4/29/2014 - God's first question to man - Where are you?

Genesis 3:8-10 (NIV) 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.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?"  He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

 

The first question God ever asked man was, “Where are you?”  I’ve heard countless sermons preached on Genesis chapter 3, about the fall of man, but it’s interesting how we sort of gloss over that question just to get to the “meat” of the story, so to speak; but I believe this question (and the next question, which I will get to in a later post) gives me the first glimpse of God’s character how He longs to be in a perfect relationship with me.

I think when God came to the garden to talk with Adam and Eve, He came because He really wanted to spend time with them.  It’s my belief, although I have no proof, that God came to the garden in human form.  Adam and Eve heard Him walking.  He wanted to meet with them on a personal level.

God being Himself, being sovereign, knew right where Adam and Eve were, so why did he ask them, Where are you?  I used to think when I read that that God was just being sorta facetious, you know, rubbing it in that Adam and Eve had sinned (the mean, angry God, so to speak) and they were hiding from him; yet as I get older and I review my own life I see the question from a different light.  Where are you?  It’s not an accusatory question.  I look at it sorta like this, God comes down, can’t find Adam or Eve and He gets kind of anxious, maybe even a little worried.  He wasn't anxious or worried because He couldn't find them physically, He was hurting because He didn't find them spiritually.  Where were His children?  God wasn’t accusing them of anything, He was simply wondering where they were.  He was used to them wanting to spend as much time with Him as possible.  Where are you, Adam?  Where are you, Eve?

When I sin I tend to try to hide from God.  When I know there’s sin in my life I tend to shy away from the Father.  I don’t want to spend time with him.  I seek shelter to hide my shame.  But it’s when I hurt God most that He seeks me most.  When I'm obeying and following His will in my life, He knows right where I am and He knows I'm getting closer to where He wants me to be.  It’s when I sin, when I walk away… when I run away, that He comes looking for me.

In Matthew 18:12-14 we have the parable of the lost sheep.  Go ahead, read it... you have time.

When I sin, I wonder off… I get lost.  And that’s when my Shepherd, the Father, comes looking for me.  In this parable the shepherd doesn’t accuse the sheep for getting lost, he’s just happy he finds him.

I need to ask myself, am I making God look for me?  Am I hiding from Him?  Am I happy to walking with the Lord?  Or because of sin, do I shy away from Him?  Where am I?