blame — Faves of Dave - Bible Study

Gen. 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. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The first people were given one simple, clear, prohibitive command by God with very clear consequences if they disobeyed that command. They would surely die. Yet, they listened to the serpent’s lie, and they ate the forbidden fruit. The one part of the serpent’s promise that was true was that their eyes would be opened. (v.5) But that did not make them more like God. In fact, it diminished their likeness in that they were no longer innocent.

So when we pick up the story in verse 8, the author tells us, “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. (v.8) If you stop and ask yourself, “How did they recognize the sound of the LORD God walking?” I believe the only possible answer is that they’d heard it before. God had entered into their presence before in a way that was more than just a feeling. They had a relationship with God that God had initiated. God apparently liked to visit with his people and have a relationship. This is another important truth about God’s intended design for humans and one that we’ll see come up time and again throughout the Scriptures.

Because their eyes were opened, we were told that they saw that they were naked and they made loin cloths of fig leaves. But now they wanted and attempted to hide from God. Perhaps I’m pushing the interpretation here a little bit. But I see some irony in this because the promise by the serpent was that they would “be like God.” Yet they are so foolish to think they can hide from God.

So, I think we, as readers, are supposed to think, “Hey fools! You can’t hide from God.” But God plays the game. God arrives at the place where it seems they would have met before, and God asks, “Where are you?” Instead of outright stating their offense, God draws them to confess their offense.

In verse 10, Adam’s response, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself,” reveals something about violating God’s law. There is no indication whatsoever that Adam ever had a reason to be afraid of the LORD’s presence until he disobeyed God. I think that’s just as true today for us as it was back then. God does not want us to live in fear of Him but in love and relationship. We experience the peace God wants for us when we trust him and follow him.

Adam’s response not only reveals his location, it reveals his action of disobedience. God uses the man’s words against him as though he were a prosecuting attorney in a court case. (Which is essentially what this is.) “Who told you that you were naked?” God had made the man and woman oblivious to their nakedness. So, the LORD follows that with the direct question, “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (v. 11)

The jig is up, as they say, and Adam knows it. But before he comes clean, he attempts to redirect the blame. “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (v. 12) Did you notice who he blames first? He blames God in saying, “The woman who you gave . . .” Then he blames the woman and finally, “and I ate.” It’s a confession of sorts. But he’s trying to play that he’s the victim. This is absurd, considering that he was the one who directly received the command from God and was present when the serpent contradicted God’s word.

Before saying anything else to Adam, the LORD turns to Eve and asks her a question: “What is this that you have done?” Eve also tries to redirect the blame. It’s not that either Adam or Eve lied. But they are both attempting to make excuses for their disobedience to the LORD’s command. She just says, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (v. 13)

I’m going to stop at this point for this week’s study, and we’ll pick it up next week when the LORD God addresses the serpent and returns to both Adam and Eve to explain the consequences of their actions. But there are certainly takeaways for us from these few verses, aren’t there?

Primarily, God wants to have fellowship with us, and that can only happen when we obey His word. Later in the New Testament, the apostle John writes, “6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:6-10)

This is great news! Through Jesus's death on the cross, we have forgiveness for our sins. We receive that through faith in him. When we sin (disobey God’s righteous standard), it disrupts our fellowship. We experience that in our relationships with other people, right? If someone offends us, the relationship still exists, but the mutual joy and encouragement that normally exists within the relationship is strained. The offense needs to be acknowledged and made right to restore and maintain fellowship with others and the LORD. That kind of fellowship is free of fear.