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.”
Genesis 3:8 - 10
NKJV - 8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?
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The scripture doesn't specifically tell us why God sought Adam in Genesis 3, but we can make some educated guesses based on the nature of God and what we know about the interaction between Adam and God before the fall. First of all, the entire Bible is really the story of 1) God establishing that He is our Creator and Heavenly Father, with Whom we enjoyed unhindered fellowship before the fall, 2) God creating a "way back" to Him by calling Abraham and then establishing the nation of Israel and the laws that would either keep them from sin or atone for their sins, and 3) Jesus coming in the form of a man to make one final atonement for our sin in order for God to once again establish unhindered fellowship with us. And why did Jesus come? John 3:16-17:For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For l God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. From the beginning of God's creation of humans, God desired fellowship with us and prior to the fall, interacted with Adam and Eve freely. God conversed with Adam face-to-face in order to give him specific instructions about tending the garden and about which foods were allowable and not allowable for consumption (Genesis 2: 8-18). Like an earthly father showing his son a new treehouse he had just built, or a new playhouse for a daughter, I can only imagine that God's heart was overflowing with love and excitement as He introduced His children to the earth He so lovingly created for them. (Genesis 19-25) As God watched Adam interact with his world, God observed that it wasn't good for Adam to be alone. God caused the animals to come to Adam for naming, and after seeing Adam do this by himself with no one to help, God determined it was necessary to make a helpmate for Adam. No doubt God was able to discern this without having to observe Adam with His own eyes, but the fact that it stirred Him to create a wife for Adam shows that not only did He observe this need, but He cared deeply for Adam and wanted to present the best possible companion for him, and so He did. In these verses we see God initiating a relationship with His children by speaking with them and caring for them. Even in the Trinity we see that God Himself is a relational being; it naturally follows that God would have wanted fellowship with Adam and Eve. And the evidence doesn't stop there. We see all through the scriptures examples of God reaching out to the human race in fellowship, and He often spoke to certain individuals in an audible voice, or at least with discernible words, whether audible or not: Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Samson's parents, Elijah, Samuel, Nathan, Job, Peter, and Paul (even when he had not yet been saved), just to name a few. As we read through the Old Testament, we see that although God's people left Him and walked away from Him time after time, He never stopped loving them or caring for them. And even though God had to punish His children for their disobedience on many occasions, we see a pattern in the OT of God leaving His people to suffer the consequences of their own sin for a time, then showing such compassion and mercy on them that He not only forgave them, but often rescued them from the very people He had handed them over to for destruction. Psalm 78 is a long psalm that retells much of this history in one passage. God's heart for us is like that of an earthly father, only so much MORE loving, caring, personal, and concerned for us than we could ever imagine. There are many verses that could be mentioned to that effect, but this is one of my favorites, and I think it sums up the heart of God: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!" Isaiah 49:15.
God was not seeking "fellowship", instead He was seeking a "confession". God, all-knowing, doesn't need to call a person to find out where he is. By questioning Adam, He is getting Adam to confess his sins, see these: 1. Where are you? 2. Who told you that you were naked? 3. Have you eaten from that tree? Easy questions for Adam, he could have told the truth: 1. I am hiding. 2. I saw I am naked. 3. Yes, I ate from that tree. Instead of admitting his sins, Adam passes on the blame, NOT to Eve, BUT to God! "The woman YOU put here with me - she gave me the fruit and I ate it."
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