“And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Gen. 3:10) I have been studying the Scriptures for many years, and have at times strayed from the path, as all of us do, the old man (Rom. 6:6) and the world can exact quite a pull sometimes. Each of these occurrences in my life have been a cause of much repentance, and the knowledge of just how much of my own personal life I wasted in selfish pursuits and desires, and although I know I have been forgiven, those times still haunt me some days.
To be out of the will of the Lord is to be alone, He is of course still beside us, for He has promised to never leave us or forsake us, (Deut. 31:8) but the fellowship, the close, personal relationship that we have with Him is broken until we repent, until we, as the prodigal son did, come to ourselves again. (Luke 15:21) Our sins, when we look at them in relation to our fellowship with Christ, can at times make us exactly as Adam was at that moment, afraid. He had to have known something of the majestic power of God, for he and Eve were the last two creations of our Lord in the beginning, they were there after everything was completed, they did not witness the events. For Adam to know fear, a dreadful fright of the Lord as he heard Him walking in the garden, as he ran to find a place to hide, was to know firsthand the almighty power of our Sovereign Lord. Fear gripped him because he knew there would be repercussions because of his actions, because of his disobedience to the only commandment he had been given.
We do not know if our first parents understood the words of Gen. 2:17 “In the day thou shalt die,” but we can suppose one of the reasons Adam hid was because of the knowledge in his mind that when God found him, he knew it was not something that was going to be beneficial for him, and so he hid. But that is not how the Scripture portrays that moment, is it, we are not told it was because he feared death, the word says, “I was afraid, because I was naked.” As I mentioned in the beginning of this letter to you, I have been studying the Scriptures a long time, but as many of you probably know, each time you open the word of God there is a new revelation, a deeper understanding of the truth, another reason to praise His name. I would like you to read with me here Gen. 3:7 “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” Like I mentioned, something new each time, they were not naked, their flesh was covered, one of the first things in fact that they did after the fall was to make a form of clothing for themselves. So why did Adam say to the Lord that he was afraid because he was naked, did the sewing job they performed on the leaves fall apart, were the shoddy seamstress’?
Adam’s sin was before him, and he knew it, he could have had a complete three-piece suit on and still would have felt naked before the Lord. His friend, the only friend he had until Eve came along was now someone to be feared, not only in the possibility of the repercussions of his actions, but in a sense that he felt an overwhelming shame at what he had done to his creator, his friend. The commandment to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (Gen. 2:17) had been given in love, care and concern, and that confidence that God had placed in Adam, that trust, had been violated. He was not only afraid; he was embarrassed and ashamed.
That is why we hide my brothers and sisters, not only because of the fear of chastisement for sins we have not repented of as we are commanded to, given an opportunity to if you like, in 1 John 1:9, but because we are ashamed of ourselves, we have been blessed beyond measure, every possible opportunity has been offered to draw us closer to Christ every day, the hope is within us to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, (2 Peter 3:18) and when we rebel against His will for us, we feel shame, or at least we should. We have, as it were, turned our backs on the One who loves us so much that He died for us, and it does not matter how many leaves you sew together, we still feel naked, afraid and ashamed when we come into His presence.
Our Lord did not say “where are you,” (Gen. 3:9) because He could not find Adam, this wasn’t a game of hide and seek, He called for him to give him an opportunity to come out of hiding, to stand before his maker and give an account, a reason for what he had done, but alas, in this our first parents also failed, for he blamed it on the woman, on his wife. Do you remember what David said in Psalm 51:4, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned.” I will not judge character traits here, that is not my place, you may as well ask why Achan waited until the final lot was cast before it was revealed that he was the one that took the items from Jericho. Adam had a covering over his flesh, yet he said he was naked, and my friends, when we stand before the Lord when we have sinned, we are just as naked in His eyes.
Herein is where the decision must be made, are we going to rationalize that sin, will we try to come up with excuses for it, will we blame someone else for the actions that we ourselves are responsible for, or will we stand in His presence, and speak the truth, “I have sinned against thee, and against thee only, be merciful to me Lord, a sinner.” When Peter was with Christ in the boat one day, do you remember what he said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O LORD.” (Luke 5:8) The smallest sin should bring as much shame as the largest, we have broken the bond of fellowship, if even for a moment. Now you know why Jesus said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Matt. 27:46) God will not look upon sin without judging it, whether it is the sins of the entirety of mankind that was paid in full on the cross, or in the heart of one of His most beloved children, you.
There are few emotions more terrible than those of causing immense pain to a close and dear friend, think now then of the anguish we place upon God when we sin against Him, the One who loves us above all others. We will continue to do so though, each and every one of us will fall, but although a righteous man falls seven times, (Prov. 24:16) we will repent. Asking for mercy from our Lord is so much more easier than hiding from Him, seeking for His grace in these moments is much more calming than being afraid of Him. All children mess up, every one of them, and a loving Father wants nothing more than to forgive them and bring them back into His loving arms, to reassure them that they will be loved forever.
True repentance is so much easier when you know just how much you are loved, and that perfect love cast out all fear. (1 John 4:18) Come to Him today, He is not waiting in wrath and anger, but in love, come to Him in true repentance, and you will be welcomed with open arms.
