“Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” Gen. 3:9

I remember as a young child crouching in the corner of a small coat closet. I don’t recall why except that I wanted to be alone. I had either done something wrong and dreaded facing the consequences or at the worst, been chastised already. I don’t remember how long it took my parents to find me. It was usually my dad who chastised me and knew where I was.

We can ask many questions in this life ~ “Who am I?” “Why am I here?
What is the purpose of life? “How did we get here? “Will there be an end?”, etc.

God asked the great question at the beginning of His creation to settle the consequences of our disobedience. When we know where we are, we know where to find the answer to all other questions.

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.

The Lord was not looking for or calling Eve, but Adam, because it was to Adam He gave the commandment, “Do not eat…..”. 

So Adam said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 

Adam was not lost to the Lord, the Creator. He was hiding because of his shame and guilt. His disobedience separated Him from the Lord. Sin robs us of His presence with us.

¹¹ And 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?”

¹² Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

Adam shifted the blame for his sin to his wife, so the Lord turns to her to deal with her sin.

¹³ And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The Lord then turns to address the action of the serpent.

“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
¹⁵ And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” Gen. 3:14-16

That done, He comes back to Eve to settle her account in the matter.
As the mother of all flesh, women fall under the same condemnation. 

But let’s remember the first promise of a Savior is made through the punishment of the serpent which applies to all creatures in future generations.

“He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
The serpent’s seed is the power and spirit of the evil one and her Seed is the power and Spirit of the promised Messiah, the Son, Jesus Christ. Though Jesus’ heel was bruised as He hung on the cross, the head of the enemy, his power and rebellion were overcome. “Death, (the punishment for sin,) was swallowed up in victory” through Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection.

“To the woman He said:“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.”

We will not venture through all these verses, but focus on women’s “sorrow and conception,” and the pain of childbearing. We have seen how far the enemy has deceived so that women seem to have delivered themselves from the consequences of Eve’s sin. Refusing to bear children has come to pass by many forms of birth control, the most brutal of which we know as abortion.

“Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it? “Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
¹⁹ In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.” Gen 3: 17-19

No longer would he have the joy of tending the Garden over which he had been given control, but to force it to produce what he needed to live. He became dependent on the earth instead of the Lord God who created him. That relationship was severed until the coming of the Redeemer who would bring reconciliation and restoration.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”

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.

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
²¹ Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

The Lord sacrificed the animals to cover them – another significant sign of His mercy and promise of care and restoration.

The question remains for all His creatures, “Where are you?”

We have many reasons and many places for hiding from the Lord our Creator.

We sometimes can be found  behind someone who has deceived us.
There are a lot of hiding places in this world.
The past has many closets, corners, holes, and crevices where we live our own lives independent of our Father who wants to bless us in our relationship with Him. 

The most common is our sin and guilt. From these, fear makes our hiding place much broader and makes us harder to find.

In this age, parents no longer call or text their children to ask, “Where are you?’ The tracking devices on their phones make it easy to know where they are.

Have you ever wondered how God our Father knows where we are and how to get in touch with us? 
He has His own tracking system.

“The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord,
Searching all the inner depths of his heart.” Proverbs 20:27

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in ^[c]hell, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
Psalm 139:1, 7-10

Samuel and Isaiah
Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” 1 Sam. 3:10

And the call came to Isaiah.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Our Father is calling us today. Will we remain in hiding, or answer His call as Samuel, and Isaiah did?

Dear Father, open our ears to hear your voice, and know your holy, high, and heavenly calling and to answer, for such a time as this. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Fran