After the man and woman disobeyed in the Garden of Eden, we see how sin creates separation. Yet, we also learn that God regularly communed with the first couple before their fall.
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:8).
In one of his lectures, Dallas Willard highlighted that God customarily walked in the garden with the first couple. While we don’t know how long this fellowship lasted, it underscores an essential truth: from the very beginning, God is revealed as personal.
He speaks to and listens to those He loves. This stands in contrast to the concept of an impersonal deity or a mere force. It’s a truth worth remembering and rejoicing that God wants to walk with us today.
The latter part of verse 8, which we know all too well, reveals how sin separates us from God. When we disobey His guidance, we experience a sense of distance from Him. It often takes time to restore that closeness and resume our fellowship with Him.
God Looks for Us
One of the truths of God’s loving nature is that He comes looking for us before we ever consider looking for Him. This was the case with the man and the woman in the garden after their sin.
But 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, and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:9-10).
Instead of directly confronting Adam and Eve about their sin, God asked them a question. Although He already knew the answer, His intent was to lead them to acknowledge their guilt themselves.
You will remember the parable Nathan tells David to confront him about his sin with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 12:1-7. Here’s a summary:
- Nathan tells a story about two men: one rich and the other poor.
- The rich man had a vast number of sheep and cattle, while the poor man owned only one small ewe lamb that he had purchased.
- The poor man cared deeply for the lamb, treating it like a member of his family—it ate from his table, drank from his cup, and slept in his arms.
- One day, a traveler visited the rich man. Instead of using one of his own many sheep or cattle to prepare a meal, the rich man took the poor man’s lamb and cooked it for the traveler.
- David, hearing the story, became enraged and declared that the rich man deserved to die for his actions. He also decreed that the rich man must repay the poor man four times over for his cruelty and lack of compassion.
- Nathan then revealed the truth by saying, “You are the man!”
If Genesis 3 is the first place where God uses questions and parables to draw out people’s understanding of the depth of their sin, it’s not the last time. Like Nathan and David, questions and parables are used throughout the Bible to bring us to a recognition of our complicity in wrongdoing.
Adam gave a lame excuse and God responded with another question to further draw the couple’s attention to their disobedience.
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 fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:11-13).
Adam and Eve illustrate two key principles about sin and transgression.
(1) As seen when they made fig leaves to cover their nakedness, we often attempt to fix our problems on our own after doing something wrong. Instead of turning to God for forgiveness and help, we rely on our own efforts to address the issue.
(2) We tend to shift blame rather than take responsibility for our actions. Adam blamed his wife for his behavior, and she, in turn, blamed the serpent. These tendencies remain universal in human nature.
The word “responsibility” can be understood as “response-ability”—the ability to respond. When we blame others for our problems, we surrender this ability, making their actions the cause of our own behavior.
In contrast, when we take responsibility for our actions, we open the door to cooperate with God. This enables us to make choices that positively impact our lives.
When we recognize that we have deliberately disobeyed God’s direction for our lives, the best response is to run to Him wholeheartedly.
Confess our sins, cooperate with Him in the process of transformation, and start anew. This is what it means to take responsibility for our lives, and it will lead to lasting benefits.
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 