginning, God…” But this time, as I began reading, I was especially interested to see if I could find the first question that God posed, and wouldn’t you know it’s right here in Genesis 3. Now, for the sake of our studies, we’re just going to read the immediate verses that relate to the question, which means that we’ll only read verses 8-10.

8 And 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. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

“Living God, help us to hear Your voice – not the ruminations of a mere man – may we truly understand; and in understanding that we may believe, and in believing that we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking Your honor and glory in all that we do; through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

We’re all familiar with this story, right? We’re in the garden, and more specifically we’re at that seminal moment where sin enters the world – a transaction that we refer to as “The Fall” – a story that explains why the world is the way that it is. In fact, among all the other literature and religions of the world, you will be hard-pressed to find any other piece of writing which explains the origin of sin and misery in the world as the Bible gives. And whether a person accepts this explanation or not, one has to at least be honest enough to recognize that an explanation is offered.

Now usually, when you come to the early chapters of Genesis, you end up with questions of biology or astronomy or cosmogony. And I’m sure that some of you (even now) have those questions. But what I’m going ask you to do is to set them aside, at least for now. Not because they’re illegitimate (they aren’t), but they may prove to be a diversion from putting yourself in the position where you aren’t responding to the question that God is asking and instead are entertaining the questions that you’re asking. So, set those aside and let’s consider God’s question. And the question that God poses is very straightforward; it’s just three words: God said to the man, “Where are you?”

The question comes on the heels of Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience. And what they’re trying to do is cover up, trying to hide, trying to find excuses. Let me just repeat those words again. They’re words with which all of us are familiar: disobedience, cover-up, hiding, excusing ourselves. I’d be surprised if any one of us has not employed at least one of those mechanisms in the past week. And what we discover is that Adam, who has been made by God and made for God, is actually running away from God.

In that respect, he’s not unusual, he’s not dissimilar to many people in Landrum or Greenville or Greer or Travelers Rest – perhaps even some who are here this morning. You may have made your journey through life to this point, and yet you’re still seeking to explain life, to make significance out of life, all the while running away from God. As you continue reading, what you discover is that man quickly becomes dislocated: dislocated from his environment, dislocated from himself, dislocated from his spouse, and, as it turns out, dislocated from his children. And what Genesis 3 is saying is essentially this: that the moral and spiritual pileup, the wreck on the freeway of 21st century society, is directly related to the response that Adam gives to God’s question here. Now, with that as the context, let me observe three things with you.

An Unusual Question

Think about it. We’re the ones hiding from God, and yet God is the One asking the question, “Where are you?” The reason that I’m calling it unusual is because there’s a common notion in our world that says man is looking for God – that your family and friends and neighbors are actually spending their free time searching for God, searching for ways to draw closer to their Creator, and that it’s God who’s actually doing the hiding; that somehow or another, God has taken the telephone off the hook (if He exists at all) and He’s not returning calls, He cannot be reached, He’s hiding somewhere in the universe and there must be a way to go and find Him. What Genesis 3 is actually saying is the total opposite of that: that we’re the ones who are hiding from God, and God is the One who comes asking of us, “Where are you?”

It reminds me of what David wrote in Psalm 14:1-3, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

Or what Paul writes in Romans 1:18-23, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

Secondarily, it’s unusual insofar as God is not in need of information. If God knows everything, why is He asking where Adam is? Well, in one sense, it’s rhetorical. But as we’ll see in a moment, it’s more than that. When God asks questions in the Bible, it’s not for His sake but for those He’s addressing. So, in fact, by posing this question, He’s really asking Adam and Eve to face up to where they are. God wants Adam to answer for Adam’s sake not His.

We do this with our children and grandchildren. When it gets really quiet around the house with a three-year-old you know she’s up to something no good. So, what do you say, “Audrey, what are you doing?” You know the answer, but you want her to acknowledge where she is and what she’s doing. But, hey, it’s not just three-year-old’s; it happens with 23-year-olds too. The telephone rings and there’s slurred speech on the other end. You know what’s going down, but what do you say? “Where are you?”

Thirdly, it’s unusual because it’s much more than a geographical or physical question. It’s a bit like when you meet somebody these days, and they say to you, “Where are you in your head?” It’s not like there’s a miniature you walking around inside your literal and physical brain. No; you’re asking the question to just get them to come to their senses – to face up to their circumstances and situation. It’s an unusual question. But it’s also . . .

A Kind Question

Now follow me here – the fact that it’s a question from God is, by its very nature a kind question. God didn’t need to ask a question. God could’ve reacted in many different ways. If He’d reacted strictly in justice, He could’ve brought about the sentence of death that He had promised to begin with. But He comes with a question. As one scholar put it, “He appears in the garden not with a stick to chastise nor with a prod to poke, but He comes into the garden, and it’s His voice which pierces their hidden territory.” So, it’s a very kind question that comes by means of His voice.

What we have here, then, is actually the very first indication of God’s grace. Think about it; imagine for a moment that you aren’t familiar with Genesis 3, or perhaps you’ve never really read the Bible and you’re reading it for the first time. You read about God giving clear instructions to Adam, “Do this, do this, do this, but don’t do that,” and then they go and do the very thing God told them not to do. If this is a new story to you, then you’re leaning it. You’re all ears; what’s God going to say now? And He comes with a question, “Excuse me, where are you?” How kind!

Listen folks, God doesn’t give to men and women what they justly deserve, rather, on the basis of His immense kindness, He grants to them what they don’t deserve. That’s what the Bible calls grace: and there’s no better place to see this manifested than in the incarnation when God comes in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. People marveled at the words that He spoke; He spoke with kindness and tenderness and care. It’s surely striking, is it not, that when God steps down into time, that He comes to speak, and in speaking, not to condemn but to redeem?

Now, you may be thinking, “But what’s there in Adam to compel God to go looking for him?” And of course, the answer is: Nothing! So why does God do it? Because that’s the kind of God He is. It’s His kindness which draws men and women to turn their backs on sin and to turn to Him in repentance. Chris Tomlin recorded a song back in 2001 called Kindness and the chorus reads like this:

It’s Your kindness Lord
That leads us to repentance
Your favor Lord, is our desire
It’s Your beauty Lord
That makes us stand in silence
Your love
Is better than life

God operates according to His own good pleasure. His approach to men and women is the approach of love. And He comes announcing His intention to save. So, it’s an unusual question, but it’s also a kind question. Finally, it’s . . .

A Personal Question

And in that way, it’s also an unavoidable question, not only to Adam but to each of us, because the Bible speaks to us asking the same question: “Where are you?”

Now, if you do your homework and read chapters 1, 2 and 3, then you may see yourself in Adam’s evasive response. “Where are you?” Answer, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” Now God might have said, “Adam, just answer the question.” But Adam immediately begins to pass the buck: “The woman You put here with me, she got into some business with the fruit, she gave it to me. I did it, but it’s not me, it’s her; in fact, it’s not her, it’s You. You’re the One that gave me the woman; therefore, ultimately You’re responsible for this predicament; therefore, it’s not my problem, it’s Your problem.”

Have you been there? Why doesn’t God do something? It’s His problem; He did this, He made this, He messed this thing up. What Adam and Eve did was done knowingly. They did it willfully. They did it freely. They weren’t programmed to do it any more than you or I have been programmed to do one single thing we’ve ever done when it comes to turning our backs on God and denying His existence or denying that we know Him.

So, it’s a very personal question. You may even hear your own voice in Adam’s excuses; his attempts to shift the blame. You may actually come to recognize that your thinking – like Adam’s – is crooked. See, Adam’s not thinking properly. Even his intellect and reason have been affected by sin. His rebellion has affected his thinking. No sensible person would assume that they could hide from God behind a tree. How silly is that?

And yet, we think we can hide from God. We forget that He sees us at all times. He sees you there in that corner office. He sees you in that group of friends. He sees you in your girlfriend’s house. He sees you at the bar. You don’t think He sees you in those places, but He sees you. And the ultimate seeing that He does is not related to your geographical or physical location but into your soul and where you are in relationship to pursuing the love of God. David writes:

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with You. (Psalm 139:1-12).

So, the thinking of men and women is skewed, it’s warped. Why is it that so many phenomenally intelligent people flat out resist the Bible? Why is it that we find ourselves saying again and again, “Why do people not understand or get this?” Because sin has affected the way in which they think! We tend to think that somehow or another, our ability to rationalize things, our ability to think things out takes place, if you like, in some island that is unaffected by the moral impact of sin – but that isn’t the case. So, we have to ask God to forgive us our sins, because the sinful mind is hostile to God.

So, let me as you. “Where are you?” It’s a question that makes clear to us that God is a God who chooses to reveal Himself, not hide Himself, and makes clear to us that God is a God who is very interested in establishing a relationship with those whom He has made, even though we have turned defiantly against Him. He’s a seeking God, a saving God, a revealing God, a relationship-creating God, a God who speaks down the corridors of time to you and me today with an unusual, kind, personal question: “Where are you?”