It was something that happened on a regular basis, at least from the image of the Hebrew language: the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

But this time it was different:

  • Both the man and woman had disobeyed God

  • They had hidden themselves from God

  • God was walking alone

  • God must have known why it was different because He is God

Then the question that could be heard throughout the garden by all of God's creatures: "Where Are You?"

This is how  Genesis 3:8-9 reads:

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. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"

I am struck by the fact that immediately after they disobeyed Him, God still wants to know where they are. And while there are consequences to their action, it is God who makes them clothes (v 21) and even after they left the garden, the man and the woman acknowledge God as the one from whom life comes (Gen. 4:1).

God is always asking, "Where are you?" even after you have sinned against Him.

How many times after the Jews left Egypt did they say they would do what God had commanded, and didn't?

How many times in the book of Judges does it say "and the Jews did what was right in their own eyes" and had to have God rescue them by sending judge after judge?

Saul, David and the prophets personally and representatively claimed to follow God and then disobeyed.

And still God called, wanting to know where they were.

It is in  Luke 15:4-9, that Jesus tells about the Shepherd who searches until he finds the last sheep and rejoices. It was the Shepherd who did the looking.

God is always asking, "Where are you?"
It is God who sent His Son to allow us to live with Him (John 3:16) and then read verse 17. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him might be saved."

It is the final book of the Bible, Revelation, where this idea becomes complete in verse 3:20:

Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to Him and dine with him and he with me.

God, Jesus, take the initiative, they are at the door.

The action of God at the beginning of the world — calling to know where you are, knowing that you have disobeyed Him — is the same at the end of the world as He stands at the door waiting for you to open it.

Are you afraid to answer? Feel unworthy to open the door? I know how that feels and I can help you know Jesus. Write me at bbrant@heraldoftruth.org or join our blog at hopeforlife.org.

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