“WHERE ART THOU”?

TEXT:  GENESIS 3: 6-8

SUBJECT: “NO HIDING PLACE”!!

SCENE:  GARDEN OF EDEN

EVENT: THE FALL OF MAN (This is where “MAN” sinned against God and fell out of spirit relationship with Him).

In the first chapter of Genesis, we see God the Great Creator, Elohim in action creating the heaven and the earth and the creation of all the beast of the field and the fowl of the air. We see the creation of “man” and God’s command to him to have dominion over what God created. 

In chapter two we see how the LORD God, the man (male and female) that the Elohim Creator God has put in charge of the creation at work.  He forms man of the dust of the ground.  These people were already in existence but they were “dead” (void of the life of God Himself), but the LORD God breathed into them the breath of life and they became “living souls”.  Just as we were according to:

• Ephesians 2:1:And you hath he quickened (made alive), who were dead in trespasses and sins;

• Vs 5-6: Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened (made alive) us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved); And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
  And the LORD God plants a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed (Genesis 2:8).
  Here the LORD God became an anesthesiologist causing man to fall into a deep sleep, and then, a master surgeon and removed a rib from man’s side, and as master builder constructed a woman from that rib and gave her to “the man” to be an help meet (not a help mate). 
  Mate, in Webster is defined as a companion or fellow worker; a husband or wife; to join as a couple; to couple in marriage or sexual union.
  Meet in Hebrew is e’zer, meaning aid; it goes to another word azar’, meaning to surround; protect or aid; help.   (This definition says nothing about a “sexual union”).  
  This Woman, whom Adam eventually names Eve, was the “mother of all living” (not breathing).  The LORD God brings forth “Eve” so that Adam would be able to have a spiritual relationship or a "seed planting” relationship with this body of people called the “woman” and impregnate her with the spoken word, so that she could beget (not birth) sons and daughters for God’s Kingdom.  Those that she would beget were already born or brought to birth in physical form, but now she the woman (the church) would go into travail and bring forth “sons of God”.
  The taking of the “rib” from Adam’s side, which was Woman, was a type of the church, which was a picture of the woman or church coming forth out of Jesus’ side when they pierced Him in His side on the cross.  He’s bringing forth “sons” of God through His bride by having a “spiritual relationship” with her and not a “sexual relationship”.
  God Elohim tells the male and female in Genesis one to be fruitful and multiply and everything was perfect.  The LORD God empowers the man and woman in chapter two and everything was still perfect. 
  Chapter three, we encounter the tempter, that old serpent, the devil, Satan, the opposer, the enemy of God, that old roaring lion that walks about seeking whom he may devour and the devastation he brings with him that results in the fall of man.
  I want you to see, hear, and feel the heartbreak of God.   But instead of man receiving His wrath and judgment, we witness His love, grace, and mercy.

• Genesis 3:9: And the LORD God called unto Adam and said unto him, “Where art thou”?

Let’s be clear here, God knew exactly where Adam was in position and conditionally. He wasn’t playing the “hide and go seek game” as if He didn’t know where Adam was in respect of location. Why, because God is Omnipresent.  Meaning, He’s everywhere present at the same time. There’s no place where God is not. He is Omniscient (all knowing, and El Roi “the God that’s all seeing”). So it’s no doubt He didn’t have to send out a search party. 

Think about it, if God wasn’t calling in search of Adam relative to location, then what was the real reason for this call?

Can you imagine Adam’s first conversation with his delightful, new companion?  It must have been about the rules of the garden. Before the LORD God made Eve He had already given Adam complete freedom in the garden, with the responsibility to tend and care for it. But one tree was off limits, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam would have told Eve all about this. She knew when Satan approached her that the tree’s fruit was not to be eaten. Really, the fruit was never intended for nourishment, the intent was for trials, not food. The desire for knowledge is a natural part of man’s original constitution, as well as, man’s desire for food, but must be kept under governing of conscience reasoning. 

However, she decided to eat the forbidden fruit. Then she offered some to Adam. At that moment, the fate of creation was on the line. Sadly, Adam didn’t pause to consider the consequences. He went ahead and ate, so as to keep fellowship with this “adulteress woman”.

In that moment of sin, all rebellion something large, beautiful, and free was shattered…..God’s perfect creation. Man was separated from God by his desires to act on his own. The effect of a plate glass window is the same whether a pebble or a boulder is hurled at it---thousands of fragments can never be regathered.

In the case of man’s sin, however, God already had a plan in motion to overcome the effects of the rebellion. The entire Bible is the story of how the plan of God ultimately unfolds manifesting Himself in flesh form in His Son Jesus the Christ. His sinless life and death made it possible for God to offer forgiveness to all who want it. Our small and large acts of rebellion prove that we are descendants of Adam. Only by asking forgiveness of Jesus Christ can we become the children of God.

Here God is calling Adam out, “Where art thou”?  His call to Adam is not a call of a policeman, but a call of yearning love. Disobedience is sin, and it breaks our fellowship with God.  Fortunately, when we disobey, God is willing to forgive us and to restore our relationship with Him. 

• 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is a prophetic call. It’s a call of Divine Justice which couldn’t be overlooked. Adam/Mankind chose their course of action (disobedience) and God chose His. As a Holy God, He responded in a way that’s consistent with His perfect moral nature. He could not allow sin to go unchecked. He had to punish it.

It was a call of Divine love offering redemption from sin. It may appear that God is just speaking to Adam, but prophetically He is talking to “MANKIND”, THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE from the time that Adam fell, UNTIL WE ALL COME IN TO THE UNITY OF FAITH (Ephesians 4:13). 

Even though, it was spoken in the Garden of Eden, some six thousand plus years ago. God was literally posing that very question to each of us here today, “Where art thou”?

The call was because of God’s connection to man. He had a special relationship with man. After all, MAN, was His greatest creation, His masterpiece. Man was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 39:14) because God carefully mixed His DNA cocktail that formed you and me. He cares about His creation. Not only that, but He named man.  What’s so special about naming something or someone?

Well, it indicates a relationship. When a child is born the parents are the ones who have the privilege of naming that child. Why? Because of the special relationship they have with the child. On the norm, the relationship is a continual attachment or association between the persons. That’s the way it was with the LORD God and Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:19 [here is the first time the name Adam is mentioned in the Bible]:

• “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every foul of the air, and brought them unto “ADAM”.

The LORD God called him Adam, meaning ruddy, to turn rosy, red, show blood in the face, mankind.

However, before this Adam is called simply “the man”.

• Genesis 2:8: “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put “the man” whom He had formed.  

This man was formed into the image and likeness of God. Not a creature evolved from a lower life form, a man (male & female) that was already here and He formed him into God’s image as it relates to the will, intellect, emotions, reasoning, and thought. 

The word formed is from the root word yatsar’ meaning to squeeze into shape; to mold into a form as a potter; to determine (form a resolution); fashion; frame; make. 

The LORD God brought him out of the “dust”, not the dirt, but the “dust”, aphar’, the pulverized gray color of death that he (they) were in and breathed the breath of God into him (them) and he (they-male & female) became a living soul.  Meaning, the LORD God breathed into “the man” the “breath” (neshamah’), divine inspiration (creative ideas and action) and intellect (the ability to not only understand knowledge, but also to accept it), of life, which impelled or drove him forward to know what it would be like to rule and reign as an agent or ambassador for God in the earth and did so!

The LORD God takes this man and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life and makes him a living soul.

You see the connection. God knew exactly what He was doing. It was His plan to prepare a body, Adam, a family, Jesus, (you/me) created just like HIM to carry out His plan.

What plan? To bring the invisible kingdom into the visible world right here and right now through His people.  

• Exodus 19:6: And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.  
• Revelation 5:10: And hast made us unto our God kings and priests:  and we shall reign on (over) the earth.  [Not up beyond the blue but here]!
   This can’t be done through religion (it holds you in bondage in the “I can’t” world), but it can be done through a relationship in the “I can” world.

• Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me:

Understand that every relationship is established and maintained through communication. It’s the mortar that holds relationships together. Love is the foundation, but communication is the mortar between the bricks.

For a period of time, Adam/Eve enjoyed their relationship with God in the garden.

The “garden of Eden” was not a forest of trees and flowers, but it was a high place, a place of power, dominion, and authority in God, just as “heaven” is to us today, an elevated place of power, dominion, and authority in God.

They (Adam a Body of people – male & female), walked in perfection, they were immortal (not subject to death), freely communicating with God, free of fear, no sin, no pain, no sickness, no evil distractions. They had dominion, power and authority over all of God’s creation, standing guilty free before God, knowing God Almighty. Adam knew from whom he came, and so did Eve. There was no struggle for equality, there was divine order operating in these people.

God had blessed them and had given them a commission, Genesis 1:28-30, “Be fruitful and multiply”.  Now through the LORD God everything was in the capable hands of Adam and Eve. This was God the Creator Elohim’s idea from the beginning and He saw everything that He had made and everything He had done and it all met with His approval. “Indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

When Adam/Mankind disobeyed the LORD God’s command and ate of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil. They immediately lost communication or spirit fellowship with God and caused their relationship to crumble and fall. The instant man is out of communication/relationship with God, the first thing they want to do is to hide from God. 

David made it clear in Psalms 139, you can’t hide from God, He said “If I ascend up into the heavens, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell thou art there. If I take wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me”.

Adam is proof, trying to hide among the trees (other people) in the garden, but God is a watchman and observer over our lives. He’s watching every aspect of us with eyes of love. As soon as mankind fell, God came to seek out the lost. You would think Adam/Mankind would have sought God first. After all, it was him/mankind that followed after the transgression of the “woman”.  But it was him/mankind that severed the lines of communication because the command was given to him. He committed spiritual adultery, which is apostasy or desertion on one’s professed faith or party.  He/mankind ruined the relationship. It was he/mankind whose soul was not at rest leaving God brokenhearted because the relationship He had with mankind was severed and the creature He created and covered with His Shekinah glory was uncovered and made naked through sin. God is brokenhearted because the position Adam/Mankind was now in is a result of the condition he placed himself in. God is brokenhearted because what He created without fear is now afraid of his Creator. God is brokenhearted because He gave Adam everything he ever needed and simply told him to till the ground and not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Despite all that Adam had done, Our God of Love, Grace, and Mercy sought out Adam. Scripture says, “There’s none that seeks after God” (Romans 3:11).

It was God who sought out and called Abram while yet an idolater.

It was God who sought Jacob at Bethel when he was fleeing from consequences of wrong doings.

It was God who sought after Moses while a fugitive in Midian.

It was Christ who in His ineffable love, came to seek and to save that which was lost. 

It was Christ who sought out the Apostles while they were fishing so He could say, “Ye have not chosen ME, but I have chosen you

It’s the shepherd who seeks the sheep and not the sheep that seek the shepherd.

This question to Adam was not a question of position or location, but of condition and it was prophetically directed to mankind, the entire human race, although at this time it was the Adam race of people and Eve (the church, the body of people taken out of Adam) God was speaking to which affected the entirety of creation.

IT WAS A WAKE UP CALL   

This call was to awaken man’s consciousness to the state of his condition.  After sinning, Adam/Eve felt guilt and embarrassment realizing they were naked (uncovered of God’s righteousness). The spirit of fear was now governing over their life instead of the voice of God. He is now warring against the law of his mind and being brought captive to the law which is in his members.

It was their guilt that made them run and attempt to hide from God. A guilty conscience is a warning signal God placed inside you that goes off when you’ve done wrong. The worst thing you could do is eliminate the guilty feelings without eliminating the cause. That’s like using a pain killer, but not addressing the disease. Be glad for the warning signal. It’s an alarm system. It will awaken you or make you aware of your sin so you can ask God’s forgiveness and correct your wrongdoing.

A CONVICTION CALL

Designed to convince mankind of their sin and lead them to confession of sin. Adam realized he was cut off from communing with God and had a ruined relationship, and he was devastated. Conviction is a supernatural work of the Spirit of God. It works upon the heart of man and pierces it like a spear causing him to stop and think and say, “Oh Lord, what have I done”? 

Take a look back over your life viewing where you come from and where you are now. It will cause you to cry out too for God for deliverance.

My question to the Church today is, “Where art thou”?

Evangelist Brenda Hansley