Then the LORD God called “Where are you Adam?”

He replied “I heard Your voice in the garden, and was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Being naked was not the problem, if it wasn't wrong before, it wasn't wrong now. Best to see this as a picture of feeling exposed in a world that is no longer safe. Knowledge in Biblical terms is much more than intellectual knowing. It is experience based, and can even indicate sex (as in Adam knew his wife 4:1, NKJV). Eating of the forbidden tree then (2:17), was about experiencing both good and evil. They had already experienced good of course, now they would experience evil. The very first wrong, but not the last by a long way, was blame (verse 12), Adam's failure to take responsibility for his own actions. Wrong didn't end there of course. With evil unrestrained, we see murder within a single generation, family feuds, great wickedness and all the thoughts of man's heart being only evil continually (4:8; 32:6; 6:5). 

The Bible speaks of this initial experience of evil as sin entering the world through Adam (Romans 5:12). And of course the nature of evil being like cancer in its ability to spread, we inherited both its nature, its influence and its effects. We don't have to look beyond the last century to see this. To the millions and millions executed under Stalin and Mao's purges, to Hitler's murder of six million Jews, to Pol Pot, to the various genocides, we have documented, the exponential growth of evil. 

The concept of the survival of the fittest, though it obviously contains truth, cannot adequately explain this. I read recently of a mother expressing the though that she loved her baby more than evolution required (New York Times op-ed). And we can surly say that as a race we both love and hate more than evolution requires. I know of no other plausible explanation than the Biblical one, that there is a force for good (the one we call God) and one for evil (the devils). Also no other plausible explanation of the fact that man is capable of the highest of heights in achievement and good, and the deepest of depths of depravity and evil.

Some see only the good, and some only the bad! But it is surly both. Man is capable of the highest of heights because he is made in God's image, and he is capable of the deepest depths because the ruler of this world, the serpent, the Devil (John 12:31), is the very personification of evil. The age old question comes to mind, “If God is good, then why does He allow evil?” The start (but only the start) of the answer, is that God is longsuffering towards us, and does not desire that any should perish in the Judgement at the end of the age, but that all should come to repentance and so inherit eternal life with God (2 Peter 3:9). In this morning's verse we read that God reached out to Adam. Every other religion outside of the Judaeo-Christain one is about man reaching up to God, earning acceptance by his behaviour. The Judaeo-Christain religion is God reaching down to man to provide a way for him to be reconciled with Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). 

 

 Lord Jesus, thank You that You so loved the World that You gave Yourself on the cross, so that whosoever puts his faith in You will not perish, but obtain everlasting life. Thank You in Your precious Name Amen