Where Are You?

“Where are you?”

If you are the one asking and you already know the answer, why would you ask?

More so, if you were God and you knew everything, why would you be asking?

Some context might be helpful to shed some light on this:  there were these two people and they disobeyed God by doing exactly what they were told not to do.  Then, when they heard the sound of God walking in the garden to spend time with them, they hid.

That’s when God asked:  “where are you” (Gen 3:9).  But wouldn’t God have known where they were hiding?  Of course He would have!  And the question probably was not just about location, it was likely also about why they were hiding. 

From the account, we find the why aspect of the question was there because these two people were experiencing fear and shame.  Neither had experienced these before and their initial response to them was to hide from the One they had disobeyed.

While God know all along what the answers were, perhaps He asked the question to give them an opportunity to come to Him and own up to their disobedience.  Perhaps the question even gave them an opportunity to apologize.

Yet, instead of owning up to it, another new experience descended upon them - the blame game.  The man blamed the woman.  The woman blamed the serpent.  Game on!  But in this game, both winners and losers lose all.

While we can’t know for sure why God asked the question, we do know the following:

 

• God seeks us.  Were Adam and Eve lost?  Not physically, but their disobedience resulted in being lost spiritually.  So God sought them.  For us today, the best news ever is that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). 

 

• God, in seeking us, invites us to come to Him and confess our sins to Him (1 John 1:9).  Adam and Eve, from the account that is available to us, may have felt shame for sinning, but it appears they did not confess their sins.  But when we do confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive!

 

• God, in seeking us, welcomes those who repent (Acts 11:18).  Again, from the account, there is no indication that Adam and Eve ever repented.  Repentance involves a turning away from our sins and God uses repentance to lead us to life. 

 

• God, in seeking us, receives those who come to Him with a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).  The blame game usually prevents us from being broken and contrite because it’s always someone else’s fault.  But a broken and contrite heart is the sacrifice that pleases God. 

 

“Where are you?”  God’s question was a rhetorical question.  With Adam and Eve, God knew exactly where they were and why.  They were spiritually lost and He wanted to give them an opportunity to realize just how lost they really were so that they would come to Him.

“Where are you?”  It’s still God’s rhetorical question that He asks of all of us.  He knows exactly where we are and why.  He is giving us an opportunity to realize just how lost we really are so that we might come to Him.