Text:  Genesis 3: 8-15

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.

¹⁵And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

With the advent of cell phones we can make a call to most any place if someone is willing to answer there.  Hopefully not in church this morning.  But it makes for an interesting or strange start to some conversations.  Maybe you hear loud music or voices.  Or maybe a sound you might hear in a rest room.  Where are you? you wonder Where are you, we might even ask.

But sometimes that question comes with a far more serious concern.  A father calls his daughter who is out way past the time she said she would come in.  You hear disturbing rumors about a close friend who has fallen off the radar of your life.  Where are you? you ask them.

Today our Lord asks that question of two people who have made a terrible choice in their lives.  In fact, we are still living in it’s deadly aftermath.  Where are you, he asks them.

And make no mistake.  This question was not for God’s benefit.  The Lord was not wondering where Adam could be.  He knew.  That question was for Adam and Eve.  They needed to know.  They needed to recognize where they were.  They needed to see clearly the terrible distance their choice put between them and their loving Creator.  So God called out.  Where are you?

Well this is not just a study in Bible history.  God’s question is also for you and me this morning.

“Where are You?”
I.  Hiding from God and your choices?
II.  Come out and experience what God has done

Adam and Eve. A man and his wife.  We can relate to that.  But after that we can only imagine.  Two people literally made for each other and created in the image of God.  Every thought and desire was in sync with God.  Their love for God and each other was pure, undefiled.  And a truly perfect place to live, full of beauty.

But then came that choice they made.  The devil who is real came to them as a serpent.  You remember the command God gave them.  Don’t eat from that tree.  To obey that command was to worship God.  To disobey was to die.  What’s death, they might have wondered.

The devil tempted them like he tempts us.  You won’t die. C’mon God is holding back on you.  You will be like Him.  And Eve did the talking but Adam was there not being a very good husband.     Suddenly what they never would have considered looked pretty good.  They made a choice like some of the choices we make.  They seem so small and harmless.  The little lie, the click over to a porn site, the gossip.  But you know those games where you have a tower of pieces.  Each turn you take one.  What happens if you take the wrong one?  The whole tower comes down.  That’s the nature of sin.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”  What a tragedy!.  Innocence became guilt and shame.  Trust in their loving Creator turned to fear.  That’s the nature of sin.  We find ourselves hiding from God.  It becomes harder to pray.  The thought of God’s presence is not very comforting.  Rather it troubles us.   Is that where you are today?  Hiding from God and your choices? The Lord calls out to each of us, Where are you?

Our first parents didn’t make things any better now.  They come out from the bushes.  But they still are hiding.    Where are you, Adam?  Where are you Eve? The Lord even helps them to see.  ¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”  That’s what God’s Word does for us if we are open to it. It reveals what we have put between us and the Lord.  Where are you?  Have you?  Did you? We need to listen to this Word, and stop hiding.

But that’s not what our first parents now do.  They hide behind something else.   ¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  They come out from the bushes only to hide behind their excuses and blame.  They blame everyone but themselves for their choices.  Sound familiar? It’s not my fault.  Look what you made me do.  We live in a world where no one is at fault.  At least, not me.  So where are you, the Lord calls out to us.  And not to condemn us, not to cut us down at the knees.  But to save us.  To help us see our desperate need for what only he can give.

The problem is if you’re hiding, it’s kind of hard to see that.  Think about it. Hiding behind that finger of blame, that shallow excuse, does nothing for your marriage or friendship.  It brings no change, no chance to reconcile.  And it does nothing for your relationship with God.  So listen to the Lord here  Where are you? Don’t hide.  Rather come out of your hiding place and experience what God has done.

Satan had tempted Adam and Eve.  Their hearts were now poisoned with sin. They gave birth to children with hearts poisoned with sin.  Children who would grow up in a world with prisons, war, violence and disease.  A place where many children don’t even get to be born.  They are killed in a place called Planned Parenthood.  And those that are born face born faces this certainty. We die.

It seems like Satan succeeded, doesn’t it?  He ruined us with sin.  If he wasn’t a serpent, at that moment he might have pounded his chest.  But not so fast.   How do snakes get around?  They crawl on their bellies.  There was a time when they didn’t.  What’s happened?   ¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. That snake crawling along is a picture of what God would do.

Ever watch a wrestling match?  What’s a reversal?   When the apparent winner ends up on the bottom.  That’s Satan, the one who deceives us, even now.  But what did God hold out to Adam and Eve?  Hope.  Hope in someone to come.  Hope in what he would do. What a gracious God we have!  Listen.   ¹⁵And I will put enmity  between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” We call this the first gospel promise.  It wasn’t very much, nothing about a child in a manger or a Savior on a cross.  But it gave them enough to cling to.  It offered these and other fearful guilty sinners, hope.

So where are you?  We know where Adam and Eve were.  But what about you and me?  Isn’t it time to come out of our  hiding place?  We do that when we confess our sins and repent.  When we confess from our hearts and hold nothing held back.  No excuses.  No blaming others for our problems.   We stop hiding.

And why can we come out?  Look what God has done! Think about what John wrote in his first epistle:  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1John 3:8) We know Satan’s work  The devil  made us slaves.  Slaves to sin, slave to guilt and slaves to death.  But what a friend we have in Jesus!  The Son of God was born to Mary, a distant daughter of Eve, just as God promised.  Then He won our freedom.  His life lived for you, his life given on a cross for you is all about that freedom.  A Freedom from fear, from guilt, from death.   It’s about a man sitting in a hospital bed able to say to say to me last week, when the Lord is ready, I am ready. It’s about getting up in the morning and saying in your heart wherever I go today, I want to serve Christ. It’s about saying to my guilty conscience,  I am baptized into Christ and so I am forgiven.  It’s about being able to say when I feel worthless, No I am a child of God who loves me so much he sent his Son to die for me.

So God calls out to you today, where are you? Stop hiding.  Come out.  Repent and experience the love of God in Christ.  Amen