Adam, “Where Are You?”

Adam, “Where Are You?”

Sunday, January 9, 2022

After the devil asks the first question of the Bible that introduces doubt into Eve’s mind and lays the course for the descent into sin, the Lord God comes on the scene and asks a series of questions. I’ll talk mostly about the first one, but here are the others as well:

• “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9)
• “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Gen 3:11)
• “What is this that you have done?” (Gen 3:13)

The question we hear most often, by both Christians and non- Christians, is “Where is God?” We ask that when we want Him to be obvious to us; when we want Him to be involved; when we want Him to reach in and change our circumstances.

But there are other times, perhaps many times, when people, both Christians and non-Christians, when the thought, often unexpressed is more along the lines that we don’t want God to be obvious to us right now, in these good times, but rather to be mostly invisible; we want to be left alone; we want to ride out our pleasant circumstances without interference or interruption.

And this is a kind of “hiding” from God. Yes, there are times that God may seem hidden to us, but there are also those times when we prefer to be hidden from God. And so God’s question to the man, to Adam, could be repeated throughout the centuries and throughout the localities with your name attached to it: “Where are you in relation to God?”

However, what you and I most need every single day is to be ushered into the presence of God, whether we feel the need for it, or whether we don’t. And we can practice certain disciplines and habits that regularly bring us under the gaze of God. We expose ourselves to His Word, and we talk to God in prayer about the uncomfortable subjects which threaten to distance us from Him. We listen to the insights of other believers who are watching our lives, hopefully with the insight the Spirit gives them, who tell us what they are observing - how it is that we may be going into hiding, like Adam.

It happens to all of us who walk on this planet, to the best and the worst - except for Jesus, who never once stepped away from the Father, but always toward Him. May we do the same.