“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.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
THE UNCHANGING NATURE OF GOD
The first thing I want us to notice is the stark contrast in language used regarding God here in this passage. Starting in chapter 2, Moses began to consistently refer to God as “LORD God” (Yahweh Elohim). But a shift took place in the second half of verse 1. As the serpent tempted, he removed the title LORD. He sought to minimize Eve and Adam’s view of God by depersonalizing him— “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’”
So, I want to reiterate the point Wayne made last week quickly. Part of Satan’s playbook is to minimize the great and personal nature of God. As Deitrick Bonhoeffer puts it, “Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God.” It’s as if Satan handed Eve a pair of binoculars backwards. He sought to minimize Eve’s view of the almighty, gracious, and personal God. He attempted to portray God as small, mean, and distant, as less caring than He truly is.
Because of this, I believe that part of my role as your pastor is to remind you of what Satan seeks to make you forget. Part of our job as brothers and sisters in Christian community is to remind one another of what Satan strives to make us forget. A proper view of God should enhance proper living. A high view of God should lead to high moral standards. The blurrier our view of God is, the blurrier our view of sin becomes.
As the serpent tempted Eve, he attempted to minimize the glorious and gracious nature of God. But I want you to notice the stark contrast in language in verse 8–“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden…”
Isn’t it beautiful how no lie of the enemy can ever change the true nature of God? The LORD God never changes. He stays the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. Satan may succeed in actually diminishing our view of God. But he will never succeed in diminishing God.
SINNERS ARE NATURAL HIDERS
Now, let’s look at what happens whenever Adam and Eve take the fruit and eat it. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, their eyes were opened. They knew they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. So, where they were once naked and unashamed before sin, they are now naked and ashamed. Sin has brought forth shame and hiding. But they didn’t just hide parts of themselves from one another. They sought to hide themselves entirely from God.
Look at verse 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 in the garden.”
Church, I want us to understand that Adam and Eve’s decision to hide is a decision we follow today. Attempting to hide from God is the natural human response to sin. Now, I intentionally use the word 'attempt' because we cannot actually hide from the all-seeing, all-knowing God. As Psalm 139:7-8 says, “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!”
There is nowhere that you can go that God cannot see. There’s no forest you can run to, there’s no darkness that can conceal you. However, sin has conditioned our hearts to think that darkness is safe. Like Adam and Eve, we think life in the trees is safer than life in the garden. A life in the shadows is safer than a life in the open light. A life apart from God is better than a life with God.
Now, check this out. If you remember, God had given Adam the command to eat from any tree in the garden except the one. And once they had eaten from the one, they sought to hide in the abundance of trees.
Like Adam and Eve, we’re tempted to find comfort from our sin in the abundance that God has given us. We seek to find safety in the material things God has provided. But, in the same way that a full forest couldn’t save Adam and Eve, a full bank account can’t save us. A bigger house can’t save us. A bigger paycheck can’t save us. A full pantry can’t save us. A loving spouse can’t save us. Healthy kids can’t save us. A longer vacation can’t save us. Nicer clothes can’t save us.
It is human nature to hide from God because of our sin. And it is human nature to seek to find safety from God in the good things God has provided. But, no gift given by God can ever protect us from God.
If you were to search your heart, do you think that you would discover that you feel safest hiding behind material possessions? Like are you content with your sin never being exposed as long as your bank account is full? Would you be willing to exchange material possessions for a life with God?
THE GOD WHO PURSUES AND CALLS
We all have fig leaves, something we use to mask the shame and guilt we feel from our sin. We don’t want others to see the shame and guilt we are carrying because of our failures. Therefore, we put on a mask. And we all have woods that we try to run to to hide from the God we’ve sinned against. We seek to escape the presence of the all-knowing, all-seeing God of the universe because deep down we know that we’ve sinned against him. But look what God does in verse 9. He calls out to Adam. He says, “Where are you?”
This isn’t a question of ignorance. It’s a probing question intended to expose the off nature of their location. And before we look at Adam’s response, can we just let this reality marinade in our hearts for a moment? God knew what happened here, and yet he pursued. Do not miss the fact that God is in the business of pursuing sinners. He is in the business of calling out those who are hiding in darkness.
This is true of all who are in Christ today. We were all hiding, cowering away in the trees when we heard God call out to us! When we were all content with God walking by and never returning, God stopped and called out to us!
Can I pause and draw a separate point of application that I thought about last night?
Christian brothers and sisters, we must know that it is the natural inclination of the human heart to hide and run. Some of us have been deeply hurt by someone who is not a follower of Christ. And we’re still hurt because we’re holding out for that person to come to us and apologize, to be the bigger man and right their wrongs.
Here’s my encouragement to you. You hid in the darkness wearing fig leaves, just like your offender. And you didn’t come out of the trees until Christ called out to you. If Christ pursued reconciliation with you, you can seek reconciliation with your offender.
BLAMESHIFTERS
God called out to Adam, “Where are you?” Adam responds, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” To which God responds, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Notice how God addresses the sin at hand with precision and patience here. Each question is calculated, and each question reveals another layer of the deeper issue at hand.
Adam responds to God’s question, “The woman you have to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” God then directs his attention to Eve, asking her, “What is this that you have done?” And Eve responds, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Yikes! Neither Adam nor Eve accepted responsibility for their wrongdoing! Both acknowledged something was off. But neither acknowledged that something was off because of them. Adam shifted the blame off of himself onto Eve and ultimately onto God— “It’s the woman that you gave me!” And Eve shifted the blame off of herself and onto the serpent— “The serpent deceived me and I ate!”
I read a quote this week that I thought was so true: “To err is human; to blame it on others and upon God is more human.” Adam and Eve both portrayed themselves as the victim here. Adam was the victim of the poor decision of the woman whom God had given him, and Eve was the victim of the attacks of the serpent.
Friends, like Adam, we all have a little blame-shifter in us. It’s never our fault. It’s someone else’s fault. It’s our poor upbringing’s fault. It’s our surroundings’ fault.
It’s God’s fault.
You cheated on your taxes because politicians are corrupt. You stole from your work because your employer didn’t pay you enough. You’re mean to your children because you were raised in a broken home. You’re promiscuous because your dad was never around. You look at pornography because your wife won’t be intimate with you. The list can go on and on. It’s never your fault; there’s always an excuse. And some of these excuses may be valid. They may possess ounces of truth in them.
Was Adam correct in his statement that God gave Eve to him to be his wife? Absolutely! Was Adam correct in his statement that Eve gave him the fruit to eat? Sure! Was Eve correct in her statement that the serpent deceived her? Of course! But, were any of those valid excuses for their wrong doing? Absolutely not!
No excuse provided was able to justify their actions. They were not the victims; they were the perpetrators.
At the heart of the gospel is an acknowledgment of our own failures. At the heart of the gospel is a receiving of grace for the offenses you are guilty of. We must admit that we are sinners. There is no justifiable excuse that we could offer God that would remove from us the guilt of our sin! Adam and Eve both stood guilty before God. You and I, apart from Christ, stood/stand guilty before God. And as they stand guilty, God speaks. He begins to usher in punishment, first to the serpent, next to Eve, and then to Adam. These words spoken are strong and just.
CHRIST, THE SERPENT-CRUSHER
Next week, we will unpack the theology of the words spoken here in more detail. But I want us to see the hope in God’s words spoken here. Before God ushers out punishment to Adam and Eve, he ushers out punishment to the serpent. And in these words spoken to the serpent, we catch a flicker of hope, a glimpse of light. Perhaps God’s not done with Adam and Eve? Perhaps there’s hope for them? Perhaps there’s hope for us?
To the serpent, God says, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The language here is harsh. It’s strong. It’s humbling. It’s defeating. Because of his deceptive work in the garden, he will be cursed above all other creatures. He was condemned to crawl on his belly, a sign of total humiliation. But, not only will the serpent be humbled, he will be defeated and crushed. From that day forward, there would be enmity between him and the woman, between his offspring and hers.
Enmity entails hostility. It’s combative language. It’s language of struggle. But, there wasn’t just going to be a struggle between him and the woman. He was going to be defeated by her offspring. As the serpent will bite at the heel of her offspring, his head will be bruised by his heel. This act was an act that we believe was fulfilled on the cross! On the cross, Satan struck the heel of Christ, but Christ struck Satan’s head through his death and resurrection. The bite of the enemy was the crushing blow against the enemy. Jesus crushed Satan on the cross, dismantling his power to deceive and devour.
The rest of the Bible operates out of this promise. It’s designed to tell the story of how Genesis 3:15 becomes a redemptive reality for God’s people! God, through Christ on the cross, had a plan to make things right for sinful humanity! As death and condemnation were extended to us through Adam’s trespass, righteousness and justification were extended to us through Christ. God has shown his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. We have now been justified by his blood. Our hope is found in Christ, the Serpent-Crusher.
So, the beauty of the gospel is that we don’t have to hide in shame. We can come to God humble and broken, admitting our faults and confessing our sins. And in doing so, we are met with freedom and grace! We get to joyfully declare Romans 8:1, “There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”
So, for those of us who have been shifting the blame our entire lives, I invite you to come to God, humble and broken, so that you can experience true grace and mercy!
And for those of us who have come to Christ humble and broken, but still feel shame, I employ you to cling to Hebrews 12:2, “keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”Hebrews 12 thus challenges us not to look inward at our sin but to look upward at our Savior. As one commentator puts it, “Shame focuses on our sin. Freedom focuses on his salvation. Shame focuses on our past. Freedom focuses on our future. Shame is defined by our failures. Freedom is defined by our faith.” — Bethancourt, Phillip