So I am working my way through Genesis right now. Very slowly at times. Recently, I made my way to this really adorable café by this equally whimsical park near my new home. And amidst the groups of 20-somethings in their matching start-up company t-shirts, I found myself sitting and dwelling on Genesis 3:8.
“They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
Has anybody taken a moment to consider how incredibly bizarre this picture is? We have here two very opposing pictures.
On one end (of the sentence), God is walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This is a very beautiful sentence in Hebrew (gotta make use of my Logos). Unfortunately I am not nearly confident enough in my Hebrew skills (after a year of neglect) to explain things about it, so if you don’t read Hebrew (I’m estimating a fair 97.5% of people who might have read this far), just trust me that it is a beautiful sentence that has echoes from the creation account and the personal nature of God.
So anyway, we have this beautiful picture of the very good creation as it should be—with the LORD God walking around in it with the people He’s made.
And then we have the other end (of the sentence). The people go and hide among the trees of the garden. Now let’s take a second to understand the absurdity of this.
- God is WALKING. So in theory, they could have gone and walked around this incredible paradise with God. I mean, it would be SO MUCH EASIER to “follow God” if he were out for a walk. Following God could be as easy as following a car, a trend, or someone on twitter.
- They are HIDING. Now this is straight up confusing.
- You can’t hide from God. Adam and Eve were pretty new to the whole being people thing, but I would hope that they would have grasped that.
- God has given them no reason to be afraid of Him. Sure, He warned them about the tree. So they should have been afraid of the tree, not of their creator.
- They go the opposite direction. Like I said, I think it would be a luxury if I could just literally go walk around with God. And yet, they go the opposite direction of this luxury. It’s like walking away from the dessert table. Just plain nonsensical.
Following the previous observations, I will avail you with my real-life applications. Try to contain your excitement.
- I’d like to think that I would not do the completely non-sensical act of running from God, when I could be walking beside Him, but we all know that is not the way of it. I want to hide from Him far more often than I care to admit. Maybe because I’m bored, tired, frustrated, or even content.
- The picture at the end of time at Christ’s return is of a bride and groom. Consider that picture of the complete reversal of this story from the beginning of time. A bride walks toward her groom in excited anticipation of them being joined together. We are supposed to represent this eschatological Kingdom of God as much as we can in the present age. So let’s work on reversing the picture in our own lives, in our small groups, and in our churches to being people who excitedly walk toward God instead of hide from Him.
- They were hiding because of their sin. Their sin was LITERALLY separating them from God. And it’s really sad because Adam and Eve’s identity would have completely rested in God and who He wanted them to be. He was their creator after all. And so by hiding from Him, they not only forsook their relationships with Him, but also compromised the very core of their identity—their humanity. Hiding from God ultimately led (and leads) to a complete misunderstanding of what it truly means to be human.
- If God knows our sins, why do we still try to hide them? I find myself doing this a lot. If I’m feeling lazy or know I’m doing something I should not, I avoid my time with God. And in that way, sin really gets the upper hand because I isolate myself from the only One who can make me better.
God offers us many opportunities to walk with Him. Let’s try not to make up lame excuses to not take Him up on the offer.
Capriciousness 