© 2014 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: …” (Genesis 3:8a). This sounds like a delightful setting indeed! The word “and” indicates a previous event. The “voice,” that “they” recognized, suggests previous fellowship with “the LORD God.”

But who are “they” and what are “they” doing? The context shows that “they” were Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:20), and that “they” were hiding from this “LORD God!” “…and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8b).

Why are they hiding? God had told them, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam and Eve had eaten that forbidden fruit. Their spirits had died, and they were now afraid of God. Their action had destroyed the fellowship they had previously enjoyed with Him. Scripture records, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12).

Though Adam and Eve had freely chosen disobedience, once they had done so, they, and their descendants, were without any power to undo that choice! They were dead! Notice that they no longer sought God. Rather, they hid from Him. God’s Word shows this to be the natural state of all men and women born since then: “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:11). God could have left humanity in that condition as he did with the fallen angels (Jude 1:6). Man had lost the ability to desire or seek God.

The rest of Scripture tells how God did the seeking. He foreshadows this in his call to Adam saying, “Where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9). Please read God’s Word for the rest of the story. It’s the conduit through which He implants life and faith into a dead heart. It tells how God the Son sacrificed His life to save His people from their sins! “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

 

 

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