Genesis 3 1-15 Lent
5th Sunday in Lent
Genesis 3:1-15 (6-15)
“Hiding Places”
3-18-99
Introduction:
Daddy, don’t look at me! Daddy, don’t look at me! Standing in a corner of the living room behind my blue arm chair, my son wept. He wept with guilt and shame and he wept with stubborn pride. Just moments before he was running around with giddy excitement and joy after receiving a new toy. I instructed him in it’s proper use. But, ignoring my instruction he bent the toy in a way that it should not be bent. Snap! It broke. Immediately he felt the loss of the toy and he longed for its replacement. Even more, he felt the pain of guilt for not having listened to me and the shame of pride which tempted him to do it his own way. Without looking at me, fearing my disappointment and anger, he ran with his eyes covered to behind the chair, weeping.
Adam and Eve found themselves in the same position -- Not behind a chair of course, but hiding from God. Scripture recounts for us how they hid. How the Lord found them, and what he did with them.
I. Sinners Hide
a) From each Other:
From the very first moment after they sinned they started hiding. First they hid from each other. They disobeyed God’s command and ate the forbidden fruit, and their eyes were opened. As a result, they saw that what they had done was utterly evil. In their shame they were naked before each other and it bothered them. Sewing fig leaves together they made aprons for themselves. What were they attempting to do by sewing leaves together? They were hiding. No longer were they comfortable with each other. Their relationship had been corrupted. Worse yet, they took matters into their own hands and tried to repair the damage they had one by clothing themselves. They tried to do something to give a remedy to their shame and make their guilt bearable. What a pitiful state they were in. By their own means they thought that they could hide what they had done from God.
b) From God:
“Then the man and his wife heard the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God.” Now when the Bible say that God was walking in the garden, we understand this to be Christ walking in the garden. Why? God is Spirit, and only one person has seen God the Father. It is His Son who we know to be Christ. It is only Christ that reveals God to us. In Matthew 11 it is written, "…no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. It was the same way for Adam and Eve. When they heard and walked with God in the Garden it was Christ. Hiding from Lord, Adam and Eve sought to remove themselves from His holy presence, as if to say “Daddy don’t look at me.” By their new and unholy nature they could not help but hide. Just as oil and water separate from each other, the imperfect sinner is separated from a holy God. They were in an ugly state of affairs.
c) We Hide:
1. In our Own Works:
That ugly state of affairs is ours also. What we are considering today is our reaction to our own sin, hiding, which is also sin. Just like Adam we hide by trying to take matters into our own hands. We may not be fashioning leaves together in an attempt to hide from other people and from God. What we fashion together is more insidious. Especially in our Christian community we may tempted to fashion good works and deeds together to hide our otherwise sinful natures. We may think to ourselves – I will do good things to cover up the bad things I have done. I will serve my family and my church. I will volunteer my time. I’m trying so hard to be good. I pay for my mistakes with guilt. Isn’t that all that God expects me to do. Surely God will see what I’m doing, and perhaps because of it, He won’t hold my faults against me. What kind of apron is that? God see right through our futile attempts to hide from him by means of our own self righteousness.
2. Away from God:
Adam hid in the trees. There is another way in which we hide from God. Occasionally, remorse over a particular sin may engender a Christian to stop coming to Church. We may stay away from other Christians fearing that our shame might be seen. We may fear the perceived judgment. This is especially common for those of us who’s sin is more visible as in cases of un-scriptural divorce or adultery. Whether our sins our visible or not, all of us are guilty before a holy God. It is our nature to hide from Him. It is not in our nature to be here today.
II. God Seeks Sinners
A. Through Confession:
1. He Sought Them:
“Where are you?” God said. God seeks out sinners and he brings them to confess their sins. It was the Lord who approached Adam and met him in his hiding place. There was no decision theology here. Adam was not looking for God and he wasn’t looking for a savior. The only choice Adam could make was to hide. It was there that God began his work of redemption, leading Adam to understand what he had done. God said “have you eaten?” Adam responded, “I ate”. To the woman God said, “what have you done?” Eve responded, I was deceived and I ate”. Adam and Eve confessed their sin to God. Their confession seemed like it was lacking. They didn’t fully grasp the magnitude of their crime. They made excuses for their actions. They said, “I ate” but this is why. What kind of confession is this? It is a sinners confession.
2. He Seeks Us:
It is our confession? God calls us to task for our sinfulness through His word and by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit compels us to confess our sin in worship and daily. Yet the old Adam, which is the flesh, is determined to inhibit our confessing. He drives us to hide. God always finds us. Even here in church, we repeat the words, “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess to you (God) all my sins and iniquities. We do this from memory. We do it with sleepy eyes and wondering minds. We, like Adam, make excuses for our sinful actions. Ours is the confession of a sinner. The Lord didn’t reproach Adam and Eve for their excusatory confession. And He doesn’t reproach us for our confession either.
B. Through Absolution:
The Lord pronounces His absolution on sinners. To Adam and Eve He did not speak it directly. Rather, He turns to Satan and looked him in the eye. He said, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." He spoke to him as if to say, I am drawing a line between you and these people - “between your seed and her seed”. I am on their side. These people are mine. I have created them and I have redeemed them. I am an advocate on there behalf. If you want to get to them you must go through me. And you can’t do it. These people are forgiven in view of my cross. It is there where you will bruise my foot as I suffer and die. In my resurrection, I shall bruise your head and you shall be destroyed.” It is in view of the cross of Christ that Adam and Eve’s sins were forgiven. It is in view of that same cross that our sins are forgiven. You are God’s creation and He has redeemed you with the precious blood of Christ who is our advocate. It is written in 1 John (2:1) My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (2:1) And He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Believe it! You do not have to hide. You are forgiven! Today, you are shameless and guilt free. “Roms. 8 “There is …no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…”
Conclusion:
We once hid from God because of our sin. The tables have been turned. God now hides us in the righteousness of Christ. You were hidden by God at the time of your baptism. You were baptized into Christ’s death. It is written in Col. 3(:3) “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” We now can speak the words of Psalm 17 (:8) “Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings.” And our hearts and voices can sing, “Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.”