Genesis 3:8-13--Broken Fellowship and the Blame Game

​Genesis 3:8-13
World English Bible
​
8 They heard Yahweh God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.

9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

11 God 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 whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

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

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After they had eaten of the fruit of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the LORD came looking for them, acting like it was just any other ordinary day, though He already knew it was not.  He came to see and to save them, so we should not be surprised that Jesus also said this was His mission--"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."   (Luke 19:10)

In the past, they wanted fellowship with Him and would have come to Him when He called for them, but now they are ashamed and fearful and they are hiding from Him and the sound of His voice.  This is the beginning of the curse already taking place within them.  They could not stay hidden forever though.  The LORD called out to them even more, "Where are you?"

Adam knew it was impossible to hide from the LORD, so he finally answered, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”  God asks Adam, "Who told you that you were naked?" The implication was that God had created them to be innocent of this knowledge and that someone had to have given them that knowledge or they had to have done something to gain that knowledge, but God knows exactly what they have done.  He doesn't accuse, but He asks a question He already knows the answer to, "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Clearly the answer should be, "Yes," and I have a feeling from what we see in the Bible that if the answer had been "Yes," and true confession and repentance had happened, the situation for Adam and Eve would have been different.  Instead, we start to play "the blame game."  Adam refuses to take responsibility for what he has done (notice that God starts with questioning Adam, even though He knows exactly how things took place--He addressing things in proper order even though the order was reversed during the events of the temptation and commission of the sin).  Adam blames God for giving him the woman, Eve, who he says gave him the fruit to eat and he ate of it.  He makes it out as if he wasn't standing there the whole time abdicating his duties.  He was not somewhere else in the Garden and she brought a piece of fruit to him to say, "You have to try this, it is delicious."  He was standing there, probably hearing most or all of the conversation with the serpent and doing nothing to intervene.  Again, notice that Adam is not just blaming Eve, but he is ultimately blaming God, claiming that he would not have sinned if God would have left him alone and not given Eve to him.  God does not respond to this jab from Adam, but simply turns to Eve to get her side of the story.

God simply asks Eve, “What have you done?."  This sounds accusatory, but it seems more like God is saying, "Tell me your side of the story."  What was your part in all this?  God gave Eve the chance to clarify both her role and Adam's role, but, instead, she also played "the blame game" and blamed the serpent for tempting her.  Ah, the good old, "the devil made me do it" excuse that we've been using ever since Eve first used it.  It's as hollow now as it was then because God did not create us to be deterministic (without agency or free-will, for we choose to sin or to obey.  Neither or rebellion nor our obedience are strictly out of compulsion so that we have no responsibility in the choice, yet, there is an aspect which we will get to when I release my article on Original Sin that ever since this first sin, mankind is born with their hearts bent towards sinning and away from obeying).

We'll stop here for today, and come back next time to see the next part of the conversation and the consequences of sin that the LORD promised.  Though there is going to be lots of "bad news" coming for Adam and Eve, there is definitely some "good news" if you are looking for it, and I will make sure to point it out when we get there, for there is the first glimpse of the gospel right here in Genesis 3 in the midst of God punishing Satan, Eve, and Adam, He is preparing to take the punishment of mankind upon Himself.