Hiding From God

Let’s begin with something strange about Eden.
Adam and Eve had just sinned. God had not left them. He had not stopped loving them. He had not become less present.
Yet they hid.
Why?

Because they were afraid.

Yes. But think deeper. What had actually changed?

They had changed.

Exactly.
Before sin, God's presence meant communion. After sin, the same presence became something they wanted to escape.
God hadn't changed.
Their perception of God had changed.
And that may be one of the most serious things sin does to us.

But why would God create them with the freedom to sin in the first place?

Because without freedom, love becomes meaningless.
God didn't create robots who could only obey. He created beings capable of saying yes—and therefore capable of saying no.
That's the frightening dignity of freedom.
Because forced obedience is not love.
But here's the tension: the same freedom that makes genuine love possible also makes rebellion possible.

Satan's temptation seems so obvious to us now. But
was the deeper temptation believing that God was withholding something good?

Precisely.
And isn't that still one of the oldest temptations?
“God's way is too restrictive.”
“God doesn't understand what I need.”
“I know what will make me happy.”

Sin often begins before the visible act.
It begins when our trust in God's wisdom starts to weaken.

But then comes something almost ironic. Satan said their eyes would be opened.

And they were.

But instead of seeing something wonderful, they saw their nakedness.

Exactly.
They reached for greater knowledge and discovered greater shame.
They wanted to become more like God, but their first experience of their “new knowledge” was the painful discovery of how far they had fallen.
Then came the hiding.

But hiding from God was pointless. They couldn't actually disappear from Him.

That's what makes the scene so revealing.
Psalm 139 says there is nowhere we can go from God's presence. Hebrews says nothing is hidden from His sight.
So Adam and Eve weren't really hiding from God's eyes.
They were hiding from God's presence.
And there is a difference.
 Sin can make us uncomfortable around the very God we desperately need.

But that is what makes hypocrisy so dangerous.
We can know God sees everything and still try to manage what other people see.

Now we're getting somewhere.
Adam covered himself.
And humanity has been doing versions of that ever since.
Sometimes we cover ourselves with: religious activity, Bible knowledge, correct doctrine, church positions, a reputation for holiness. And sometimes we become experts at identifying everybody else's problems because it keeps us from looking honestly at our own.

So a person can stop hiding from people by becoming very religious while still hiding from God?

Yes.
And that's the uncomfortable discovery.
You can look spiritually exposed to people while remaining spiritually hidden from them—and still be hiding from God behind your religious appearance.

Then perhaps the greatest danger isn't that we don't know the truth . It's
that we can use the truth to hide from the truth about ourselves.

Exactly.
We can defend doctrine while avoiding surrender.
We can talk about obedience while resisting conviction.
We can expose error while protecting our ego.
We can look at Adam and Eve hiding in the garden and completely miss the possibility that we have simply developed more sophisticated hiding places.

Then what does God do?

He comes looking.
Not because He doesn't know where they are.
He asks, “Where are you?”
Not, “Where did I go?”
Where are you?
That question reaches far beyond Eden.
Where are you with God?
Not where does the church think you are.
Not where does your reputation say you are.
Not how much Bible knowledge do you possess.
Where are you?

Perhaps the most frightening possibility is not that sinners run from God.
It is that religious people can become so comfortable with their coverings that they forget they are hiding.

So here is the question I want us to carry beyond this Tree:

If God has not moved away from me, but I find myself avoiding Him, what am I hiding behind?