The Fall of Man, Part Four
A Devotional Series from Genesis
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
3/21 Reading Portions: Exodus 32; John 11; Proverbs 8; Ephesians 1
Genesis 3:8
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.
GUILT
As seen in the previous verse yesterday (Gen 3:7), when sin disrupts our fellowship before God, it is first visibly manifested in our shame before one another. We cannot be open or honest, even toward those with whom we are closest. But that only springs from the root cause, our broken fellowship with our Creator. That’s spiritual death. And as God spoke the universe into existence, it is the sound of Him that carries the troubling, trembling, insidious revelation that we’ve sinned against God. We’ve read this concerning sinful men throughout the biblical and historical record. David is a case in point. The shame of his sin caused him to be dishonest and dishonorable with Bathsheba, with Uriah the Hittite, and with the people of Israel as king, by trying to cover his figgy shame with the apron of his own deceit. He knew it was wrong because the sound of YHVH God still coursed through his veins. He was, after all, a man after God’s own heart. It wasn’t original with David. Original sin happened right here in Eden’s garden.
God does not yet speak. It is merely the sound of Him walking in the garden in the cool of the day. When we sin, the Holy Scriptures that we know become a mere sound, a clanging symbol, if you will (1 Cor 13:1). We recognize God’s presence, but instead of initially confessing, we hide in the trees among those things God created for our nourishment. We do so, knowing full well we cannot hide from God, but the wickedness of sin works in us so that the corruptions in our mortal flesh will attempt to convince us that we might be able to hide from Him. How do we hide among the trees when sin has captivated us? They were allowed to eat from and be nourished by all the other trees in the garden (Gen 2:16-17). You and I find nourishment in God’s infallible Word, strengthened in faith and growing in grace when we see Christ in Scripture, trust Christ from Scripture, and carry out the commands of Christ by Scripture through our loving and fearful response to God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. But when sin prevails, we use His Word to hide behind what He has planted in His Word, covering ourselves with a perverse justification by its leaves, and picking particular tree verses to justify our running from His loving work to seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10). We’ll consider the redemption of fallen man in the verses to come. Hallelujah! What a Savior!