This was God’s question, to Adam, after the Fall. It was not that God needed to be told where Adam was, for God knew everything about him. He knew what Adam had done with the forbidden fruit. He knew the consequences for Adam of that action. He understood perfectly why Adam, and Eve, no longer wished to be in His presence. The question was intended to bring Adam and Eve to consider these things, and this was God’s kindness to them. In his Commentary, Matthew Henry suggests that implicit in this question (recorded in Genesis 3:9) was this: “Thou that wast my friend and favourite, whom I have done so much for, and would have done more for; hast thou now mistaken Me and ruined thyself?”
Adam’s fall affected not only himself but also his descendants. It has resulted in us all being born in sin, with a nature which cannot but sin – though the degree of sin that individuals are guilty of varies. And God’s question to Adam: “Where art thou?” is directed to us all. In particular, God asks where we stand spiritually. Are we in His kingdom or that of the devil? Do we delight in God’s kingdom or do we imagine that we can only be happy in the devil’s?
Before his fall, Adam delighted in fellowship with God; he had a holy nature that reflected God’s holy nature. But now everything was different; he did not value God’s presence; he did not want God to speak to him, for God’s voice troubled his conscience. So he fled from God; more correctly, he tried to do so. Yet, however thick the trees and however dense the foliage, it was impossible for him to get away from God’s all-seeing eyes. He was now afraid of God and of the punishment that he deserved. Adam had fallen from a state of real spiritual understanding to one of desperate spiritual ignorance. And in his ignorance he felt that it was worth trying to get away from God, though, in fact, He was the giver of every good gift.
Adam could surely not have forgotten that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place”, but he was now unable to apply to himself the fact that these eyes are beholding the evil as well as the good (Prov 15:3). Yes, God was looking into Adam’s heart and saw the evil that was now the controlling
power in that corrupted heart. David, however, with a renewed heart, knew differently and so he said to God: “Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways” (Ps 139:1). But David had become God’s friend; he had been reconciled by divine power, and so he enjoyed God’s presence.
Adam, however, was no longer God’s friend. He had a guilty conscience and so he was afraid of God’s voice. He could have no reason to believe that God would show him mercy; he had to assume that God could only speak with a voice of judgement. Iniquity had separated him from God, as it always does. He had forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, the source of every blessing for this life and for the next. What a sad condition he was in! And we are in the same situation if we have not come to drink at the fountain of living water that has been opened by Christ Jesus for Adam’s fallen descendants.
Did Adam respond to the question that God put to him? Not directly, it would seem; instead he tried to justify himself by attempting to transfer to his wife the blame for his sin. He was in rebellion against his Maker; he was spiritually dead and so was unable and unwilling to submit to God’s authority and give an appropriate, God-honouring answer. What then should Adam have said in response to God’s question?
(1.) He should have confessed that he was on what the Saviour was to call the broad way. It is the way on which the spiritually dead are travelling and it leads to everlasting destruction, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. Although the destination is so awful, this “is a way which seemeth right unto a man” in his natural condition, for the thinking of the spiritually dead has been corrupted. Apart from the Holy Spirit bringing them to a sense of their sin and danger, they will continue to see this way as the only reasonable way through life. But if the Spirit begins to reform their thinking, they believe that the Scriptures accurately describe this way: “the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov 14:12).
Adam was not the only one to whom the Most High has addressed the question, “Where art thou?” He puts the same question to us all, and unless we have been born again, we should confess that we are still wandering along the broad way that leads to eternal destruction.
(2.) Adam should also have confessed that he was in the camp of the devil. When he was created, he was on God’s side, but the evil one and his temptations had come between him and God, with disastrous consequences – not only for himself but for all his decedents. So the Lord Jesus warns those who continue complacently in the devil’s camp: “Ye are of your father
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him” (Jn 8:44). As a murderer, Satan brought the whole human race into a state of spiritual death and sent them on their way to eternal death.
Jesus further described Satan: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it”. He brought the sin of lying into the world when he used deceitful words to separate Eve from God and, through her, Adam and all the rest of mankind throughout all generations. And when the Lord asks each of us, “Where art thou?” we too should confess that we are in the devil’s camp unless, by God’s grace, we have had a change of mind and have entered the kingdom of God.
Matthew Henry gives the following “notes” on Genesis 3:9: “(1.) Those who by sin have gone astray from God should seriously consider where they are; they are afar off from all good, in the midst of their enemies, in bondage to Satan, and in the high road to utter ruin.” This question to Adam “may be looked upon as a gracious pursuit, in kindness to him, and in order to his recovery. If God had not called to him, to reclaim him, his condition would have been as desperate as that of fallen angels; this lost sheep would have wandered endlessly, if the good Shepherd had not sought after him, to bring him back and, in order to that, reminded him where he was, where he should not be and where he could not be either happy or easy. (2.) If sinners will but consider where they are, they will not rest till they return to God.”
And God has provided a way for sinners to return to Him. The announcement was made in Eden of a Saviour – the seed of the woman – who would bruise Satan’s head, while His own heel was bruised (Gen 3:15). Why did Christ Jesus come into the world? Many answers might be given. Most obviously, He came to save sinners. So He had to suffer, as the substitute for sinners, and suffer unto death. We must also bear in mind that His coming to save sinners was so that God might be glorified. But not the least significant of the possible answers is: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8). Christ came to deliver sinners from Satan’s murderous, lying activity, to set them free to serve God sincerely and to bring them at last into perfect fellowship with Him for ever in heaven.
This is the good news which is to be proclaimed to sinners, and it is to be accompanied by the call: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). We must then consider the question: Where art thou in relation to Christ? We must ask ourselves if we have recognised our need as sinners, if we have believed on Christ, if we have forsaken the broad way and are on the narrow way to eternal life. Where art thou?