Genesis Diaries 3:8-13

“And 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.”

So the pattern that would plague, and continues to plague, all humanity begins.

To me this is the worst of all of the fallout of Original Sin.

We fear the presence of the LORD. We know that we are not worthy. We carry with us the instinctual understanding that God is God and our sin has created a vast gulf.

When Isaiah finds himself in the presence of God, he is overcome with the guilt of his own sin, his own unclean lips. Secondarily, he even is aware of the massive weight of the sin of his people and their unclean lips.

In the book of Exodus we see all of Israel gathered near the mountain of the LORD and God longs for them to come to Him, so much so that He calls for them to come up the mountain and has to be reminded by Moses that if they do so they will die. He causes His presence to come among them and then gives them the Ten Commandments from His own lips, sounding something like thunder and an earthquake. The people lose their minds and beg God not to speak directly to them; to find a man through whom to speak. Even when Moses takes this on they are unsettled by the glow around his face that was the consequence of his time in the presence of God Almighty. They feared the words of God so much that they began to hate and despise Moses at intervals leading to their classic sins.

Every prophet that truly spoke the words of God to sinful ears was persecuted into silence so the nation and its leaders wouldn’t have to hear; so that they could mute the words of God and pretend like He wasn’t watching, wasn’t seeing them for who they really were upon the earth; so that they could continue to ignore His presence.

Our greatest of grandparents hid from God in a “walled garden”, as if He somehow might wonder where they were and not find them. They seem to have snuck from tree to tree fearing, hiding themselves from, the Presence of the LORD.

Had God not intervened, had God not done something about it Himself, that is where we would have remained. In. Fear. And separated from God.

“But the LORD God…”

All versions of this phrase are my favorite thing in the scriptures. “But God…” He wasn’t content with simply leaving the relationship in that awkward place between the sinful act and confession. God acts to change the situation…ultimately for the better. God seeks restoration.

We know this place from childhood. We know the dread as our parent comes home, or walks into the room and discovers what we have done. We wish we could pretend nothing ever happened.

Humans are particularly inclined to ignore the proverbial elephant in the room, but no parent will do so when it comes to a child’s disobedient action. It is something we recognize just be dealt with as swiftly as possible. Why? So that the relationship can continue, that restoration can occur. And so it is, I believe with God. Sin occurred. Punishment had to be doled out. Justice requires this. Afterward, however, restoration can begin.

The LORD God calls out to the man. He calls out to the man, Adam, specifically. Why would this be if not for the fact that Adam is responsible as the Head. Adam was specifically told not to eat of that specific tree. Whether Eve was there at that first command is immaterial in some respects. Adam was the first. Adam knew better. Adam said nothing to prevent this. Adam was ultimately responsible. God doesn’t call for Eve. God doesn’t call for the snake. The “buck” is supposed to stop with Adam. This doesn’t get woman or slithering reptile off the hook for their part, certainly. Each is responsible for their own action, however had Adam taken responsibility, had he challenged, had he taken ownership of following God’s commands and caring for his wife and beat the snake to a pulp…the opportunity would never have been there for them to go down this road. Instead, God is in the Garden asking for an explanation.

The blame game begins, and has never stopped since.

Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. No one takes responsibility. The Serpent that had oh, so very much to say before, and eloquently too, remains mute before its Creator. Whether this is out of fear, respect, or smug satisfaction that its destructive plan was now firmly in place, we cannot know.

The most important thing in this section is Adam’s dodge in verse 12.

“The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

Does Adam blame Eve? Only partly. Adam does far worse and we’ve been doing it ever since.

Adam blamed God.

“It isn’t my ignorance. It isn’t my action. It isn’t even my inaction. Everything would have been perfect if You, oh LORD God, hadn’t… My sin? Well, what about her sin? His sin? I’m the victim. This is all about me and how You didn’t stop her, didn’t stop me, didn’t give me what I actually wanted, needed, wished for.”

We are so tempted to believe two things. 1) That our sin really isn’t that bad 2) When the first belief is proven incorrect and we see just how bad our sin is and whom we have hurt by it then it isn’t our fault. How could it be?

There were extenuating circumstances, naturally. Had I but known. Had I been warned. If You had just yanked my hand from the fire before I got burned. Where were You anyway? You had to come looking for me! Slacking on the job. Don’t you care at all? Some God You are.

Does any of this sound horribly familiar? Then both you and I are not alone. Our excuses are as flimsy as…fig leaves.

We follow and are in relationship with a God who not only is capable of forgiveness, but longs to forgive. He makes a way.

Remember the promised punishment that would follow if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

“In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

We were guilty. We knew it. We deserved death that very day in the Garden.

“But the LORD God…”