Origins: The Beginning (Genesis 1–11)Sample

By Pastor Dan Hickling

“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:8 (NKJV)

Perhaps you’re familiar with the old adage, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” This basically means that despite dramatic changes on the surface of something, its underlying nature remains unchanged. This proverb is perfectly played out in the proceeding passage as Adam and his wife hide from God.

Allow me to elaborate.

Consider the context here. Adam and his wife just did the unthinkable. They did the one thing that God told them not to do! They ate the fruit of the tree that was forbidden to them. In doing so, they did something that had not occurred up to that point—they disobeyed God; they sinned!

Does that ring a familiar bell in your own life? Have you ever been in a situation where you knew God had said one thing, and yet you chose the other? Has there been an instance when you knew you weren’t supposed to do something, say something, see something, think something, and yet you went ahead and did it anyway? 

Of course you have. We all have, and because we have, we know what sin is. The point is that we are essentially in the same position that Adam and his wife were. They sinned, and true to our first ancestors, we sin, too.

Now watch their first instinct when it comes to the presence of God. What do they do? Do they run up and wrap their arms around Him and ask to be forgiven for what they’d done? Not at all. In fact, they do the exact opposite; they hide from Him, or at least they tried to!

Is that bell ringing again? Just as we can all relate to their first mistake, we can equally relate to this. When sin is active in our lives, our instinct is to run and hide from God. Why? Because we sense that He is holy and we are not. The more things change (and a lot has changed since Genesis 3), the more they stay the same. Our impulse, as sinners, is to try and hide from God, to flee from His righteous presence, to carve out some slice of seclusion for our sinful selves.

While we may want that (or we may think we want that), God doesn’t. He understands the instinct to hide from Him, which is why He pursues us with persistent mercy. He lovingly reaches out to us as we are trying to hide our shortcomings and shame from Him. We would do well to stop running and hiding, and run to Him.

DIG: What effect did sin have on Adam and his wife? 

DISCOVER: What do we see in ourselves in this passage? What should you change as a result of this?

DO: Are you hiding from God right now? Is there some area of your life that you haven’t surrendered, are ashamed of, and are trying to avoid His presence in it? Stop running and confess. He sees you even when you try to hide it. He’s not coming after you with condemnation, but with mercy, grace, compassion, and the love of a perfect and good Father.