Welcome. Today we are going to be talking about Adam and Eve, specifically some of the questions that God asked them after they had bit into the forbidden fruit. God asks some thought provoking questions of our original duo, of which can serve as very good lessons for us even today. So without further ado, let’s examine the questions the Almighty put forth to humanity’s original parents.

(Gen 3:9) And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? There are many people that claim this verse proves that God is not all knowing because He asked about Adam’s location. This is not true. God knew exactly where Adam was, what He was doing was trying to get Adam to take responsibility for what he had done. God was giving Adam a chance to tell the truth: “I’m hiding from you God because I have sinned”. This is not an uncommon situation. I, as a parent, have been in this situation many times before. I have, at times, known exactly where my kids were, but I would call out to them anyway, to test them and see if they would admit the truth of the situation or if they would hide it.

My daughter once went to a friend’s house instead of going to a school function like she was supposed to. I found out about it, and called her, asking her where she was. I already knew she was at the friend’s house, but I gave her the chance to ‘fess up. I think this is quite similar to what was going on with God asking that first question.

Imagine now what answer you might have if God asked you where you are. How do you stand with God? Are you a Christian? If not, you certainly need to be! (2Co 5:17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. You need to be a new creature as well. (Rom 8:1) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Getting saved provides a great answer when God asks ‘where are you?’

If you are a Christian, that’s great, but the question is still important. Are you keeping God’s commands? Are you working to do His will every single day? Are you a faithful and diligent soldier of the cross? Since no one is perfect, there is always something more we can do to improve our walk with Christ. Are you working to try to be better, or are you complacent and stagnant in your faith?

Some people say that they don’t know where they are in relation to God. We all need to be diligent to make sure we stand in favor with the Lord. (2Ti 2:15) Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That’s how we can keep ourselves in the proper alignment, by studying and doing the Lord’s work the best we can.

We all need to remember the basics of being with God, fearing God, and serving God. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes made a list of the ‘vain things’ in life and fearing God and keeping His commandments were certainly not on the list. In fact, the writer said that fearing and serving God was of the utmost importance. (Ecc 12:13) Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecc 12:14) For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

When God asks ‘where are you?’ make sure that you can answer ‘right here!’ and have no reason to hide. Adam, on the other hand, was in bad shape. (Gen 3:10) And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. This leads us into the next question that God asked.

(Gen 3:11a) And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Again God knows the answer, but He’s still giving Adam a chance to speak for himself. This question comes up because Adam and Eve weren’t really into clothing that much before. (Gen 2:25) And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. By being ashamed Adam was showing that something suspicious was going on. They were innocent before they ate the fruit, not caring about nudity. When Adam said that they were naked, he was showing that he was no longer innocent. He had received the ability to discern good from evil.

This leads God to ask ‘who told you this?’ which we know of course was the Devil. Again I want to think about what it would be like if God was asking us the question. Now obviously He wouldn’t be talking about nudity, but He might ask us ‘who told you premarital sex is okay?’ Or ‘who said white lies don’t matter?’ How about ‘who told you that ‘gosh dang’ isn’t profanity?’

Just as Adam and Eve had been fed bum information by the Serpent, we too often take our information from sources that are not reliable. We need to stop and take the time to consider where our information is coming from.

(Gen 3:11) Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? This is God’s third question to Adam. Again God knew what was going on, but He wanted Adam to see his sin. Getting people to see the sins in others is easy, but it can be very difficult to see sin in oneself. Therefore we need to be highly objective when examining ourselves.

(2Co 13:5) Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? We need to look at ourselves and make sure we are actually holding true to the faith, proving to ourselves that we’re on the right path. We need to do this because we all sin. (Rom 3:23) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; this is reason enough to stop on occasion and make sure we haven’t fallen back into our old ways.

Adam could not see his sin. He blamed Eve, who then blamed the Devil. This is actually pretty much human nature. We don’t like to think that we’ve done wrong, and we will actually rationalize our behavior away so that we don’t have to face the fact that we are indeed imperfect people. We must take responsibility for our sins, and be sorry that we’ve committed them. And this remorse has to be more than what the world considers remorse. For with the world, a person is not sorry for their sins, they are sorry that they were ‘caught’ either by others, or by their own conscience. No, we must repent the way God tells us to. (2Co 7:10) For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. To be sorry on a worldly level is to be dead.

(Psa 32:5) I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. The Psalmist is telling us how to be repentant, to be completely honest and open, and confess to the Lord our sins, and He is faithful and true to forgive them. (Psa 51:17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. To be of a humble, even broken, spirit before the Lord is more valuable than even sacrifices, and God will look after those that come to Him in the uttermost humility.

(Luk 13:3) I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Repenting is godly sorrow, not the sorrow of the world, which is sinful and not pleasing to God. Here’s an example for us: (Luk 18:10) Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. (Luk 18:11) The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. (Luk 18:12) I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. (Luk 18:13) And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (Luk 18:14) I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Notice that Adam was not humble before God. Instead he was accusatory, saying that it was Eve’s fault, who then turned and emulated Adam audacious behavior by accusing the snake. God was giving Adam a chance to be repentant, which of course Adam missed out on.

God’s final question to Adam and Eve was spoken towards Eve, though I’m sure it applied to both of them. (Gen 3:13a) And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? God is giving the pair another chance at realizing just how serious the sin they had committed was. Surely Eve wanted to think that all she had done was nibbled a bit of fruit off of a tree, but she had done so much more than that. That is like people today. They do sinful things, and then think ‘oh that was such a little thing!’ when it is indeed a huge thing to God, as all sin is.

In fact, God had told Eve that if they ate of that fruit, ‘in that day you will die’ which is a seriously hardcore consequence. Adam and Eve lost so very much over that sin. They lost their homes and their lives. They introduced sin and death into the world. They changed the way everyone that came after them would live. They changed everything, top to bottom, for all of us.

How many have uttered that phrase in history? “What have I done?” A drunk driver after having killed someone in an accident might say “what have I done?” A spouse that loses their marriage because of their infidelity might wonder “what have I done?” A mother might say “what have I done?” after seeing her child fall into a bad crowd because she was too busy to parent properly. A drug addict might see their mangled and dying bodies, and call out “what have I done?”

It’s clear what happened in those instances, but what about when the answer to the question is “nothing”? What about when we ask ourselves how we’ve served the Lord and the only answer we can find is “nothing”? (Jas 4:17) Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

In the fall of Adam and Eve, God asked revealing and ultimately beneficial questions. First He asked “where are you?” We should ask ourselves on a daily basis just where we are in terms of our relationship with God. If you are not a child of God, you need to become one. If you are out of fellowship with God, you need to return.

“Who told you that you were naked?” This reminds us to remember who told us how to live this way or that way. We need to remember that the ultimate source is from the Lord. We need to make sure we don’t stumble on the traditions of men.

“Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” This reminds us to ask ourselves if we have sinned. Have we done things we’re ashamed of? Have we done things that are wrong? We need to make sure our hearts are right with God.

“What is this you have done?” This reminds us to remain humble and to repent if we have the need to do so. We need to keep a meek spirit, and avoid pride.

Make sure that you can answer “I am repentant of my sins and stand right with the Lord in a close personal relationship! Christ is with me, and if I die today I will be with the Lord forever!” Until next time, God bless.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized | . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.