Where Art Thou?

WHERE ART THOU?

Genesis 3:9-19.

Adam was the representative head of the human race, and when he partook of the forbidden fruit he brought disaster and death upon all of his descendants. Spiritual death, separation from God, was immediate. Suddenly man and his wife realised that they were naked!

Physical death became an unavoidable prospect for mankind. Without the intervention of the LORD, there was nothing between man and hell.

When Adam and his wife heard the LORD God walking in the garden, they hid. It is quite sad to observe man’s feeble efforts to cover up sin. Breeches made of fig leaves may cover his outward nakedness, but he cannot silence his conscience.

We cannot hide from God. Neither can we hide our sins from Him. Ultimately the voice of the LORD cuts through the silence of that awful moment. “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9).

"It was the woman," protested Adam. "The woman you gave me!"

The woman defended herself: "The serpent beguiled me."

For his part, the serpent was not given the chance to answer on his own behalf. He had no right to be speaking anyway.

God's pronouncement of judgment against Satan was tempered with mercy towards the man and the woman. The enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman would culminate in the victory wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary, when He would at one and the same time have His heels "bitten" and "crush the head" of the Devil!

The relationship between the man and the woman became tainted by sin. The war of the sexes was begun! No longer was the woman going to enjoy being "like opposite" the man, but she would find herself desiring to rule over the man, and in fact be (wrongly) ruled over by man!

Man's days as a gentleman gardener were also at an end. The ordinance of work would give way to the tedium of toil. Since man had chosen to eat of the forbidden fruit, it would only be with a huge struggle that he would hereafter be able to sift out a living from the land.

The prospect of death at the end of his days of toil reminds man forever that out of the dust were we taken, and unto dust we must return!