So the LORD God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9
Yesterday we watched a father run. A boy came home from the far country smelling like pigs, with a speech memorized and a job application at the end of it, and his father saw him a long way off and ran to meet him.
Have you ever thought about this in this way? If that’s really what God is like then hiding from him makes no sense. And yet we do it all the time. I’ve done it, and I’ve been a Christian most of my life and could tell you Luke 15 by heart. So I want to come back to the question I left you with yesterday. If the Father runs toward us, why do we keep running the other way?
To answer it, we have to go back to the first time anybody hid from God.
Before Anybody Hid
Start one verse before Genesis 3: Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame, Genesis 2:25. We usually skip this verse, but we need to see how it describes two people with nothing to cover and nothing to hide. They could be fully seen by each other and by God, and it didn’t bother them at all. That’s what you were made for, to be known all the way down and be at peace with it.
Then the serpent shows up, and the first thing he does is raise a question about God: Did God really say…? Genesis 3:1. By verse 5 he’s telling a story. God is holding out on you, keeping the good things for himself, and you’re not quite enough yet. The sad irony is that they were already made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). The serpent sold them something they already had and charged them everything for it.
They ate, and the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves, Genesis 3:7. Their bodies hadn’t changed since 2:25. What changed was trust. Once they believed the serpent’s story about God, they couldn’t stand to be seen by him. The first thing sinful people ever made was something to hide behind, and we’ve been sewing fig leaves ever since.
The Sound in the Garden
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden, Genesis 3:8.
Some of us grew up reading the cool of the day. Either way it’s evening, when the heat breaks and people come outside. And God comes on foot. The way Moses tells it, this doesn’t sound like the first time. It sounds like something God had done before, and they knew the sound of it.
The Hebrew word for walking there turns up again in a promise God made to Israel: I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people, Leviticus 26:12. What God did in Eden is what he promised to keep doing. He’s always wanted to be near his people. The walking was his idea.
That sound should’ve been the best sound in the garden. Instead it sent them into the trees, and Adam tells us why: I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid, Genesis 3:10. Those are the first words we have from a man to God after the fall, and the first thing sin taught him to say was I was afraid.
John explains it: There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, 1 John 4:18. Fear is what hiding runs on. We hide because we expect to be punished. The younger son expected it too, and that’s why he planned to ask for a job.
Where Are You?
Go back to verse 9. So the LORD God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
Does God know where Adam is? Of course he does. He planted the trees Adam’s hiding behind. So why ask?
Think about how you talk to your little boy or girl who is hiding under the bed after he’s broken something. You know exactly where he is, because you can see his feet sticking out. You still say, Where are you, buddy? You’re giving him the chance to come out on his own. God’s question works the same way.
Notice who does the looking, too. Adam doesn’t go looking for God. God comes looking for Adam, and he never stopped. Jesus said it about himself: For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost, Luke 19:10. Where are you? is the first time in the Bible that God goes looking for someone who’s lost. It isn’t the last.
Stories God Never Told You
Then God asks, Who told you that you were naked? Genesis 3:11. It’s a fair question. Nobody in the garden had said a word about it. God had made them that way and called it very good (Genesis 1:31). They’d been listening to another voice, and now they had a new story about themselves: if God really sees you, it’s over. God never said that. They picked it up somewhere else.
A lot of us are living on stories God never told us. You’re too far gone. He puts up with you, but he’s disappointed in you. If the people at church knew, they’d be done with you. Some of those came from a hard father, and some came from a church that talked more about the rules than about the Father. Some we wrote ourselves at three in the morning. And some came from the same voice that asked, Did God really say?
Then watch what Adam does. God asks him a direct question, and he points at his wife and then at God: The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate, Genesis 3:12. Eve points at the serpent. That’s another way to hide. You don’t need trees if you can stand behind somebody else.
Remember the older brother I said we’d come back to? He did his own version of this. When his father came out into the yard to plead with him, he hid behind his brother’s sins: this son of yours… who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, Luke 15:30. As long as he was talking about his brother’s failures, he never had to look at his own heart.
He Made the Clothes
The consequences in Genesis 3:14–19 are real. The ground is cursed, childbirth will hurt, and death comes. God doesn’t pretend the sin didn’t happen. But before he sends them out of the garden, look at what he does: The LORD God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them, Genesis 3:21.
Set that next to verse 7. In verse 7 they made coverings for themselves out of fig leaves. In verse 21 God makes the clothing and puts it on them himself, and they leave the garden wearing something he made. The text doesn’t stop to explain it, but skins come from somewhere. Something died so they could be covered.
Now think back to yesterday’s road. The same Father who clothed Adam and Eve at the edge of Eden threw his best robe over a boy who smelled like pigs. That’s what he does with people who come out of hiding. He covers them himself. For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ, Galatians 3:27. Our fig leaves were never going to be enough. His covering is.
That’s how Hebrews can say two things that sound like they shouldn’t go together. No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account, Hebrews 4:13. That’s Eden all over again, and you can’t hide. Three verses later the writer says, Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, Hebrews 4:16. You can walk boldly into the presence of a God who sees everything, because our high priest has already covered you.
Come Out of the Trees
So why do we keep hiding? Genesis 3 gives the answer. We hide because we’re afraid, and we’re afraid because we’ve believed a story about God that he never told. The cure is to hear his voice again. Where are you? is an invitation.
Think of one place you’ve been hiding, whether it’s from God, your family, or your church. This week, step out of the trees in that one place. Pray about it, the way a child talks to his dad, or tell one person the truth the next time they ask how you’re doing. If you wrote a name and a date on the back of your card Wednesday, you already know what that looks like.
We started this week with a question: when you picture yourself finally getting it right, whose face do you see? I hope the answer’s starting to change. It’s the face of a Father who went looking for Adam among the trees and ran down a road for a boy who’d wasted everything. He’s still asking, Where are you? And he’s already made the clothes.
MEMORY VERSE
Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 (CSB)
Weekly Challenge
Write down one story about yourself that God never told you, something like you’re too far gone. Next to it, write Genesis 3:21 or Galatians 3:27. Every time that old story shows up this week, read what God actually did instead.
From Fear to Faith | fromfearto.faith