Walking or Hiding?

They say, “Familiarity breeds contempt”. It is also true that, “Familiarity breeds misunderstanding”. That is especially true of the Bible where we often misinterpret and miss the point of the familiar stories.

For example, what is the point of the story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3)? The common answer is “Disobedience is punished”. They were told not to eat from that tree, they did eat from it and God was not happy.

While those details are technically correct, that is not the point of the story! The bottom line of the story is actually “The seriousness of losing your relationship with God”.

At one point, they walked and talked with God in the garden. After they disobeyed it says, “The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden… and they hid from the Lord” (Genesis 3:8). Later it says that, “The Lord banished them from the Garden of Eden” (3:23) and placed a guard at the gate to keep them out. The tragedy and the point was not that they disobeyed the rules, but that their disobedience cost them their relationship with God.

The rest of the Bible, then, is about God restoring that relationship. Think about the Ten Commandments. They are rules about relationships with God and with others. The Old Testament sacrifices were about creating a way to be in relationship with God. The tabernacle and the temple were given as places to come and meet with God. Jesus, of course, is the ultimate symbol of how far God will go to restore that lost relationship. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

We do not inherit Adam’s sin, but we have all broken our relationship with God because of our own sinfulness (Romans 3:23). We have lost a relationship that we vitally need both now and in eternity.

The good news is that God has done all he can to invite you back home and back into relationship with him again.

The ball is now in our court. Will we walk with him or continue hiding from his love?

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