Where are you? (hiding as a result of sin)

The last time I spoke to you was about the process of temptation, and how, by means of a 5-step process, Satan got Eve to disobey God and eat of the fruit from the forbidden tree. Before I get into the next step in this story, I need to clarify some-thing which if I don’t, could lead women to assume a hefty dose of guilt, and the men become smug and self-satisfied.

After all we talked about last time - about how the devil drew Eve little by little into sin - we are left with some questions: Where was Adam all that time? Did he not have a degree of responsibility in what happened? Yes he did! The Bible states, either explicitly in most versions, or implicitly in others, that Adam was with Eve all along. He could have helped her in the confrontation with Satan; he could have defended her, or advised her, or exhorted her, or warned her, but he didn’t! He just was present with her; he allowed her to toy with the idea, then eat of the fruit, and when Eve gave him some of the forbidden fruit, he ate it too. So he was just as guilty as his wife in the matter.

Having clarified that point, let’s move on and examine what happened next. Read Genesis 3:6-13. Douglas Mumford, a Christian author who analyses this passage, comments the following: "Let me set the stage. What was going on in the Garden of Eden as the taste of fruit was still on their lips? The silence was awkward. Suddenly they had become conscious of every word, every move, every sound. Each was lost in thought – strange thoughts. Thoughts they had never had before. Their conversations had always been so light and easy before. But now it seemed like a strange intrusion. Out of habit they stayed close to each other – but facing away from each other most of the time. Their newly made covering felt uncom-fortable, so unnatural against their bodies.
Then each of them heard a sound. Just the day before, that sound had been welcome…When they heard Him coming, they had eagerly run to meet him. They had talked and talked, savouring the serene leisure of the close of the day…
But this time it was different. This time a strange tingle shot through each of them…Instantly, each of them wanted to run from, not toward the sound. They couldn’t bear to look in God’s eyes. The laughter and freedom of yesterday were now dim memories. Now there was simply one desire – to get away. So they hid themselves. And the Lord called out, “Where are you?"

That “Where are you” was more than a request to find out their location. God knew exactly where they were. The purpose of the question was to get Adam and Eve to confess where they were spiritually. Where they were spiritually can be summarized by two words: guilt and fear, and that spiritual condition of a combination of guilt and fear drove them to hide from God, and that same condition drives us to hide from God too.

Adam said, “I was naked.” God’s reply was “Who told you that you were naked?”.We can interpret the true meaning of this question by God as, “Who made you self-conscious about your body. Why do you suddenly need to hide?” So we see that the knowledge of evil brought with it the sense of shame. Theologically, there is a difference between being unclothed and being naked. To be unclothed simply meant that Adam and Eve had no clothes.There is a baby picture of me in my mother’s album showing me in the bathtub – totally unclothed and totally relaxed about it. At that time I was too young to understand evil, so there was no self consciousness involved. Being unclothed simply means to have no clothes on. Before the fall, Adam and Eve had no clothes on. They were comfortable not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually. No self-consciousness interfered with their relationship with God or with each other. But sin brought a new and upsetting sense of self. This is described as nakedness. Nakedness is more than just physical exposure of the body.
It involves being vulnerable in heart, mind and soul. Nakedness refers to being open, being seen for who we really are in our whole person. And that can be very threatening.

Evil distorts how we see ourselves and others. We no longer look with pure eyes of appreciation. Now we see each other through the lenses of lust and judgmentalism
We longer walk in freedom, carefree and accepting of who we are. Haunted by the threat of nakedness and vulnerability, we want to cover up and posture so that others are impressed. Or at least maybe they won’t see our faults....

So what is shame? Shame is a sense of lowered self-worth. It’s a sense of knowing that you haven’t been the person you want to be. You haven’t lived up to the standards you have for yourself, and you want to hide that from people. You don’t want people to see that you’re not quite what they think you are. You are afraid of rejection, of punishment.

So enter the second part of the spiritual condition of Adam & Eve: Fear. Vs 10. …”I heard you in the Garden and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.” When you slip, you try to cover it up. You play the hypocrite, the actor, hiding behind a mask. When we become aware of our weaknesses, we want to hide.
When we are hurt, we want to hide. When we fear that too much is expected of us, we want to hide. And when we hear God approaching, most of us want to hide. So maybe you say to me, “Hey, I don’t hide from God! I don’t do that sort of thing!” But as it says in Jeremiah 17:9, our hearts our deceitful above all things, and many times we do things without realizing the real motive behind them. The fact is, we hide in many ways. Let’s look at some of the ways:

1. Avoidance. This was Adam and Eve’s strategy. They hid themselves, hoping that God would go away. Avoidance is a major coping strategy.
• We avoid going to the doctor so we don’t have to face the truth about our physical condition.
• We avoid talking to someone with whom we have an issue to avoid confrontation
• WE avoid starting exercise so we don’t have to face the truth regarding our physical condition
• Some people avoid going to church because they want to avoid considering God’s call on their lives.

Avoidance is simply another term for delay. Unfortunately problems don’t go away if we avoid them; usually they get worse. God flushed Adam & Eve out of the bushes so they could face reality in the most effective way. God’s direct, timely approach resulted in coverings, natural consequences, and the promise of salvation.

2. Busyness. We hide behind our activities. We keep so busy with the issues that are around us such as schoolwork, family, sports, work, business deals, and church work, that we are deaf to the inner cries of our souls. Many times people who have an opportunity to sit and rest will keep going at a frantic pace because they don’t want to face up to what the quiet would bring. But constant motion will not bring us peace. As we rush about, we are less and less satisfied. And the time comes when we are forced to stop, through illness, a family or relational crisis, or an emotional overload. Then nothing will remain hidden.

3. Accomplishments. We often live as if success in one or two areas could make up for our failures or shortcomings in other areas. But what good is your performance? What good is your success? What good are bigger houses, flashier cars, a bigger name or reputation, etc.? Plaques on the wall cannot substitute for piety in the heart
Commendation from the world cannot excuse a lack of consecration in our life. Assets in the bank cannot atone for resistance to God’s call.

4. Pursuit of pleasure. We hide behind entertainment and pleasure. But pleasure can be a distraction that diverts us, or a drug that numbs us. We feed our body and our desires while we ignore some of the urgent needs of our heart. Pleasure has its place in life. It was created by God, but when pleasure keeps us from our spiritual priorities, it becomes a problem.

5. Going through the motions. Revelation 3:16 describes this condition as being lukewarm, which means outward involvement that keeps our heart insulated and isolated from the touch of God. As it says in 2 Tim3 “having a form of godliness but denying its power.”We hide by being close enough to God to think that it makes a difference, but far enough away to keep God from making a difference in our lives.

Hiding doesn’t work for long. It isn’t effective. It robs us of what we need most in life. The amazing grace in this story we are analyzing is that hiding is based on a wrong idea of God. God is not as we expect Him to be - ready to condemn, punish, abandon and reject. He loves us so much that He wants to correct us and encourage us and redeem us. When you hide, you become your own prisoner. God is the One who seeks to set you free.

Hiding is based on the premise that God can’t see us unless we want to be seen. Listen to what King David said about the effectiveness of hiding:

Ps 139:7-12: Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there
If I make my bed in the depths,
If I rise on the wings of the dawn ;if I settle on the far side of the sea
Even there your hand will guide me; your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,
And the light become night around me.”
Even the darkness will be not be dark to you;
The night will shine like day, for darkness is as light to you.

King David found that there is no way to hide from God. Because God is God, nothing in all creation escapes His notice. If we hide, God will always find us. But here is the wonderful thing that we need to remember in those moments of guilt and shame, when our instinct is to run and hide somewhere: God longs for our redemption, not our punishment! God’s chastisement of us is never to seek revenge; it is always to seek our repentance and regeneration. It is always constructive; never destructive or vindictive.To come out of hiding into fellowship with God – even if it means chastisement – is to be redeemed.

Going back to our story in the Garden, God could have acted in a number of ways:

• He could have tried them, sentenced them, and put them to death right away. After all, he had warned them: if they ate of the forbidden fruit, they would die.
• He could have ignored them; left them alone in disgust. He could have decided to start again somewhere else, and leave them alone to their own devices. Have you ever heard of cases like that?

But here is the truth we need to grasp. God did not do any of those things. Instead, when we sin, God comes looking for us; When we fail, God seeks us out; When our reflex is to hide, God’s response is to find.

“Where are you?”

Our God is a searching God
In Luke 15 Jesus uses 3 parables to describe the seeking and finding God:
• God is like the shepherd who seeks the lost lamb
• God is like the woman who loses one of her ten coins
• God is like the father of the prodigal son, who welcomes his son back when he returns after a long period of rebellion.

“Where are you?”
This question exposes our anxious guilt and hiding reflex, but it also reveals the very character of God. Our God is the God who seeks and finds. Our God is the God who doesn’t desert us when we fail Him. He doesn’t degrade us or devalue us when we fall. He doesn’t threaten or intimidate us. You see, God asks us where we are in order to draw us into a relationship. God is looking for us, inviting us to come out of the hiding caused by our shame, our guilt or fear.


QUESTIONS
1. Have you seen your hiding place as we have described it?
2. How have you been hiding from God?
3. Why have you wanted to hide?
4. Has it worked?

Whatever your answers to these questions, know that God is even now seeking you. Listen to the voice of His Spirit, calling

“Where are you?”