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. Genesis 3:8
Wait?! Can someone tell me what that sounded like? I mean seriously, come on?!
This part gets me every time. Imagine your most precious relationship, shattered. Think about the history of Adam and God, Eve and God, and Adam and Eve. It’s all changed. And yet, in their deepest pit, God pursues them. It reminds me of the promise in Psalm 139:7: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” Even when we try to run, He is there.
But did you notice the shift? Before this, they were busy sewing fig leaves together. They thought they had fixed the problem. They thought they were “covered.” But as soon as they heard the sound of God, they realized their “good works” weren’t enough. They knew the covering wasn’t going to cut it, so they took it a step further: they hid. They went from trying to fix themselves to trying to disappear.
Isn’t that just like us? We try to “patch” our mistakes with our own efforts, but “we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6). Our fig leaves always fail when the Creator walks into the room.
Then God doesn’t start with a lecture; He asks a question. Wait… didn’t the enemy start with a question, too? The enemy’s question was designed to create distance. God’s question is designed to create discovery. He doesn’t directly expose them. He inquires: “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9).
He’s searching. In my deepest pit, He searched me out. In your deepest pit, He searches you out. He is the God who “comes to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
Look at the irony:
They ate from the tree.
They covered with a leaf from a tree.
They hid in a tree.
Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them. Psalm 115:8
What you behold is what you become. They weren’t just covering their skin anymore; they were hiding their very souls. They were becoming as wooden and lifeless as the trees they were hiding behind.
What are you beholding?