01-21 Hide & Seek

Genesis 3:8-13

Over the years there have been quite a few excuses given to police and insurance companies when people are behind the wheel. READ

Alexander Pope coined the phrase “To err is human...” but someone also once said—to blame it on others is more human.

Will Rogers once quipped that there are 2 eras in American history: the passing of the buffalo and the passing of the buck.

Accepting responsibility is foreign to the fallen nature. We see it often in politicians, employees, employers, families—b/t husband and wife & children. This is the condition that has come to every person who has lived (studied 2 weeks ago “original sin”):

Jeremiah 17:9 NASB95

9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

This is the condition of the human heart (in desperate need of divine surgery—heart transplant). Scripture addresses the root of all our problems—including the inherent ability to pass the buck.

Ecclesiastes 9:3 NASB95

3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

Titus 1:15 NASB95

15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.

Proverbs 28:13 NASB95

13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

Jesus Himself said:

Mark 7:21–22 NASB95

21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.

What is blame-shifting but ultimately deceit? This is what the fallen human heart has become so accustomed to doing. The Bible is full of examples:

David—sin with Bathsheba (2 Sam 11-12)

Hear David’s experience with concealing his sin:

Ps 32:3-4;

Aaron and the account of the golden calf: (Ex 32:21-24)

Saul was commanded to completely destroy the Amalekites:

1 Samuel 15:3 NASB95

3 ‘Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”

1Sam 15:15-24;

The lawyer who asked Jesus what shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Lk 10)—then wanting to justify himself “who is my neighbor?”

Job 31:33 NASB95

33 “Have I covered my transgressions like Adam, By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,

All humans have an uncanny ability to cover transgressions…this is one thing we have inherited from our first father—Adam.

In the aftermath of the fall, we have a general statement by Moses of the conduct of 2 people who have transgressed God’s command and as we all must, they had to face their Creator who sees all and knows all. Notice their behavior in vs. 8:

Man Hides

The heard… probably reference to an evening breeze—which under any other circumstance would have been a time of rich fellowship and communion with Yahweh—yet they hid (or tried). Not only did sin cause an immediate hindrance to their intimacy as husband and wife…but the resulting shame and guilt resulted in their hearts trying to deceive them into thinking they could hide from God:

Psalm 139:7–8 NASB95

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

God Seeks

In the first account of hide and seek: God is the seeker—vs 9. These are the 1st words spoken by God to fallen humanity. Note that God is giving Adam the opportunity to take responsibility for his sinful actions and has come to the garden like a gentle father—who of course fully knew what has transpired. Now, understand God is not asking b/c He didn’t know but wanting Adam to face up.

Derek Kidner makes the observation that God asks a question rather than giving another command: “Where are you?” He does so in order to draw Adam out of hiding rather than commanding and driving him out of hiding. This gentleness is evident many times:

Exodus 34:6–7 NASB95

6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Matthew 11:29 NASB95

29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the 1 lost sheep. Here is the picture of God in all His gentleness drawing Adam out of hiding (its a question that is used with Cain (Gen 4:9). And now its as though we’re entering the courtroom.

The Arraignment

Adam knows he could not successfully hide himself from the presence of the God who is all seeing. So with the shame and guilt-ridden conscience he emerges from behind the tree and begins to explain: Vs 10.

Notice Adam’s response: “I was afraid...” and rightly so. The Heb term is the general word for “fear” (and used positively for those who in right worship fear God—Ps 128:1 “1 How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways.”) But here the term is also used for that of terror and terribleness—particularly when guilty man stands before the holy God who is righteous and just. This is where Adam found Himself (I was afraid of you).

That is actually the proper response of the sinner before God:

Exodus 3:6 NASB95

6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Deuteronomy 5:25 NASB95

25 ‘Now then why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, then we will die.

Job 23:15 NASB95

15 “Therefore, I would be dismayed at His presence; When I consider, I am terrified of Him.

Psalm 119:120 NASB95

120 My flesh trembles for fear of You, And I am afraid of Your judgments.

Isaiah 33:14 NASB95

14 Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?”

Many people are hiding from God. They’re trying to hide among the trees of this life—anything that would provide momentary security but there is coming a day when God will summon you to appear before Him to give an account.

John 5:25–29 NASB95

25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; 27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Revelation 20:12–13 NASB95

12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

You cannot escape God’s judgment:

Hebrews 4:13 NASB95

13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Those who hide will be summoned…but you can take responsibility for your sin and it will be forgiven you b/c of God’s gracious provision.

The Examination

God proceeds to examine Adam (no mention of Eve at this point). Adam’s response was not an admission of guilt so God asks “who told you...” b/c there is only 1 way that nakedness would become a shameful condition (this was the sign of a healthy martial union 2:25).

God’s question was again the opportunity for Adam to confess his sin. It was also an explanation why Adam had experienced the shame and guilt which caused him to hide from the presence of God in the first place. That was because he stood in defiance of God’s command.

Now, God has given each one of us a tremendous gift—the conscience. Described by Richard Sibbes (17th C Puritan) “the soul reflecting upon itself.” MacArthur writes “entreats us to do what we believe is right and restrains us from doing what we believe is wrong.” Now, when the conscience is violated—that’s when you have feelings of guilt.

In general terms, every person stands guilty before God:

Romans 3:19–23 NASB95

19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. 21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

The conscience is violated, producing the feelings of guilt and there are virtually and unlimited variety of options as to what you can do about those guilty feelings. Ignore them—for the heart tries to convince that there is no guilt. Medicate to try and by-pass the conscience—alerting you that something is not right—just turn it off. Others try to numb the conscience thru drugs and alcohol which eventually catches up to the person who feels even more guilt.

God says every man stands guilty before Him. And the only way to effectively remedy guilt is what Adam needed and every person that has lived—to be forgiven (the very essence of the gospel is that it deals with your guilt—and it does it God’s way.)

The Plea

This was Adam’s chance to own His sin, to acknowledge that his guilt was b/c of his defiance to God’s command. But he followed the corruption of his heart:

vs 12—These are the words of a man who is spiritually dead (confirming what God warned). Adam’s excuse is wickedness at its core—and far from his public declaration of loyalty in

Genesis 2:23 NASB95

23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”

She was his helper (azer kenigdo)…a beautiful intimacy, oneness and joy. This woman was the center of the created universe. One commentator simply states “what infamous treachery!”

“I’m not at fault God—don’t blame me…its her!” What do you think happened to their marital bliss? God’s grace overcomes that but they lost Paradise.

But Adam’s treachery wasn’t completed as he ultimately claims God is at fault—the woman YOU gave me. There must have been something wrong with the way you created her that such a dangerous creature would cause this.

God turns to the woman and asks “what is this you have done?”

Eve’s response likewise failed to take responsibility. While she didn’t blame Adam she passes the buck to Satan (serpent).

Let me pass along something that Martin Luther wrote about this part of Genesis 3. He notes 3 important lessons from this defiance of God’s command:

Sin is Progressive

It compounds itself and becomes more extensive and in making excuses we run away from God:

“Let us learn, then, that this perversion and stupidity always accompany sin and that sinners accuse themselves by their excuses and betray themselves by their defense, especially before God … Let us learn, therefore, that this is the nature of sin: unless God immediately provides a cure and calls the sinner back, he flees endlessly from God and, by excusing his sin with lies, heaps sin upon sin until he arrives at blasphemy and despair. Thus sin by its own gravitation always draws with it another sin and brings on eternal destruction, till finally the sinful person would rather accuse God than acknowledge his own sin. Adam should have said: “Lord, I have sinned.” But he does not do this. He accuses God of sin and says in reality: “Thou, Lord, hast sinned. For I would have remained holy in Paradise after eating of the fruit if Thou hadst kept quiet.” This is in reality the meaning of his words when he says: “I would not have fled if Thy voice had not frightened me.”

Adam (though he admits he ate) he denied his guilt and passed the buck to the woman and ultimately God—compounding his own sin.

Sin Is the Same Everywhere

“Now Eve, too, is put before us as an example; and when she is corrupted by sin, she is not one whit better than Adam. Adam wanted to appear innocent; he passed on his guilt from himself to God, who had given him his wife. Eve also tries to excuse herself and accuses the serpent, which was also a creature of God. Indeed, she confesses that she ate the fruit. "But the serpent," says she, "which Thou hast created and which Thou hast permitted to move about in Paradise, deceived me." Is not this accusing the Creator and pushing off one's guilt from oneself? So we see that sin is and acts the same everywhere. It does not want to be sin; it does not want to be punished because of sin. It wants to be righteousness. When it cannot achieve this, it puts the guilt on God, so that it accuses God of a lie when He accuses sin. Thus out of a human sin comes a sin that is clearly demonic; unbelief turns into blasphemy, disobedience into contempt of the Creator.”

Sin Blinds Us to God’s Goodness

Luther mentions that Adam and Eve were not immediately destroyed but encountered the great kindness and mercy of God.

“The beginnings of this affair, if we evaluate them properly, are more lenient than what Adam deserved. There is not that terrible sight as on Mt. Sinai, where trumpet blasts were mingled with flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. But God comes in a very soft breeze to indicate that the reprimand will be fatherly. He does not drive Adam away from Himself because of his sin, but He calls him and calls him back from his sin. Yet Adam does not understand or see this fatherly concern, since he is overwhelmed by his sin and terror. He does not notice that God deals far differently with the serpent. He does not call the serpent. Nor in order in this way to call it to repentance does he ask the serpent about the sin that has been committed. But He condemns it immediately.”

How often we fall for the same—when we fail to see God as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness…and when the HS brings the weight of conviction upon our hearts b/c of our sin—instead of running to this God of mercy we run and hide from Him out of shear terror. Sin blinds us so that we cannot see the gravity of our sin nor the loving mercy and gracious forgiveness of our Father—and that on account of the self-sacrifice of LJC who laid down His life for you and me (in our place) so that you might be reconciled to your Creator.