No Hiding Now

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

NO HIDING NOW

 

Gen 3:10-13

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."

NIV

In answer to the question of God, “Where are you?” Adam gives himself away by telling God that he heard him in the garden and was afraid because he was naked. Until now God came and walked in the cool of the day talking with Adam while he was still naked, and he felt no shame because he did not have the knowledge of either good or evil. He was an innocent man and had full fellowship with God. However, that changed the moment he disobeyed God and ate from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now Adam felt shame and did not want God to see him and he did not want to have that full unashamed fellowship with God because of his disobedience. He was hiding from God, if there is such a thing. Then when confronted about eating from the tree he was commanded not to, he blamed the woman that God gave him. In essence, Adam was blaming God, because it was God who put the woman there. Even the woman could not take the fault as she blamed the serpent because he deceived her. We have that same situation in life as we have that knowledge of good and evil and the freedom to chose. Of course, because we are the descendent of Adam, we already have the guilt of sin, for in this deceivable corruptible form we now live in, we are going to sin. If we chose to ignore God or his existence than we have no guilt as we freely follow our own passions. But when we hear the voice of God asking us, “Where are you?” and we answer, “Here, we have been hiding from you, because we are guilty of sin”, he tells us there is a way to be free from our guilt. We begin to understand his great love for us and how he sent his Son to take all our sin, all our guilt upon himself and suffer the punishment we were due. Having received the truth, and if we respond to it by accepting Jesus as our Savior, God sets us free from the shame, the guilt and the punishment. With this truth within us, we no longer should be deceived by the voice of evil. Although, even being born from above into a new life in Christ, we have yet to be freed from this corruptible form and thus we still miss that mark of perfection and sin. However, we do not need to fear God as Adam did because of his sin. We are still in Christ and God looks upon us as holy and blameless, so we can now be in full uninterrupted fellowship with God. Thank your Lord, for you great love toward us, Thank you for making us righteous in your sight, and we can live without shame and without guilt and know that we will spend all of eternity with you in the new paradise. Thank you, Father, for making us innocent so we never need to hide from you.