GENESIS 3:8-15 DIVINE HIDE AND SEEK
It is interesting to listen to people talk. You hear about people who eat at McDonald’s two or three times a day, and then blame McDonald’s for their physical problems. We all know who is to blame on that one. You hear about the man who smokes three packs of cigarettes a day, and then sues the tobacco company when he has physical problems. And there are always people in court who are blaming society, the government, their upbringing, anyone but themselves, for their problems.
It is true that people don’t like to take responsibility for their actions. This is not a new development. This is a problem that’s been going on for a long long time. It’s part of a situation that we are going to talk about today, a situation that we will call “divine hide and seek.” Why is it that we don’t like to take responsibility when we make mistakes? How does this affect the way that God deals with us? These are some of the questions we will answer this morning, as we take a look at the subject of “divine hide and seek.” We will see how, first of all, we hide because of our sin. And second of all, we will see how God seeks us, because of his grace.
It all began with Adam and Eve and the fall into sin. Our Old Testament lesson brings us to that point where Adam and Eve had just eaten of the forbidden fruit. They both had sinned, and they both knew it. God came looking for them, and in verse 8, we see them hiding: “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Why didn’t Adam and Eve want to see God? Because they knew they were guilty.
God asks them, “Where are you?”and they tell him that the reason they are hiding is because they are naked. That’s not the real reason they are hiding! They were trying to cover up their sin. God questions them further, and that’s when we see Adam and Eve try hiding from responsibility. Adam says, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Adam says that it’s Eve’s fault. And really, Adam tells God, “It’s your fault, God. You put the woman here with me.” Adam is hiding from responsibility.
And then Eve blames the snake – it’s the snake’s fault. Eve hides from responsibility. Adam and Eve are trapped in the self-destructive pattern of hiding from God, and trying to argue their way out of trouble. But with God – this a bad idea – it never works – it will only lead them to hell.
This teaches us about our world today. There are many people today who are hiding from God. And the reason why, is because deep down, they feel guilt in their hearts – deep down they know that they have sinned, that they are accountable to God – but they don’t want to deal with it, and so they hide from God. If you mention God to them, they run in the opposite direction – they are hiding from him. This is why so many people are uncomfortable when you bring up the subject of God in conversation.
Like Adam and Eve, people also try to hide from responsibility. “It’s not my fault I’m selfish,” people say. “In our world today, you have to look out for number one.” In other words, it’s the world’s fault that I’m selfish. “It’s not my fault that I said unloving things to the people around me. I had a hard day at work.” In other words, it’s the workplace’s fault for the sinful things that I say.
Hiding from God, and hiding from responsibility – this is a self-destructive pattern that we sometimes fall into as well. We are tempted to do this every time we make a mistake in our lives, every time we sin. And as it was for Adam and Eve, so it is for us today – this way of dealing with our sin can only lead us to one place, and that one place is hell.
How good it is that we have a God who seeks us, because of his grace. He doesn’t let us destroy ourselves with our sin. He doesn’t let us argue ourselves into hell. He is a gracious and forgiving God who seeks you, even when you are hiding from him. This is what he did with Adam and Eve. Verse 9, he says, “Where are you?” He calls out to them. He knows why they are hiding. And when they try to cover up their sin, he questions them in verse 11: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” God wouldn’t let them continue in their self-destructive behavior.
Even after they blame each other, God doesn’t punish them. Instead, he tells them what he’s going to do. He curses the snake as a reminder that this was the animal the Devil used to tempt them. He breaks up their friendship with the Devil: “I will put enmity,” God says, and “enmity” means “hatred,” “between you, Satan, and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” No longer would the Devil and God’s people be friends. God put an end to that harmful relationship.
And then he tells the Devil that Jesus Christ is coming. Look at the second half of verse 15: “The Messiah will crush your head, and you, Satan, will strike his heal.” God here tells the Devil that the Messiah was coming, and ultimately, that Messiah would crush the power and work of the Devil.
Imagine a father, who is watching his daughter playing in the backyard, and all of a sudden his daughter screams. She has been cornered by a rattlesnake. The father runs into the backyard and attacks the snake with a shovel. The daughter escapes, and the father crushes the snake with that shovel. But after all the excitement is over, the father realizes that he was bitten in the heal by that poisonous snake. After some time at the hospital, the father is OK. In spite of his injured heal, he is very glad that he has saved his daughter.
This is what Jesus Christ has done for you. He came into the world and save the human race from the power of the Devil. He came face to face with Satan, and ultimately crushed him. The human race was saved, but during the process, the Devil struck Jesus’ heal – the Devil inflicted a serious wound on the Messiah. This happened, obviously, at the cross, when the Devil worked through people to kill the Messiah. But in the end, as you well know, Christ rose. He could not be defeated. He rose to prove to the world that he had defeated the Devil, that the human race had indeed been saved.
Isn’t it amazing, that God seeks out Adam and Eve when they are hiding from him? And even though they never confess their sin to him, he offers to them this amazing promise that the Christ was coming. What happened here to Adam and Eve teaches us a very important lesson today, and that lesson is this – you never need to hide from God. When you have sinned, you will be tempted to hide from God. Maybe stay away from his Word. Stay away from church. When you have sinned, you will be tempted to blame other people and hide from responsibility.
But today we learn that you never have to hide from God. After you have sinned, and God comes looking for you, just as he came looking for Adam and Eve, you will want to run because you will think that god has come to punish you. You will want to argue, hoping that you can convince God that it’s not your fault.
But then God surprises you, as he surprised Adam and Eve. He surprises you by coming to you not to punish you, but to forgive. “But how can that be?” you wonder. “How can God forgive me, when I haven’t done anything to earn that forgiveness?” It is a mystery.
But then God solves that mystery by pointing you to Jesus Christ, just as he pointed to Christ when he talked to Adam and Eve. Today we have a much clearer picture of that Messiah. We know him by name. We know how the Devil struck his heal. We know how he crushed the power of Satan by dying and rising from the dead. “This is why I forgive you,” God says to you. “This is why you never have to hide from me.”
One of the things I do as a pastor is visit our members who are not able to worship with us because of physical or medical problems. I give them the Lord’s Supper, but before I do, there are some passages and some prayers that we go through first. One of those passages refers to what we are talking about this morning – how we never have to hide our sins from God. Listen to this passage, 1 John 1:8: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” That is what God promises to do for you. Take everything you have ever done, and give it to God. He will be faithful and just, and will forgive you, because of Jesus Christ. Let this day be the last day you ever play hide and seek with God. Amen.
