Genesis 3:11, commentary and pictures

God Himself came in person to confront Adam and Eve in the garden, where they who had welcomed Him in innocence now hid among the trees in fear and shame at hearing His voice, and He asked who had told them they were naked and whether they had eaten from the tree He had commanded them not to eat. His questions were not asked to gain information but to convict them, expose their transgression, and bring them to recognize their guilt and need. Their nakedness meant the covering of light and purity and glory God had given them had departed, leaving them conscious of guilt and vainly trying to cover themselves with fig leaves. Their eating was direct violation of God's express command and law, indulging appetite against clear prohibition in a test that seemed small yet broke allegiance and brought the warned penalty. By that one act they lost Eden and fell from holiness and communion with God into sin and death, opening sorrow upon the world, yet God did not leave them without hope but delayed the full execution of the sentence because Christ undertook to bear the penalty and open a way of return through obedience by faith.

Question Asked in Eden

God Himself manifested His divine presence and visited Adam and Eve in the garden to confront them after they ate of the tree of knowledge against His command. In innocence and holiness they had joyfully welcomed the approach of their Creator, but after disobeying His word and becoming transgressors they fled in terror and hid from His face in the deepest recesses among the trees. They were afraid and ashamed to answer His call, Adam where art thou, as the great Lawgiver came to make known to them the consequences of their transgression and to expose disobedience to His law which was fully binding in Eden.

His questions, who told thee that thou wast naked and hast thou eaten of the tree whereof He commanded them not to eat, were not asked to gain information. They were asked to convict Adam and Eve, to expose their transgression, and to bring the guilty pair to recognize their guilt and spiritual want. Their awareness of nakedness and their shame and fear followed their sin, and the questioning directly confronted them with whether disobedience had produced it.

The question traces their new shameful knowledge that they were naked directly to eating from the tree God had commanded them not to eat. It confronted Adam after he hid in fear because he knew he was naked, asking who told him of his nakedness and whether he had eaten of the forbidden tree. Adam had no excuse, for all his wants were generously supplied and only one prohibition was laid upon him, and the confrontation stands as a lesson for all mankind that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed.

The eating it asks about came when Eve separated from her husband during daily labor in the garden despite being cautioned by angels that with him she would be in less danger from temptation than alone. Absorbed in her task she wandered unconsciously from his side, felt apprehension on perceiving she was alone but dismissed her fears, deciding she had sufficient wisdom and strength to discern evil and withstand it. Unmindful of the caution she gazed with mingled curiosity and admiration on the forbidden tree, found its fruit very beautiful, and questioned within herself why God had withheld it. This gave the tempter his opportunity to address her through the serpent in a musical voice with subtle praise of her loveliness, and instead of fleeing she lingered to hear a serpent speak. She had no thought that the serpent could become the medium of the fallen foe, though she would have feared a being like the angels.

The verse belongs to authentic inspired history of the beginning of the world, the creation of man, his fall, and the introduction of sin into the world and the origin of the earth. It presents in dignified simplicity and sharp, clear light from the throne of God a grand and elevated subject and treasure of truth that develops the powers of the mind and gives strength of intellect beyond philosophy, presenting a boundless field far higher than the creations of the unsanctified intellect. It records the holy innocency of the first parents as they stood in Eden enjoying communion with God and sinless angels, then the introduction of sin and its results upon the race, showing the disobedience and impenitence of man and the just retribution for sin. Without this authentic history the mind is left to fables and conjectures and false theories, to the tyranny of superstition and falsehood, and to the enfeebling of the intellect that is the sure result of entertaining error, leaving no need to be hampered by human conjectures and unreliable theories when it is possessed. With creation, the atonement, and the perpetuity of the law of God it stands as one of the great facts and very pillars of the Christian faith, now practically rejected by a large share of the professedly Christian world, with thousands who pride themselves on wisdom and independence treating implicit confidence in the Bible as weakness and treating caviling at the Scriptures and spiritualizing and explaining away their most important truths as proof of superior talent and learning.

Nakedness, Shame and Fear

Nakedness means the garments of purity and brightness, the covering of light and innocence and glory given by God, had fallen away and departed from Adam and Eve. Sin could not remain covered by God's glory, so their disobedience brought shame and a new sense of guilt and spiritual want.
Conscious of that loss they were ashamed and afraid to answer and to meet God, hiding themselves among the trees of the garden with a sense of want. Their sin had severed their connection with God, and in shame they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. Those coverings picture the futile human effort to hide sin or to become acceptable to God by one's own works.
The same is true for all who yield to temptation and give themselves up to obey Satan: they are indeed naked, deprived of the divine covering, estranged from God, and afraid to meet Him.

Nature of Disobedience

The eating was violation of God's express, clear command and of Jehovah's law, which was fully binding in Eden as the rule of conduct with reward for obedience and penalty for disobedience. They were permitted every tree but one, yet Eve was deceived and ate and Adam followed despite the command, breaking allegiance to Him. God held Adam accountable for disobeying even one requirement, showing the sacred character of the law and that He means what He says. Afterward men and women became more and still more bold in disobeying His law, so that death became the portion of the disobedient as exemplified in the Flood.

That eating was indulgence of appetite and passion and intemperance in desire, transgression of the law of God and of nature's laws. Appetite and pleasing experience do not justify disobeying God, and the violation brought the penalty God had warned of. The same intemperance continues in indulged inclination and habit, in delicate unhealthful cooking, and in unhealthful dress, weakening physical, mental, and moral efficiency. It leaves the mind occupied with unimportant things instead of meditation, searching the Scriptures, and prayer, making it impossible to overcome temptation and leaving little sincere piety and religious fervor.

Though taking the fruit looked like a simple thing unworthy of notice, a very small sin in appearance and a slight test from which recovery might seem possible, retribution followed. It opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, closed Paradise against them by expulsion, and will result in eternal ruin of thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions of souls. This proves God is severe and exacting toward transgression and cannot approve any work that has in it one thread of selfishness. It stands as a beacon warning not to move on a so-called liberal plan, becoming careless in little matters and not particular about God's requirements, lest defects of character increase, deviation from the true Pattern widen, and sight of the Pattern be lost while talking of liberality.

Adam had no excuse, for all his wants were generously supplied and only one prohibition was laid upon him. In eating he became a law to himself, bringing discord and unhappiness into his life and making separation between him and God. Satan, cast out of heaven for seeking a change in God's law, cautiously worked upon their minds and seduced them from loyalty so that the sin was not detected until they ate. That disobedience was seeking knowledge God had withheld, from which came no true gain but knowledge of sin and its results, estrangement from God and separation between earth and heaven, whereas had they not touched the tree God would have given them knowledge without sin's curse bringing everlasting joy.

When confronted Adam admitted eating but was not sorry for his disobedience, when he could neither deny nor excuse the act. With what is natural to all human beings he threw blame on another, saying the woman gave him the fruit. In so doing he indirectly cast blame on God for giving her to him, rather than showing repentance.

Consequences Upon the World

By that disobedience they lost beautiful Eden and their right to their Eden home, were driven out from it, and the way to the tree of life was guarded so they could not eat its fruit and live forever as sinners. They fell from innocence, high estate, holiness and communion with God and angels into a helpless fallen condition under the power of the prince of darkness. They were expelled and separated from God's visible presence, and by listening to the tempter and seeking knowledge God had withheld they became estranged from God and brought separation between earth and heaven. Had they not touched the forbidden tree, God would have given them knowledge without sin's curse, bringing everlasting joy.

Their transgression opened the floodgates of woe, disappointment, sorrow and suffering upon the world. It was the greatest loss and deepest injury that can be conceived, bringing sin and death by sin, misery, and loss of divine favor and happiness for the race. Though taking the forbidden fruit looked like a simple thing unworthy of notice, retribution followed in the fall, the expulsion for disobedience, and the opening of woe upon the world, after which sin grew steadily worse until God destroyed the world by a flood. That first disobedience in violating God's prohibition brought bitter experience and awful consequences and belongs to the history of sin and its consequences.

The fall forfeited man's original likeness to God; sin marred that likeness, weakened physical powers, lessened mental capacity, dimmed spiritual vision, and made humanity subject to death. Created complete in every faculty of mind and body in perfect soundness and perfect health, man fell to weakened vital force, disease of every type, deformity, decrepitude, imbecility, and feeble mental, moral and physical power. Since the fall disease, suffering and death have rapidly increased, with poverty, sickness and suffering under sin's curse, and those evils have been greatly aggravated by continued violation of God's moral law and the physical laws implanted in human nature. Decay spreads through successive generations, repeated whenever fallen man persists in breaking God's law by indulgence of appetite and passion, even passing inherited disease and the effects of vice to children.

Creation itself, once full of knowledge of God, lost the brightness of His presence and became marred, defiled and degraded, though it still bears lessons about its Creator. Beautiful Eden was degraded by the introduction of sin. Even one wrong act shows the result of even one departure from right and its peril both to the wrongdoer and to all whom his influence reaches, standing as a beacon of warning at the byways leading from the path of life. Perpetuating Adam's sin makes the moral atmosphere malarious, darkening the intellect so truth fades, is not valued, is not made precious by practice, and does not sanctify the soul. Repetition takes away sensitiveness of conscience until the impression once made no longer arrests the diseased, depraved, dying transgressor, the voice no longer echoes God's voice, the heart where God should be enthroned brings forth abominations in accordance with satanic attributes, man has lost the reflection of God's character and degenerated, the whole earth is defiled under its inhabitants, the curse increases as transgression increases, and the earth prepares for purification by fire.

Since the fall there has been a succession of falls, for later people repeat the transgression by disregarding God's law, especially through indulgence of appetite and passion. After the fall people followed their carnal desires and changed God's order, becoming more and more bold and disobedient. Ever since that apparently small transgression which closed the gates of Paradise, proving God cannot approve any work with one thread of selfishness, sin has been increasing in volume and prevalence and is still increasing, yet divine benevolence has not been cut off and God's love and care still flow earthward. Every violation continues the same transgression to terrible loss and deepest injury, leading others in sin. The fall broke the charm of obedience so people lost the sense that obedience to God is an absolute necessity and came to think they could choose whether to obey, the law of self harmonizing with sinful desires. Their history of happiness in obedience and ruin in disobedience stands on record and repeated, making later people more responsible.

Law Justice and Atonement

The questioning in Eden belongs to the account of the law given in Paradise together with its penalty, then the temptation and fall, then the punishment inflicted, and it confronts Adam for eating of the tree commanded not to be eaten in order to exact strict regard for the commandments. It proves the law sacred, that God means what He says and holds men accountable for disregarding even one requirement, warning that disobedience brings guilt, sorrow and death. The history stands as warning that the wages of sin is death and that retributive justice never fails, teaching transgressors that punishment will surely follow. It is among the hidden treasures and jewels of truth, in dignified simplicity and sharp clear light developing mind and intellect beyond philosophy, recording after holy innocency and communion with God and sinless angels the introduction of sin with its results upon the race, the disobedience and impenitence of man and the just retribution for sin.

The law thus broken is a transcript of character, as unchangeable as character and throne. It was unaltered to meet Satan's seeking for change in heaven and unaltered to meet man in his fallen condition, for Satan worked cautiously upon minds and seduced from loyalty so that sin was not detected until eating. If the law could have been changed Adam would have been pardoned and would have retained his Eden home, and Christ could have stayed in the heavenly courts without immense sacrifice, but the penalty of transgression was death. Merely saying I am saved and I believe on Christ as Saviour while disregarding His law disregards Christ Himself, for He died obedient unto every requirement of that transgressed law, came to save His people from transgression of the law, and imputes His righteousness to the believer who obeys by faith rather than by human strength or self-cleansing by righteousness of the law.

The guilt exposed was so great and justice so exacting that mercy alone could not excuse the sinner or lessen guilt, for mercy covers only after sin is repented of and forsaken. Though taking the fruit looked like a simple thing unworthy of notice, retribution followed in the fall, the opening of the floodgates of woe upon the world, and expulsion with loss of Eden, proving severity and exactness toward transgression of prohibition. The Father did not put benevolence above justice nor abolish law to give unconditional pardon and set aside principles of righteousness, for to pardon without penalty would exalt the sinner in impenitence and sin and would encourage transgression instead of abating it.

That guilt required God to give His Son from heaven to save the fallen race, the Son stepping in to pledge His own life as penalty for transgression so man might have another trial. He laid aside robes of royalty, clothed divinity with humanity and came as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, suffering insult, reproach and mockery though Majesty of heaven, taking man's transgressions and their just penalty upon Himself as substitute and surety. Through His merits and blood it is made possible to keep the law, and that costly sacrifice exalts the law and evidences its sacred character. The same applies to the Sabbath law placed in the bosom of the decalogue, which cannot be broken with impunity by pleading a merciful God any more than stealing or murder or adultery can, and the disobedience with its grave consequences for the world made Christ's sacrifice necessary to save humanity from sin's penalty.

Adam fell by breaking God's law, dishonoring the divine government and incurring the penalty justice required. He with all posterity was placed upon probation, with loss of right to Eden, where salvation of every soul is still determined by obedience or disobedience. The fall disproves once in grace always in grace, for as Adam and Eve lost Eden by transgressing that law so those who transgress it will lose heaven. The condition of the fallen race today testifies to the awful result of that transgression.

The law given in Eden is the basis of all right conduct, with reward for obedience and penalty for disobedience, and Adam's eating introduced sin into the fair world, after which men became more and still more bold in disobedience until God gave transgressors an exhibition of power in the Flood, where death became the portion of the disobedient and the truth of the word was exemplified. It is magnified before all people with the blood of Christ as the sinner's only hope, establishing accountability of all, especially rulers of nations and all in positions of responsibility, to know and obey all requirements from the beginning as the rule of human conduct. Obedience to that law, filled with positive promises to the obedient, is required to become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, learning from the floodgates of woe opened upon the world. To protect the family from repeating the fall its light is to be made so clearly known that all human intelligences can understand it, parents making plain to children what transgression means and urging lifelong obedience, for ignorance is no excuse because light is abundant.

Christ Warning and Obedience

God did not abandon Adam and Eve after confronting them for eating against His command, but gave them a star of hope in the first gospel sermon to illuminate the dark future. Although death was the sentence for sin, its full execution was delayed because Christ undertook to redeem humanity and open a way of hope and safety through faith. That conversation in Eden is the beginning of the gospel shining with certain light from Genesis to Revelation, continuing down through the ages. By taking man's place and obeying where Adam failed, Christ provided another trial and a return to probation.

Christ passed over the same ground where Adam fell, meeting temptation in the wilderness and gaining the victory. Where Adam became a law to himself by eating the forbidden tree, bringing discord, unhappiness and separation between him and God, Christ lived a life of constant perfect obedience for all to follow. His test of appetite redeemed the disgrace of Adam's failure and fall through appetite and passion. Standing in Adam's place to overcome the tempter, He placed the human family on vantage ground so all can overcome through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour.

In fallen condition man needs the mediatorship of Christ between him and the Creator. All are on trial during probationary time, with Satan playing the game of life for every soul and Christ working for every soul. The gracious opportunity is to lay hold of the Saviour by faith, receive His merits, consent to receive the moral image of God, and perfect a Christlike character. Refusing the character of Christ means heaven is lost.

Adam's experience stands as a beacon warning not to repeat his disobedience, showing the peril of even one departure from right to the wrongdoer and to all whom his influence reaches. The result of his transgression should lead every soul to avoid and abhor sin as hateful, and to feel it better to suffer loss of all things than to depart from the least of God's commandments. Men nevertheless add a succession of falls instead of stopping with Adam, repeating his disobedience while mourning the transgression that brought sin and unutterable woe into the world and drove him from Eden. They are not to move on a so-called liberal plan careless in little matters, for Satan still bewitches minds to talk liberality while defects increase and the pattern is lost.

The confrontation teaches all mankind that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed, for Adam had no excuse when all his wants were generously supplied and only one prohibition was laid upon him. People must choose between repeating that transgression and walking in the light through humble obedience, to whom God's blessings and promises belong. Choosing disobedience now forfeits the right to Eden restored as Adam and Eve lost the right to their Eden home, so self-pleasing must cease, the rebel's side must be left, time and talents given to the enemy must be repented of, and the whole soul given to God by seeking the Lord while He may be found.

That obedience requires bringing perverted, depraved appetite under strict control, because its indulgence weakens power to resist evil and enables Satan to fasten evil habits upon man and ensnare him. Disobedience must not be repeated but met with obedience to all God's requirements, overcoming as Christ overcame by perfect obedience in order to be brought back to the Eden home and to point others heavenward. Keeping God's commandments is the test of love, so the human family must obey the light about the binding claims of God's law and lift the cross before the whole world.

The same warning condemns discarding the Lord's Sabbath in the bosom of the decalogue for a spurious sabbath without sacredness, which repeats Adam's sin and proves God means what He says. Refusing light after hearing truth because accepting it would retard success in business is turning from God and light, selling the soul cheaply, violating conscience, and bargaining with Satan in disregard of His expressed will, because obedience involves a cross and separation from the world. Pleading family inconvenience as excuse and setting a bad example before children perpetuates Adam's disobedience, continuing the succession of falls from doing just what God told men not to do and leading children in the same transgression.

To protect the family from repeating the fall, the floodgates of disappointment, sorrow and suffering opened by disobedience are to be kept before tender minds, and children trained to be obedient to all the statutes and commandments of the Lord. The light of God's law, filled with positive promises to the obedient, is to be made so clear that all can understand it, parents must make plain what transgression means and urge lifelong obedience, ignorance is no excuse, and obedience is required to become members of the royal family. After the fall Satan claimed to be prince of the power of the air with control of nature, and God permitted him to sow tares and work out evil principles while protecting those who desire to work heavenly principles.

Adam treasured what God revealed to him by suffering about the necessity of strict adherence to His law and was commanded to instruct his posterity in the way of the Lord. For nearly a thousand years to the ninth generation he lived among men as a witness to the results of sin, describing man's holy and happy estate in Paradise, repeating the history of the fall, and explaining the merciful provisions for salvation. Yet few gave heed to his words, and he was often met with bitter reproaches for the sin that brought woe upon his posterity.