by Pastor Steve Ellison
Sometimes in the Scriptures, God asks questions. We would be wise to pay attention to His questions. The questions God asks are certainly designed to get you and me to carefully examine our condition, motivations, attitudes, and actions. Let’s consider the event that brought on His first questions. Genesis 3:8-13, 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. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” (NASU)
Can you hear the sound of a heart breaking? The story told by Genesis 3 is certainly a line by line description of a heart being torn to shreds, ripped out and stomped upon. God, the all powerful, all knowing, all loving, perfect Creator, loved and fellowshipped with His creatures. He gave us the power to choose or reject Him. Tragically, we rejected Him. Satan lied. Eve ate. Adam ate. Can you hear it? I mean the sound of The Heart breaking. Can you imagine the pain? Is that Heart still being broken by my sin? Burn this picture into your memory, never let it go. The Creator in unspeakable agony, walking in Paradise in the cool of the evening calling over and over again to His creation, “Where are you? Where are you?” Certainly, the all-knowing Creator knew the answers to all the questions. The questions are to get us to consider the great wrong we have done.
The answers are devastating. Even though Almighty God knew the answers it surely must have cut into His heart like a knife anyway. Tragically the creature said to the loving Creator, that he was afraid of Him and hid from Him. Praise God that in all his righteous wrath, He did not and does not respond as you and I likely would. Even before He dealt with Adam, and before He dealt with Eve, God’s very first move was to declare that a Savior would right this terrible wrong! Hallelujah! The woman’s seed would crush the serpent’s head! We would be offered marvelous, matchless mercy and grace allowing us to be freely restored to right relationship with God.
Dear reader, are you in right relationship with your Creator, in fellowship with Him? He still walks in Paradise calling over and over and over again, “Where are you?” “Where are you?” He is letting His rebellious creatures know that still He longs for their return. For your sake, please don’t be afraid, please do not hide. Avoiding Him is the only thing you have to be afraid of. In fact, the punishment for avoiding Him is eternal separation from Him. God has written a lengthy love letter to you describing His love for you. God has made a way for you to be reconciled to Him. You need only repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus, the Christ, proclaiming Him as your Lord. There is no other way.
