The Holy Hound of Heaven
Genesis 3:8-10
Rev. Brian Bill
February 25-26, 2023
I’m not prone to read poetry, but I have found one poem to be both piercing and unforgettable. Published in 1893, G.K. Chesterton called it, “the most magnificent poem ever written in English.” To which J.R.R. Tolkien responded by saying Chesterton was not giving the poem the credit it deserves. Oscar Wilde commented, “Why can’t I write poetry like that? That [kind of writing] is what I’ve wanted to do all my life.”
The poem I’m referring to was penned by a man who had been deeply troubled by depression, poor health, poverty, and addiction to opioids. He even tried to commit suicide. In his poem, he described how he fled from God and hid from Him while searching for satisfaction in activities and experiences which ultimately left him unsatisfied.
Here’s how it begins (the old English makes it both majestic and a bit muddled to our ears).
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days
I fled Him, down the arches of the years
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the mist of tears I hid from Him.
One repeating refrain captures the loving and seeking heart of God who chases down a sinner trying to flee from Him.
I sped…from those strong feet that followed after [me].
But with unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat – and a voice beat,
More instant than the feet.
“All things betray thee, who betrayest me.”
This poem captures two truths:
• When we sin, we try to run and hide from God.
• When we sin, God seeks us and chases after us.
Does anyone know the name of this poem? It’s called, “The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson. If you want learn more, there’s an excellent short video adaptation of it posted on “Sermon Extras” on our website and mobile app.
Aren’t you glad there is no night dark enough to hide us, and no flight swift enough to carry us away from the pursuing love of God? As Corrie ten Boom famously said, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.” While the Puritans were fond of referring to God as the “Hound of heaven,” Adam and Eve were the first humans to hear the “Holy Hound of Heaven” pursuing them.
After being tempted by the serpent, and falling headfirst down the slippery slope of sin, the first couple experienced so much shame and guilt that they tried to hide from the One who is holy, holy, holy. Let’s read Genesis 3:8-10: “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. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’”
Here’s the main idea: God loves to seek sinners and longs to save them.
1. God comes to us relationally when we try to hide from Him. After Adam and Eve sinned, they “heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden…” This is the first “theophany” in the Bible, which is defined as “a visible manifestation of God that is tangible to the human senses.” Actually, I believe this was a “Christophany,” which is a pre-incarnate “appearance of Christ.”
Once again, we see how God is referred to as “Yahweh Elohim,” emphasizing both His power and His personal presence. Three times in three verses, He is called the Creator and the Covenant-keeper. The Hebrew suggests this was a normal and regular practice for God to be present with His creation in a natural and intimate way. This is further evidence that the Garden was like a Temple where Adam served as priest, and Adam and Eve enjoyed God’s presence in this sacred sanctuary.
The idea behind “walking” implies movement and literally means, “to walk back and forth.” God came walking, not running as one slow to anger. God is not distant from His creation but walks among us as stated in Leviticus 26:12: “And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
One of the greatest compliments you can pay someone is to say, “he or she walks with God.” We know from Genesis 5:22 that “Enoch walked with God” and Genesis 6:9 tells us Noah also walked with God.
The “cool of the day” refers to late afternoon or early evening. The Hebrew speaks of “spirit or breath.” It literally reads, “in the breeze of the day” when the evening winds would blow gently through the garden. It was common for people to walk later in the day when it was cool. During this time of the day, we become more reflective. I know this is the hardest time of the day for my dad because this is when he really misses my mom as memories flood his mind. As the breeze blows and night begins to fall, I wonder if Adam and Eve were mourning their loss of companionship and comfort with God as they attempted to cover up and conceal themselves.
This makes me think of the words to the song, In the Garden – “He walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am His own.” God wanted to walk and talk with Adam and Eve but instead they balked and bailed. In the place of being free, all they wanted to do was flee and hide behind a tree.
Many people read the story of Genesis this way: “Adam and Eve sinned. God came looking for them, chewed them out, cursed everything in sight, kicked them out of the garden, and locked the door behind them.”
Even though rebellion had ruptured their relationship with God, don’t miss how the Almighty took the initiative and searched for them while they were in hiding. God graciously seeks guilty sinners. However, instead of heading towards God, Adam and Eve “hid themselves” which has the idea of “concealing” themselves. They were so filled with guilt and shame that they tried to get as far away from God as possible. The phrase “presence of the Lord God” speaks of the wrath of judgment. This is demonstrated in Genesis 4:16 when Cain runs away from God’s presence and in Jonah 1:3, when the reluctant prophet tries to flee from the presence of God.
Adam and Eve hid among the very trees God had created, somehow thinking He couldn’t see them. One commentator offers this insight: To hide “among the trees of the garden” is a picture of “the deepest density and darkness of the garden, which now becomes an emblem of the world, and of that worldly enjoyment in which the sinner tries to hide himself.”
One pastor points out that Adam and Eve hid before God spoke to them. The presence of the Lord was enough to make them panic. When they heard Him calling, they were petrified.
Have you ever tried to hide from God? How’d that work out for you? No matter what you do, or how far away you try to flee, God takes the initiative to restore your relationship with Him. This is beautifully stated in Psalm 139:7: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?”
God loves to seek sinners and longs to save them.
• When we sin, we try to run and hide from God.
• When we sin, God seeks us and chases after us.
2. God calls us personally when we’re afraid of Him. I love how God’s first words to the first couple after they sinned were words of grace. The powerful and personal God called out to Adam, which means “to summon and invite.” Notice again how God holds Adam responsible, even though Eve was the first who sinned. I wonder if this also indicates it was Adam’s idea to go into hiding.
Then, He asked Adam a question, not because God didn’t know the answer but because He wanted Adam to think about where disobedience had brought him. The personal question He asked Adam is the same personal question He asks you and me today: “Where are you?” or in the King James: “Where art thou?”
Some of us read this question with a certain tone: “Where are you guys? You two really messed up! Come out here now!” Don’t miss this. The first thing God does when He approaches sinful humans is to draw them out of hiding. Derek Kidner is spot on when he writes: “God’s first word to fallen man has all the marks of grace.” God’s question invited confession because God wanted to reconcile, not retaliate. The great message of the Bible is that God searches for and still speaks to His fallen creatures through His Word.
God asks personal questions to get us to consider the condition of our hearts and to cause us to grow in our faith. Here are a few other questions that come to mind.
Genesis 4:9: “Where is Abel your brother?”
Genesis 18:9: “Where is Sarah your wife?”
1 Kings 19:13: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Matthew 16:15: “But who do you say that I am?”
Luke 18:8: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”
God obviously knew where they were hiding and that He would have to take the initiative to restore the relationship. His question was meant to stir Adam to his sense of being lost so he would confess his sin. E.J. Young expressed it this way: “God’s intention was not to harm them, but to help them.”
Instead of answering “where” he was hiding, Adam answered with “why.” God was trying to get Adam to admit his sin, instead he focused on the consequence of his sin in verse 10: “And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’”
Adam felt exposed in the presence of holiness, so he tried to deflect the question and hide himself. Their attempts at using fig leaves to cover up had failed and so did their plan to conceal themselves. Notice how God did not come suddenly upon them because they heard His sound when He was some distance away.
Also, observe that God’s presence was no longer a comfort and joy to Adam and Eve after they sinned. As one commentator said, “Now God’s presence was a terror to them…and they had become a terror to themselves.” Sin made Adam afraid of God’s presence and fearful of God’s power.
As sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, fear causes us to flee from God as well. We see this in how the people responded after receiving the ten commandments in Exodus 20:18: “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off…”
By God’s grace, He has allowed me to be a minister of the gospel for over thirty years. Here are two of the many things I’ve learned.
• Sometimes people avoid attending church because they don’t want to face their sin. Like Adam and Eve, it’s easier to hide and conceal your sins than it is to respond to God’s holiness and confess them. When Isaiah encountered the holiness of God, his initial reaction was to push back in Isaiah 6:5: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips.” Fear of exposure can cause people to unplug and when they unplug, it’s likely they will unravel. Sometimes people skip church because they know they’re sinning and don’t really want to change. D.L. Moody’s insight is true: “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”
• God is the true seeker of lost souls. While it’s been common in the church world to refer to people who don’t know Jesus as “seekers,” Romans 3:10-12 says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” If it weren’t for God drawing us to Himself, we would never come because everyone is born running away and hiding from Him.
Incidentally, I wonder if Adam was expecting God’s promise of death from Genesis 2:17 to come true after they had disobeyed: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” As the sun set and Adam heard God’s voice, perhaps he thought the Almighty was going to enforce His righteous justice. Don’t miss how God’s mercy did not vaporize them immediately. He came toward them like a tender shepherd calling out for His lost sheep. This makes me think of what Jesus said in Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
I like playing hide-and-seek with our grandchildren. My favorite part is when they cover their eyes, thinking since they can’t see me, somehow, they can’t be seen either. As Adam and Eve cover their bodies and conceal themselves in the trees, they foolishly think God can’t see them.
When I was growing up, we would play hide and seek outside, where it was much easier to hide behind trees, or even up in a tree. If I was the one seeking, I remember saying, “Ready or not here I come” after counting. Once I started seeking, then I would say, “Come out come out wherever you are.” When someone would locate an especially good spot and no one could find them, we’d eventually yell out, “Olly, olly, oxen free.” (we had no clue what it meant but it sure was fun to say). All we knew was it had something to do with the game being over and the last one found was declared the winner.
According to the trusted source Wikipedia, the exact origin of this phrase is uncertain but may be derived from, “all ye, all yet outs in free.” In other words, all who are out may come in without penalty. Others speculate it may be a corruption of an ungrammatical German phrase meaning, “all, all, are now also free.” Another simpler version was used as a call in the streets of London when playing hide-and-seek: “All ye, all ye urchins free.”
Fellow urchins, the game is over. It’s time to come out of hiding and be found by the One who has been seeking you for years. As one pastor put it, “Come out from behind the trees and move toward Him and taste the sweetness of His mercy.”
Why Revival Tarries
As I’ve observed and celebrated what has been happening at Asbury University and other college campuses, I was challenged by a post from Trevin Wax called, “The Burning Question From Asbury Isn’t About Asbury.” I want to share a few helpful excerpts (you can read the whole article on “Sermon Extras”).
You’ve heard the news of spiritual awakening at Asbury University: an ordinary chapel turned into an ongoing service of praise and worship, confession of sin, and celebration of salvation, and has now garnered attention from all over the country and sparked similar stirrings of spiritual intensity in other colleges and universities.
The burning question from Asbury isn’t about Asbury; it’s about you. It’s about your heart. It’s about your longing. It’s possible to say you want revival but deep down to not want the discomfort God’s presence might bring.
It’s possible to sing songs every Sunday asking for renewal while nursing grudges and bitterness you don’t want to be delivered from. It’s possible to enjoy the division in the church, your theological tribalism, or the secret sins you harbor, or to take twisted comfort in your complacency…
“I do not understand Christian people who are not thrilled by the whole idea of revival,” Martyn Lloyd-Jones said. I don’t either.
Whatever happens or doesn’t happen at the Asbury Awakening and beyond, may we be marked by a living thirst for a knowledge of the living God and an irrepressible desire to see Him at work in power, doing whatever He and He alone can do – in us and through us. The thrill of orthodoxy results not in arms crossed but arms uplifted.
And so, we sing with Fanny Crosby, the little old blind woman whose song still resounds:
Savior, Savior,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.
The staff and deacons spent time praying for God to awaken us and revive us on Tuesday as we keep Psalm 85:6 in front of us: “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” We know revival must begin with each of us personally and individually. Several young adults met before Mainspring last week to pray for revival. I was deeply moved last Saturday night to see one of our young adults sitting in the back and praying for revival while we gathered for worship. I almost started weeping seeing her praying while I was preaching
Let me ask you a question: Where art thou? Is there a sin you are holding on to? Is there an activity you’re hiding behind? Is it ambition? Bitterness? Hatred? Immorality? Fantasies? Gaming? Shopping? Your phone? Alcohol? Drugs? Hobbies? Possessions?
Many years ago, I heard a pastor say something like this: “What percent would you say you’re surrendered to Christ? 50%? 75%? That’s better than being half-hearted. 85%? That’s pretty good. 95%? That’s even better. Would you say, you’re 99% surrendered? That sounds really good, right? Actually, if you’re 99% surrendered, you’re still 1% short!”
Let’s ask God for the courage to pray this dangerous prayer found in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
If you don’t know Christ, you won’t be able to hide from Him when He returns. In fact, Revelation 6:16 says those who aren’t saved would rather have rocks fall on them and be buried alive than face the righteous fury of His wrath: “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”
It’s unsettling to know nothing is hidden from God, isn’t it? Jeremiah 23:24 says, “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.”
Instead of running and hiding, are you ready to see God’s pursuit of you as loving and gracious? A picture book for children called The Runaway Bunny captures this so well. In it, a small rabbit engages in an imaginary game of hide-and-seek and tells his mother he is going to run far away. His mother, however, gives him this assurance, “if you run away, I will run after you.”
When we try to evade and flee from God’s love, we hear His feet pounding behind us until we are driven to our knees by the emptiness and futility of our earthly pursuits. One reviewer of the Hound of Heaven adds, “His endless flight ends when the poet finally comes to see that the darkness of deprivation, which all along he feared, was really but the shadow of the Divine hand stretched over him in love.”
You are loved, friend. Are you ready to stop running and stop hiding?
God loves to seek sinners and longs to save them.
My pastor friend Ben Lovelady captures this passage in Genesis beautifully:
“Was Adam created to be hidden? Could it be that even in his boldness, there was an element where God created him to be enveloped by something greater? Yet, when Adam sinned, like a hermit crab that has lost its shell, he lost his strength and security and was now running scared – looking for alternate cover other than God…and worse, he runs for cover apart from God’s glory – among the very trees he was commissioned to protect…
“Enter Christ. He is our hiding place. Effectively, he whispers to Adam directing him to the proper tree behind which to hide. Jesus hides us in Himself before the Father, and we are safe. He’s absorbed our disqualifying sin, being distanced from the Father, Himself, so we might come close. From hiding to hidden.”
The holy hound of heaven persistently pursues us, causing us to remember that His kindness is intended to lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4). God’s grace will absorb our guilt when we turn to Him alone.
One of the lines from the Hound of Heaven refers to Jesus as “cypress-crowned.” Our Savior searches us and knows us and climbs the Cross for us, to hide us behind His tree that makes us free.
The tremendous theologian John Stott described his conversion like this: “My faith is due to Jesus Christ Himself, who pursued me relentlessly even when I was running away from Him in order to go my own way. And if it were not for the gracious pursuit of the hound of heaven I would today be on the scrap-heap of wasted and discarded lives.”
Are you tired of hiding? Do you want to stop trying to cover up your sins? Are you ready to come out into the open? Your only hope is to run to God, not away from Him. The very God you have rebelled against and resisted, is the only one who is ready to forgive and restore you. It’s time to come out of your hiding place.
If you feel guilty about your sins, that’s a good thing. You’ll never know you need God’s grace until you first admit you are guilty. You’ll never understand God’s love until you first admit how lost you are. Before you can embrace the good news of the gospel, you must first admit the bad news of your guilt before a holy God.
If God asked you this question, “Where are you?” how would you answer? This is a very personal question, isn’t it? Where exactly are you, and what are you doing there?
The Hound of Heaven ends with the wandering soul’s final surrender to God’s love: “Rise, clasp my hand, and come! Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest; I am He Whom thou seekest!”
Do you hear the footsteps of the “Holy Hound?” Stop running and stop hiding. Allow yourself to be found by Him. Turn and welcome Him. Surrender to Him. Come out, come out, wherever you are. The game is over.
Jesus only asks us to give up one thing to follow Him…and that’s everything.
If you are not yet saved, it’s time to be saved. If you are saved, but you are not 100% surrendered, it’s time to fully surrender in an act of rededication.
Invitation
