Committing to Getting (The temptation and Fall of Adam) -Part 2

"Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Gen 3:9-11

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”" Matthew 4:1-3

"I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed..." Revelation 3:18

What happened to Adam and Eve? One imagines them before The Fall strolling unopposed in the garden of God's favor, radiant, fearless, and full of light. A time when, in the glorious freedom of the children of God, "they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." -Gen 2:25 These were the noble ones. The living images of God Himself, and yet here we see them broken, shameful, cowering beneath the shrubs. Something in this first sin unleashed a torrent of shame and hiding that would follow mankind from these accounts in Genesis all the way to the book of Revelation.

"Where are you Adam?"

These are not the words of an angry dictator but a tender healer. He comes to Adam, not offering solutions, lectures, or pressuring guilt. He comes with soft questions. Questions designed to gently probe and draw Adam, not to focus on excuses or solutions, but to take an inside look. He invites Adam to find and name the red dot on the map of his heart.

"I am terrified of being seen by You because in my unvealed nakedness I am shameful and loathsome to behold. So I have decided to hide." (Note that Adam's own attempt at covering his nakedness didn't cover his sense of shame nor protect him from the fear of exposure.)

At this point God does not chastise Adam, "Why would you hide from me after all I've done for you...you should know better..." Rather God responds with the loving wisdom of a parent who has just learned that an enemy has whispered into their child's ear the message; "You are ugly, shameful, and worthy of rejection."

The Father asks his child, "Who told you that you that you were naked?"

God knows that Adam's hiding, terror, and shame did not "just happen". Adam's present condition had a legitimate cause triggered by a definitive event. Adam is being led to consider his own story and discover where the message of shame came from. In a sense God is saying what we all say in the face of a tragic turn, "Tell me what happened."

Before we consider the Father's next question, "Have you eaten...", let us consider and fully search out the answers to these first two questions, "Where are you?", and "Who told you that you were naked?" Let us consider our own story. For as it is for Adam so it is for us. Nobody simply wakes one morning with a load of anxiety, shame, and a terror of being seen as they really are. We are not born into shadows. We are driven into them. And so we too must join with God in asking ourselves the question, "Who told you that you were naked?"

In other words, "Where did that message come from?" Have you, like Adam, ever been encouraged to understand the messages you've recieved, ever been encouraged to see how they have driven you into the shadows of fear and shame? Have you ever been encouraged to name your accuser? I began by asking the question, "What happened to Adam and Eve?" Now I ask, what happened to us?