“Where are you?” God called to Adam in the Garden. And a more terrifying question, a more terrifying voice, Adam could not imagine.
Adam and Eve were not stupid. Our first parents were not created to be fools. They were made in God’s own image. Adam demonstrated his wisdom and insight and creativity by giving names to all the animals that God brought to him. Everything that is intelligent and wise in man was there when God made Adam and Eve.
So why did they try to hide from God?
It’s easy to envision parts of this account in Genesis as a series of comical ineptitudes. It all starts with that first temptation, a situation that we can hardly wrap our minds around. Shouldn’t the talking snake that was telling Eve to do the exact one thing God told them not to do have been a bit of a red flag? And Adam, where was he? Oh, he was there with her. What were you doing, Adam? Too distracted by the butterflies? And then after they ate the fruit, they were fumbling around trying to make clothes out of fig leaves. Finally, they heard God’s voice – the same God whose voice had created the ground they were standing on and the air they were breathing – and they thought, “I know what to do. Let’s hide!”
All this craziness could be right at home in a TV sitcom.
But when you really think about it, none of this is actually all that funny. It’s not a comedy; it’s a tragedy. God’s creation was perfect, more beautiful and harmonious and peaceful than we have ever known. And into this perfect creation Satan crept in the form of an animal that until now was utterly harmless, in fact perfect and beautiful, in this wonderful creation. And he didn’t threaten to choke Eve in his coils or swallow her whole or poison her with venomous fangs. Instead he tempted her with sweet lies.
Adam’s behavior isn’t funny either. He failed his bride. He did not lead. He did not protect. And if anything, he questioned this course of action, this rebellion against God, even less than Eve did. He ate the fruit God forbade.
Have you ever done something you immediately regretted? I think we can all probably think of something. Maybe it’s something you said that you really wish you could put back in your mouth. I can remember one time growing up on the farm when I got into an argument with my dad, as rebellious teenage sons sometimes do with their fathers. My dad had just purchased a new calf and tied it up in the barn, and we got arguing and the argument got heated, enough that we didn’t notice that the calf had twisted the rope around its neck, until it was too late. I could say, “I’m sorry,” but I couldn’t undo the damage my bad attitude had caused.
Adam and Eve could not undo the damage they had done. They couldn’t put the fruit back on the tree. They couldn’t get rid of their shame. Covering themselves with hastily-made fig-leaf clothes did no good. The true source of the shame was rooted deep in their hearts. And they knew what this meant. God had said very clearly, “You shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die.” What were they going to do? What could they possibly do?
And then they heard his voice. Before, this voice of God walking in the garden would have been a wonderful thing, a joyful thing. God was their Creator and they were the crown of his creation. But now that voice meant death.
It wasn’t out of stupidity that Adam and Eve tried to hide from God. They surely knew better. They knew that they couldn’t escape him forever. But in their hearts was only death. There was nothing else for them.
Today people still try to hide from God or escape him, which is all the more foolish because we all know that we can’t escape death. God doesn’t come walking towards them and calling their name and so they think that it’s just fine to pretend he doesn’t exist, even though death is every day one step closer. Still other people think that death is their escape from God, as if by dying you’ll be out of reach for the one who made man out of the dust of the earth.
But surely we, as Christians, are not so foolish, right? We do rightly know that there is no hiding from God, and yet at the same time we so often make hypocrites of ourselves. We’ve bitten into those sweet but deadly lies of the Devil. In our immediate regret we sew together fig leaves of piety to cover our shameful sins. We hear the voice of God in his word and we run away, hiding ourselves where we don’t have to come into uncomfortable confrontation with his truth. And we rationalize and make excuses and pass blame, as if this somehow exonerates us. “It was the woman you gave me.” “It was the serpent.”
You have to imagine that in the Garden of Eden as all of this unfolded Satan was feeling mighty proud of himself. This was exactly what he had set out to do. He had made it his goal to cause chaos in God’s perfect creation. He had come to destroy, and that destruction began with mankind, the crown of God’s creation. So far it had all gone according to his plan. The crafty form of a serpent was an ideal fit to his designs. Eve had listened to him, turning her back on God. Adam had also followed suit. Their shame and fear and panic and hiding was music to the Devil’s ears. “Yes,” he might have said defiantly after Eve pointed to him, “I did. I did deceive the woman.”
Or maybe Satan already realized that something was not going according to his plan. Adam and Eve had listened to him and had fallen under God’s judgment. They had earned God’s punishment. They had earned death. So why did God come calling for them? “Where are you?” he called to Adam. God wasn’t confused. He knew exactly where Adam was and he knew exactly what had happened. So why call? Why not strike Adam down on the spot? Adam and Eve might not have recognized it in their fear and shame, in their state of spiritual death. Did Satan see it in his hateful glee? God’s call to Adam and Eve was his grace. God’s call was his mercy.
“Where are you?” He called. He invited them, now sinners, to come before him. He listened, even as they made useless excuses. And then he turned them away from themselves and their guilt and he made, in their presence, his gracious promise.
14The Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than all the livestock,
and more than every wild animal.
You shall crawl on your belly,
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.
He will crush your head,
and you will crush his heel.
At first this statement from God might seem like nothing but judgment. He speaks to Satan and condemns him. Even the serpent’s form is cursed, ever a reminder of the temptation he brought. And the Devil’s fate is sealed. His head will be crushed…
By the woman’s offspring. Her offspring? What offspring? Did Adam and Eve wonder? Did they say, “Wait a minute, we don’t have any children. Aren’t we about to die? But in the same words of judgment for the Devil there is a promise of life and salvation for mankind.
Adam and Eve did die. God was not lying when he said their sin would bring death, and God does not ignore sin. But God promised a Savior from sin and from death. He promised a Savior who would rescue all of mankind from Satan’s power.
Today the power of Satan is still very great. It’s not hard to spot. Just turn on the news, and there it is. That’s why you should be careful how much news you watch. It’s not good to spend too much time obsessing over the work of Satan. You have enough problems in your own life to consider. The serpent creeps around patiently, looking for any way he can get in. His goal for you is the same, to drive you away from your God in fear and shame and anger and unbelief.
But then there’s that voice, calling, “Where are you?” The power of Satan is no match for Jesus. God’s onlybegotten Son and the offspring of the woman came to do exactly what was promised there in the Garden of Eden. He came to crush the serpent’s head. He came to call you to himself. And as you leave your hiding place and approach him with barely-covered shame, he raises not his fist in punishment, but he opens his hands to show the marks left by the nails and the cross he suffered for you.
What power can Satan have over you when you belong to Christ? You God has taken your sins away. He has taken your punishment on himself. You don’t need to hide because you are robed in his righteousness, gifted to you in your baptism. You don’t need to fear death because he died for you and lives forever.
When you hear God’s voice, his holy word, calling, “Where are you?” Don’t go running away. He’s calling you in grace and mercy. He comes with life and salvation. He brings you peace and joy. God’s gracious call frees you from Satan’s power. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson