Original Light Part 2

Continued from Saturday...


Somewhere along the way, Adam and Eve began to question whether the perfect world they enjoyed really was all there was. And all it took was a serpent (in reality, Satan disguised), who caused them to doubt the goodness of their Creator. The only God had said not to do, which was "eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," Satan convinced them to go ahead and do, assuring them that God must be mistaken and what He told them to refrain from, He really didn't mean (Gen. 3:1-5). And they believed the lie - the lie that somehow, God wasn't enough. What He had given to them, vast and beautiful as it was, was somehow lacking. 

 In that moment when they ate the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:6), the realization that their perfect world had been altered and their relationship with God had been severed began to sink in. They suddenly knew that they had given up all that God has blessed them with in order to gain something more than they thought they wanted. But they lost everything because they didn't believe God. And when the new reality hit them, they became self-conscious...something the never felt up until then. Their eyes were opened to their own nakedness and, in a desperate attempt to hide this shameful discovery, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Gen. 3:7). The shame and guilt they must have felt as they knew the high cost of their disobedience before the One who made them! But there was no turning back now...they would have to answer for their actions. And neither wanted to do so. 

"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking

in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid

themselves from the presence of the Lord God

amongst the trees of the garden."

(Gen. 3:8)

 Can you picture their fear and trepidation? Oh, how they trembled to think of what God would say to them! Before, they would've gladly gone running to meet Him. Now, all they could do was hide. 

 It is interesting to note here that, at the beginning of the Bible...at the beginning of history really...God paints a picture for us of how He deals with us on the other side of the door: After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God sets out to confront their sin and poses a fascinating question. Up until this point, the first couple had walked in perfect harmony and friendship with their Creator. But when they began to doubt Him and instead believed what the serpent had said, that relationship was forever broken. Now, God comes walking through the Garden of Eden, looking for them. Of course, and all-knowing God knew exactly where His two ashamed sinners were hiding, but He calls out to Adam, 

Where are you? (Gen. 3:10)

Why did He do this? He wanted Adam to accept responsibility and to admit his sin. Adam's response is, however, even more poignant:

I heard your voice...and I was afraid...so I hid myself.

Adam's fear was that his deeds would expose him physically and spiritually and would reveal the fact that he had just let down his Maker and would thus forfeit His love forever. He was too concerned about his actions to face up to them. H would rather hide from God and suffer the absence of His presence than to face the pain of His correction. Adam gives us a living example of what Jesus later told Nicodemus in John 3:20: 

"...Every one who does evil hates the light, 

and does not come to the light, lest his deeds

should be exposed."

While not in the context of a garden, every descendant of Adam - the entire human race - has responded to God in the same manner, and each has chosen their own hiding place. Each, for fear of being exposed, has retreated to the other side of the door.