WEDNESDAY September 8, 2021
Can You Hide from God?
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.
Genesis 3:8
Adam and Eve sinned by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord, they did the natural thing––hid in shame. God called to Adam: “Where are you?” as if to say, “What happened?” God wanted Adam to speak the truth. Instead, he blamed the woman, saying, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12).
God saw straight through Adam’s excuse. Sin had caused a separation. Many pastors teach that the voice of God was harsh and wrathful toward Adam, but in context, God’s voice was spoken in tenderness, as a Father whose heart had been broken. God desired that Adam and Eve would immediately be brought back into fellowship with Himself.
God made a way to restore fellowship with Adam and Eve. He killed an animal and made tunics of skin (Genesis 3:21). Through the shedding of an animal’s blood, their sin was covered. Later, in the book of Leviticus, Laws were given for animal sacrifices. The shedding of blood was used as a covering for sin (Hebrews 9:22).
Sin will always make a person hide from God. It breaks fellowship with Him. Satan aims to isolate and condemn people with guilt and shame. Nobody can hide from God. He is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-10). God does not want to consume and destroy a person; He always pursues them to restore them to fellowship. In truth, confession of sin is needed.
It is the goodness and kindness of God that leads a person to repentance (Romans 2:4). If you have strayed away from God, know He misses fellowship with you more than you can know.
When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so, and sought my good.
~C. H. Spurgeon~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
