Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 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.

But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

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

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

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

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

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

Genesis 3:7-13




At first it would seem that Satan was right, that the fruit was good to eat, that the fruit brought knowledge of good and evil. Indeed after eating the fruit Adam and Eve did gain the knowledge of good and evil. And there was no immediate evidence that death was upon either of them. This is how it was with the first sin, and this is how it is with all sin. The Bible says that sin brings pleasure for a season (Hebrews 11:25) But then ”…the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

Sin is a package deal and the second part of the package is inescapable. Lets have a look at the second part of Adam and Eve’s sin.




Self Centeredness:

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked;” v. 7 After eating the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve became self conscious. Before their sin their focus was on the animals of the earth, on tending the garden, on each other, and on their relationship with God. After their sin their focus shifted to themselves. They became aware of and embarrassed about their nakedness. God didn’t design us to be focused on ourselves. People who sin become self absorbed — people who are self absorbed are unhappy. God’s design for us is to put Him and other people before ourselves in life. Talk to someone who’s entangled in sin and you’ll find that their conversation is all about themselves. Like the self centered man who after talking at length about himself to a friend said, “Enough about me, let’s talk about you. Tell me, what do you think about me?”




Separation from God:

…and they hid from God among the trees of the garden. v. 8 Sin separates us from God. Adam and Eve had a wonderful relationship with God in His spectacular garden. Intimacy with Him, closeness with Him, regular communication with Him was a regular part of their lives. After their sin that changed. When they heard the sound of His coming they were filled with guilt and shame so they hid themselves from Him. Their sin effected their relationship with Him. The most important relationship there is. Your sin and my sin will effect our relationship with Him as well.




The blame game:

The woman You put here with me… v. 12 Adam says. The serpent You put here with us… v. 13 Eve says. God first of all, You were the one who put this woman here with me, Adam was saying, and she did it, it was Eve’s fault. (Stedman says, “He took it like a man, he blamed his wife!”) God You were the one who put the serpent here, and it’s his fault, Eve was saying. The blame game, finger pointing. This is the first account of that game and its been played by every member of the human race ever since. Notice that God is implicated here, the woman You put in my life, the serpent You put here. Whenever you or I blame someone for something we’re ultimately blaming the Lord for putting that person in our life.




It’s all about your relationship with Him:

Your communication with God is of paramount importance. You may have read about the fire that destroyed 11 homes in Ashland, Oregon last month. I happened to be running a division at that fire. One of our tactics was to have helicopters drop water on the burning homes. When the helicopters began operating it was important to keep them from dropping water on one particular house where firefighters were working inside. A helicopter water drop pushes fire in all directions in a very dramatic fashion. This could cause serious injury or death to those fighting fire inside.

“Command from Oak Knoll Division,” I said on the radio, “direct the helicopters NOT to drop on the house directly across from 8106.”

Command responded, “Copy, have the helicopter drop water directly on the house across from 8106.”

Of course this was exactly what I didn’t want. “Negative, negative,” I said, “DO NOT drop water on the house across from 8106.”

No response.

“Command from Oak Knoll Division, DO NOT drop water on the house across from 8106.” I repeated my request.

* Still no response.

Just then a helicopter approaches the area and appears to be lining up for a drop on the house next door to the one we want it to avoid. Hoping that the pilot can see me I encourage him to drop on the house next door by pointing and nodding (yes, kind of ridiculous I know, but I didn’t have my radio on the helicopter pilot’s frequency). He’s low over the house next door and things are looking good, but then he’s past it, and then it becomes obvious that he’s getting ready to drop on the house with the firefighters inside. In desperation I’m jumping up and down, waving my arms frantically, trying to communicate to the helicopter pilot not to drop on top of the firefighters. In the midst of all the chaos, a friend of mine, Tyler McCarty, who works for Oregon Department of Forestry, walks up to me just as calm as can be and says,

“Kurt, would you like me to tell that helicopter not to drop on that house?”

“YES!!!” I shout, “yes I would!”

Tyler, who’s already on the helicopter’s frequency, radios the request directly to the pilot. The helicopter flys off, and all is well.

The point is I rarely speak to helicopter pilots because my Fire Department is primarily a structural fire department. My friend Tyler works for a Wildland Fire agency, he talks to helicopter pilots all the time, his radio is on their frequency, communication is easy.

It’s the same with God. When we’re in constant communication with Him our relationship is easy. When our prayers are rare, when our scripture reading is only occasional, when our church attendance is sporadic, our relationship with Him suffers. We find ourselves on a different frequency.

Focus on God, your family, and the work that God has set before you. Don’t blame people — blaming is completely pointless as we’ll see later in this chapter. Finally…

Don’t hide from God.

Talk with Him in prayer.

Listen to Him by reading His word.

Fellowship with Him by attending a church that teaches through the entire Bible.

Seek Him.

* Please understand that an Incident Commander at a fire like this is completely swamped with communication that is face to face, by cell phone, and by radio over multiple frequencies. Not receiving a response for awhile or misunderstanding a radio transmission is not at all uncommon for any fire department at large scale incidents. In fact God’s hand was with the fire departments fighting fire that day. They made an amazing stop. Within a few minutes of when the first engine arrived 11 homes in a row were burning. Across the street another 30 homes were threatened. A man who lived across the street from the fire was quoted in the newspaper as saying, “I’m not a religious man, but I know a miracle when I see it.” I agree, that fire should have jumped the street. 30 or so more homes should have burned that day. It was God’s hand that stopped that fire.




References:

Blue Letter Bible

Bible Gateway

Ray Stedman

Medford Mail Tribune