QUESTION #1 Where art thou?

QUESTIONS JESUS ASKED BIBLE STUDY

 

Read Genesis 3: 

Where art thou? (Genesis 3:9)

 

THE FALL OF MANKIND

Reference: Genesis 3

 

God’s first question, ironically, is in the first book of the Bible, in the Garden of Eden. I will begin this Bible study here so that we will understand God’s Full Plan of Salvation for Man.

 

Adam and Eve had sinned. They went against what God had commanded them not to do. Isn’t that just like mankind today? God says don’t do this, don’t do that, and we do it anyway. We partake of the fruit of sin. 

 

The fall of man occurred sometime after God created the world and after Satan’s rebellion in heaven. We find the biblical account of creation and the fall of man in Genesis 1–3. In the book of Genesis, God spoke everything into existence: sky, planets, seas, vegetation, animals, and everything else. He pronounced it all “good” (Genesis 1:25).

But when God made man, He took the dust of the earth and formed the first man (Genesis 2:7). God breathed His own life into the man’s nostrils, and “man became a living soul.” He called the man “Adam.” The man had a life that differed from the plant and animal life. He had been created in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27), which means that he possessed an everlasting spirit, such as God has. He was designed to be like God, fellowship with God, reason like God, and enjoy God forever. So, God placed Adam in a garden designed specifically for him (Genesis 2:8). In these perfect surroundings, God walked and talked with the man, enjoying the creation He had made and Adam’s pleasure in it (Genesis 2:19–20; 3:8).

Because God did not want the man to be alone, He fashioned a woman, Eve, from one of Adam’s ribs. He gave them everything in the garden to enjoy except for the fruit from one tree (Genesis 2:16–17). God told them that, if they ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die.

Genesis 3 introduces us to another being involved in the fall of man: the serpent. Satan had already been cast down to earth due to his rebellion against God in heaven (Luke 10:18). Satan came to Eve as a serpent and suggested to the woman that God had not really forbidden the fruit for her good but was rather keeping good from her (Genesis 3:1–4). Eve saw that the tree was good for food, she saw that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She ate it and gave some to Adam who was there with her. (Genesis 3:5). Adam also ate it, and in that moment, everything changed. Sin had entered into God’s perfect world (Romans 5:12). 

 

Mankind had fallen.

When the Lord God came to visit Adam and Eve in the garden, they had hidden themselves from Him because they knew they had done what they were told NOT to do. Isn’t that just like people do today also? We think we can hide from God when we do wrong. We fail to recognize that God knows us and where we are at all times. God called out to Adam, “Where art thou?” Adam hid from God. God immediately knew they had done what He had told them not to do. 

 

As a parent I always knew when my children hid from me, they had done something they were not supposed to do.  And not only did I get suspicious but I usually knew exactly what it was they had done. How? Because it was usually something I had forbidden them to do. 

 

Of course, God knows everything, but surely that was His first instinct when He found them hidden, they had eaten of the one tree he had told them not to.

 

The fall of man was caused by Adam’s sin. Sin is any human behavior, word, or thought that is contrary to the WORD of God. Because of Adam’s sin, God placed a curse upon the world, the people, the animals, the plants, and the very ground (Genesis 3:14–19). Their sin had brought upon them the judgment of God, and the only just punishment for such high treason is eternal death (Romans 6:23). But God then put into play a system by which human beings could find pardon for sin. God killed an animal and made garments for the man and woman to cover the nakedness that now brought them shame (Genesis 3:21). In doing so, God painted a picture of what He would do thousands of years later when the Perfect Lamb was slain to take away our sin (John 1:29; Revelation 13:8).

After the fall of man, God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden and placed a cherub to guard the entrance. This was so that Adam and Eve could not return and possibly eat from the tree of life and live forever in their cursed state (Genesis 3:23–24). They were forced to find their own food and shelter. Adam had to fight weeds and thistles to eke out an existence from the ground, while Eve had to suffer in childbirth. Suffering and toil are part of the curse God put upon this world because of sin.

We call this episode in human history the fall of man because, in that act of disobedience, Adam brought a curse upon every person yet to be born. The man who was designed to walk with God in unbroken fellowship had fallen from that exalted position. He was doomed to live in a broken state, in a broken world, apart from ongoing communion with a holy God. God promised that the “Seed of the woman” would one day save them from the eternal consequences of their sin (Genesis 3:15), but the temporary earthly consequences of sin remained.

We all suffer the consequences of the fall of man. Our salvation is in calling and believing upon the name of the Lord Jesus and trusting in His perfect sacrifice for our sin (Romans 5:10–11; 2 Corinthians 5:18). The world groans under the curse, crying out for the relief that will come at the ultimate redemption of God’s people when Christ returns (Romans 8:22–23). When Jesus comes for all those who have trusted in Him, God will restore all things (Acts 3:21). He will create a new heaven and a new earth to replace that which sin destroyed (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:12–13; Revelation 21:1). Mankind will no longer be “fallen” but restored and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God (Revelation 7:14).

 

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

 

(1 Corinthians 15:21-22) For since by man came death, by man also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

 

Because of Adam’s sin we must all face death, but God in His infinite wisdom and mercy has provided a way of escape. Those that love him shall never die but be made alive through Christ.

 

The first question in the salvation process is “where are you?”

 

Notes: