Genesis 3:8, commentary and pictures

The verse records Adam and his wife hearing the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and hiding themselves among the trees of the garden. While innocent they delighted to meet God, but after yielding to the tempter love and peace were replaced by terror and a sense of sin, so when they heard Him approach they fled in fear and hid. That hiding exposed their guilt, shame and nakedness, for their covering of light and innocence was taken from them and their eyes were opened only to their own ruin. After transgression that open, face-to-face communion was broken and humanity was separated from God and driven from His visible presence, yet separation did not end hope, for through Christ as refuge and medium, through ministering angels and the Holy Spirit, a way was opened for earth to remain connected with heaven. The verse therefore stands as a lesson for all mankind that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed, for Adam's transgression brought sin, guilt, sorrow and death into the world, while through Christ's sacrifice fallen man is granted another trial on probation.

Garden Visit in Eden

The verse records Adam and his wife hearing the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and hiding themselves from His presence among the trees of the garden. It follows their inexcusable transgression of God's single prohibition against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, committed by listening to Satan's misrepresentation of God, by which Adam fell from his high estate and sin and woe entered the world. Their hiding reveals fear and guilt after their eyes were opened to their nakedness. The verse stands as a lesson for all mankind that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed.

God came to Adam and Eve often and daily in the cool of the day, walking and talking with them face to face in personal and regular communion. In their innocence and untainted purity the happy pair greeted His visits with joy. Each day He taught them His lessons and gave them heavenly instruction, instructing them how to do the work God had appointed them. Their employment was earnest and happy, full of thanksgiving and praise, and each day's labor brought them health and gladness.

Eden and its trees and groves were their sanctuary and place of worship and joyful converse with God and angels, where Adam enjoyed personal fellowship, walking and talking with God and communing face to face with God's Son and the holy angels. There He communed with them in His created works, and the trees and groves reminded Adam and his descendants of that communion and of Eden as a place of worship to the Creator. Nature was teeming with instruction and vocal with wisdom to their attentive ears, eyes and hearts, beginning the gospel light that shines with no uncertain light from Genesis to Revelation and continues down through the ages. The Creator's voice can still be heard in nature, still recalling that personal communion in Eden, and the Sabbath still calls people to remember and commune with Him as Creator.

Fellowship Before and After

Before sin Adam and Eve lived in holy innocency in open, direct, free and happy fellowship, walking with God in Eden and beholding His glory with open face. They talked face to face with God and Christ and angels in Paradise without a dimming veil between. That perfect face-to-face communion contrasts with the present imperfect state in which people see and know only in part, and it will be restored in the perfect life to come. After sin entered they could no longer speak directly with God or live in His presence, because they could not endure His glory.

After transgression that communion was broken and humanity was separated from God, driven from the garden, from the tree of life, and from His visible presence and His holy angels. The sin of Adam and Eve separated earth from heaven and made a gulf between them so that man could not have communion with his Maker as before. That fall marks the human race's departure from its original condition of purity and closeness to God. Since that expulsion moral darkness like the pall of death has cast its shadows everywhere with the blight and mildew of sin, and for nearly six thousand years man has wandered from the gates of Paradise subject to sickness, pain, sorrow, tears, and death and subject to the temptations and wiles of the devil.

Direct communication could no longer continue as before, and that open privilege was lost by transgression. The separation did not end hope, for the plan of redemption opened a way for people on earth to remain connected with heaven. Christ became humanity's refuge and the only way to find access to God and communication with Him, and as the appointed medium He with His own merits bridges the gulf, connecting man in weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power. Without Christ ministering angels could hold no communion with fallen man, but through Him, through ministering angels, through the Holy Spirit, and through divine revelations given to chosen servants, connection remains. Christ first met that separation as represented through the sacrificial offerings until He came to the world in person, and then by His life and prayer opened all heaven to fallen man, so that the human race is accepted in the Beloved and prayers offered through faith in Jesus as substitute are accepted by the Father.

Hiding in Fear

While innocent they delighted to meet God when He came to walk and talk with them, but after yielding to the tempter they became afraid to meet Him and when they heard Him approach they fled in terror and hid themselves among the trees of the garden. Love and peace were replaced by terror, a sense of sin and dread of the future, and the presence they had welcomed in holiness now brought fear of His inspection. Their hiding exposed guilt and fear, for guilt made them expect a condemnation of God they had never known before.

Their covering of light, their garment of innocence and holiness that had enshrouded and protected them, was taken from them by transgression, leaving nakedness of soul and loss of God's enveloping covering. Knowing their nakedness and sinfulness they could not while unclothed meet the eye of God and holy angels, so they tried to fashion a covering for themselves. Even the air, before mild and uniform in temperature, seemed to chill them in their guilt. Their eyes were opened not to godhood but to their own shame and ruin, realizing the garments of heavenly light were gone as a safeguard and that nakedness was the result of transgression. Knowing evil means experiencing disobedience to God's commands with all its fearful consequences.

God's question to Adam about where he was and why he was afraid and naked was meant to convict the guilty pair, not to obtain information, and it led Adam to throw blame on Eve. In hiding himself from God Adam encompassed himself in obstructing darkness by following his own impulses instead of standing firm in defense of truth and duty. That hiding puts darkness between the sinner and God that obstructs light and rightdoing. He hid because after transgression he did not want to see God, the example of all who separate themselves from God by wicked works and love not to behold Him or retain Him in their knowledge.

His example must not be followed, for no one can hide from God, since a sinner may turn his face so he cannot see Him but cannot place himself where God will not see him, for darkness is as light to Him and He knows every secret thing. The hiding reveals a heart no longer in harmony with God and finding no joy in holiness or communion with Him, which is still the condition of every unrenewed heart. Such a sinner could not be happy in God's presence and would shrink from the companionship of holy beings, for his thoughts, interests and motives are alien to unselfish love and to the sinless dwellers there, making him a discordant note in the melody of heaven. Even if permitted to enter heaven it would have no joy for him but would be a place of torture, and he would long to be hidden from Him who is its light and the center of its joy, welcoming destruction to be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem him. Exclusion of the wicked from heaven is therefore no arbitrary decree but their own unfitness for its companionship, for the glory of God would be to them a consuming fire.

How the Fall Happened

God had permitted eating from every tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, yet Eve separated from her husband while at their daily labor despite caution to stay together for safety, wandered alone, dismissed fear of danger, and gazed with curiosity and admiration on the forbidden tree and its beautiful fruit. She questioned why God withheld it, lingered to listen when the serpent in the tree spoke the tempter's question echoing her own thoughts, trusted his denial of God's warning, ate the fruit, and persuaded Adam to eat. That eating opened the floodgates of woe upon the world and began the steady increase of sin that led to the flood in which only Noah and his sons were saved and that continues increasing still.

They fell by listening to Satan's misrepresentation of God, who cautiously worked upon their minds and seduced them from loyalty so that the sin was not detected. He framed lies to substitute for God's word, and even close walking and talking with God did not prevent their minds from being led by another power when they believed false claims and became unable to recognize the power leading them into apostasy. Their failure to resist his appeal to appetite began humanity's fall and ruin and introduction of sin into the world.

They were led into sin by indulging desire for knowledge God had withheld from them and by listening to the tempter concerning the forbidden tree, for appetite was the first strong temptation and appetite and passion brought the fall. If they had never touched the forbidden tree, God would have imparted to them knowledge upon which rested no curse of sin, knowledge that would have brought them everlasting joy, but instead they lost all that was worth possessing and gained only acquaintance with sin and its results. By disobedience humanity was estranged from God and earth was separated from heaven. Their fall through intemperance in desire and refusing light is the pattern for everyone who after hearing truth turns from it to protect worldly success, and man lost his right to Paradise by eating what God had forbidden. In preparing for Paradise restored man must therefore bring perverted appetite under strict control, because indulgence of depraved appetite weakens power to resist evil and enables Satan to fasten evil habits upon man and ensnare him. That fall brought anguish and suffering with disease, decay, and feebleness of mental, moral, and physical power transmitted from father to son, so that the present inheritance of licentiousness, disease, and imbecility is a repetition of that fall as fallen man persists in breaking God's law.

By disregarding God's prohibition they broke His law, which is the basis of all right conduct with reward for obedience and penalty for disobedience, and suffered the consequences of the fall. Adam by disobedience became a law to himself, and discord and unhappiness came into his life with separation made between him and God. After the fall self-will harmonized with sinful human desires, men and women became more and still more bold in disobeying His law, no longer feeling obedience to be an absolute necessity but imagining they could choose whether to obey or disobey.

The step looked simple and unworthy of notice, a slight test and even one small sin, yet it brought bitter experience, closed the gates of Paradise, and opened the floodgates of woe to the world unto eternal ruin of thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions. It proved that God cannot approve any work with even one thread of selfishness in it. One sin fostered and one vice indulged in a life otherwise virtuous, honorable, and noble becomes the strongest bulwark of vice and a powerful enticement to struggling souls, turning high gifts, genius, talent, sympathy, and even generous deeds into decoys to entice souls over the precipice of ruin. The story was given to show the result of even one wrong act and stands as a beacon of warning set at the byways from the path of life not to move on a liberal plan, become careless in little matters, and refuse to be particular about God's requirements.

Results of Transgression

Adam's inexcusable transgression of the single prohibition, committed by listening to misrepresentation of God, brought sin and woe into the world and opened the floodgates of woe, disappointment, sorrow and suffering. By that disobedience the holy pair fell, lost beautiful Eden and the right to their Eden home, and were driven from the garden by expulsion. The way to the tree of life was guarded so they could not eat its fruit and live forever, and their sin brought guilt and sorrow and made a sacrifice necessary to save humanity from its penalty.

Their retribution proves that violation of God's requirement brings awful consequences and is not excused by His mercy, for He means what He says and requires obedience to His law. The wages of sin is death, His retributive justice never fails, and He exacts strict regard for His commandments with sure punishment following transgression as when the law was proclaimed at Sinai. Disobedience sets people against God, while His requirements are founded on love and wisdom, and if human beings walk contrary to Him He will walk contrary to them so that the only safe course is entire obedience at whatever cost.

God made man upright, but by transgression Adam lost divine favor and happiness and plunged the race into misery, despair, poverty, sickness and suffering under sin and darkness. Sin marred the divine likeness, weakened human powers, dimmed spiritual vision, darkened the intellect, dulled the conscience and brought death. Men were left so weak in moral power that overcoming in human strength alone is impossible, and God did not create a race so devoid of health, beauty and moral power as now exists. Disease, decay and feebleness of mental, moral and physical power are transmitted from father to son from generation to generation, and each generation's inherited bodily disease and moral weakness is another repetition of the fall as fallen man persists in breaking God's law and adds to accumulated misery. This fearful increase of disease did not come by God's special providence and is directly contrary to His will, but came by man's disregard of the very means God ordained to shield him from terrible evils. Continued violations of God's moral and physical laws have greatly aggravated these evils, for no one can violate natural law without suffering the penalty, while obedience in every respect would save men from intemperance, licentiousness and disease of every type.

As soon as they transgressed the law of the Most High the brightness from the face of God departed from the face of nature, and the earth became marred, defiled and blighted by sin. When they yielded to the tempter the light of God that had illuminated them and nature departed, the garments of heavenly innocence and holiness were lost, and deprived of that heavenly light they could no longer rightly perceive God's character in His works nor read nature aright. Marred by the curse of sin nature can bear only an imperfect testimony regarding the Creator and cannot reveal His character in perfection, so man of himself cannot rightly interpret its teaching and, unless guided by divine wisdom, exalts nature and its laws above God. Yet God's object lessons are not obliterated, and even in its blighted state much that is beautiful remains, so that rightly studied and interpreted and illuminated again by the light of the life of Christ, nature still speaks of her Creator.

That first fall was only the first fall, beginning a succession of falls ever greater in every species of crime, with sin steadily increasing in volume and prevalence and still increasing. Their sin opened the floodgates of woe upon the world and began the steady increase that led God to destroy the world by a flood, saving only Noah and his sons. Men became more and more disobedient, repeating Adam's disobedience rather than learning from his example, following their own desires and changing God's order, and to keep disobeying perpetuates that disobedience while every transgressor's influence still leads others in the same sin. Even so divine benevolence has not been cut off, and God's love and care still flow earthward, which should make man afraid of his littleness and his sin-loving propensities.

Adam was commanded to teach his posterity in the way of the Lord, and for nearly a thousand years, to his children and children's children to the ninth generation, he faithfully treasured what God had revealed and repeated it to succeeding generations. He described man's holy and happy estate in Paradise, repeated the fall, told of the sufferings by which God had taught him the necessity of strict adherence to His law, and explained the merciful provisions for salvation, as a witness to the results of sin seeking to stem the tide of evil. Yet few gave heed to his words, and he was often met with bitter reproaches for the sin that had brought woe upon his posterity. After the fall Satan claimed to be prince of the power of the air and to have control of everything in nature, which God could have prevented but permitted so that he might sow tares and work out his principles of evil, while protecting from his wrath those who desire to work out the principles of heaven. The beautiful handiwork of God first seen in Eden has been preserved as specimens of the beauty in Eden and as an expression of God's love to direct minds from the things in nature to nature's God, for God is not in person in the trees and leaves, and beautiful Eden itself was degraded by the introduction of sin.

Promise of Redemption

This moment stands at the beginning of helpless human need for redemption, for after the fall Adam and Eve were helpless under sin and the power of darkness and had lost Eden. Made upright, humanity through Adam's transgression lost divine favor and happiness and was plunged into misery and despair, and that fall was only the first in a succession of falls that left men so weak in moral power that overcoming in human strength alone is impossible. Christ entered the world in human form to face the very ground and test where Adam had fallen, laying aside royalty and riches to walk as a man among men and conquer the prince of darkness to save the race from eternal death. His victory over temptation through fasting redeemed the disgrace of Adam's failure brought about by appetite, passing over the same ground in the wilderness of temptation and thereby placing the human family on vantage ground with God so that overcoming in their own behalf through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour is possible.

Through transgression people lost their high estate and became subject to death, and the sin of the father of the race that lost Eden reveals the justice of God. To meet that need the Son of God stepped in and pledged His own life as the penalty for transgression so that man might have another trial, opening a way of escape by taking man's transgressions and their just penalty upon Himself. He laid aside His robes of royalty, clothed His divinity with humanity, and came into the world as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, suffering insult and reproach and mockery though He was the Majesty of heaven.

It is through the sacrifice of Christ alone that in God's wise plans fallen man has been granted another trial, for Adam lost Eden and was placed with all his posterity upon probation with Christ become man's substitute and surety. Disobedience could not be pardoned by changing the law to retain them in Eden, because the penalty of transgression was death and the law is unchangeable. After sin Adam and Eve saw they were naked because the covering of God was no longer enveloping them, meaning loss of God's covering by transgression and need to buy from Christ gold tried in the fire and white raiment, which is His righteousness, to be clothed. The righteousness of God never covers a soul still polluted with sin, so sin must be taken away by the Lamb of God upon whom the sins of the whole world are laid, for man cannot bear his own sin, and Christ will take it when laid hold of by faith in the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, giving man another trial now to prove loyalty by keeping God's commandments and showing God's character so Christ did not die in vain.

The provision made in man's behalf was not to abolish God's law in order to give unconditional pardon, for the Father did not set forth benevolence at the expense of justice, which would set aside the principles of righteousness, exalt the sinner in impenitence and sin, and encourage transgression instead of abating it. In Adam's fall the law was broken, the divine government was dishonored, and justice demanded that the penalty of transgression be paid. God's gift of His Son from heaven to save the fallen race and make it possible for fallen man to keep the law through His merits and blood exalts the law of God and evidences its sacred character. That law given in Eden with reward and penalty magnifies the law before all as a golden thread running through the fabric of the gospel, while the blood of Christ is the sinner's only hope.

Transgression severed man from God and divorced him from God, making a wide and deep separation and a gulf between earth and heaven so that man could not have communion with his Maker. Before sin in holy innocence the Father and Son communicated with Adam and Eve, the human heart was the sacred temple where the sacred fire of holy love burned, and the incense of praise from human lips ascended to unite with the songs of holy angels. God's wonderful provision bridged that gulf and re-established union, first represented through sacrificial offerings until He came in person, and then by His life and prayer opening all heaven to fallen man. Jesus with His own merits bridges that gulf as the appointed medium of communication, connecting man in weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power so that His tabernacle may be with men and man may be one with God, and without Him ministering angels could hold no communion with fallen man while prayers offered through faith in Jesus as substitute are accepted by the Father.

Adam walking and talking with God in Eden, living in His presence, illustrates the face-to-face fellowship with God that the pure in heart will have in the future immortal life and immortal state when open communion is restored, in contrast to the present imperfect state in which people see and know only in part. By that disobedience Adam and Eve lost the right to their Eden home, and Jesus came to save His people from that transgression by imparting His righteousness to those who obey God's law, since no one can overcome in human strength but by faith in Him as Saviour now, trusting His death and His obedience to every requirement of the transgressed law. Those who continue to transgress that same law will lose heaven as Adam and Eve lost Eden, for choosing that same disobedience by pleasing self, remaining on the side of the great rebel, and giving time and talents to the enemy forfeits the right to the Eden restored. The remedy is to cease pleasing self, seek the Lord without delay while He may be found, give the whole soul to God, repent for what was given to the enemy, and before the heavenly universe choose the good and refuse the evil, and overcoming as Christ overcame by perfect obedience to His Father's commandments brings people back to their Eden home and points others heavenward to it.

Call to Obey

Genesis 3:8 stands as a lesson for all mankind that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed, following Adam and his wife hiding among the trees when they heard His voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day after their inexcusable transgression of the single prohibition against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by listening to Satan's misrepresentation of God, by which Adam fell from his high estate and sin and woe entered the world with fear and guilt and opened eyes to nakedness. Man's only safety is entire obedience to all God's words without making the experiment of testing the evil course and its results, for before transgression God's plan was clearsightedness in all work through cooperation between man and God, but disobedience greatly interfered with that plan and brings weakness. Their violation of the law of God was the greatest loss and deepest injury conceivable, losing beautiful Eden and opening the floodgates of woe, teaching every soul to avoid and abhor sin as hateful and to feel in view of the sufferings sin inflicts that it is better to suffer loss of all things than to depart from the least of God's commandments, while through Christ's sacrifice alone fallen man in God's wise plans has been granted another trial.

God means what He says, as shown when His prohibition to the first parents against eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge was disobeyed and that disobedience opened the floodgates of woe to the whole world. If human beings walk contrary to God, He will walk contrary to them, and the only safe course is to render obedience to all His requirements at whatever cost, for all are founded in infinite love and wisdom. Their loss of the right to Eden by hiding after disobeying a command proves that being once in grace does not mean remaining always in grace, and the condition of the fallen race today testifies to the awful results of transgressing God's law. That same loss of Eden by disobedience shows that love is tested by having and keeping God's commandments, charging the whole human family to obey the light given about the binding claims of God's law and to lift the cross in view of the whole world.

Their retribution proves violation of God's requirement brings awful consequences not excused by His mercy, and since God's gift of His Son from heaven to save the fallen race and make it possible to keep the law through His merits and blood exalts the law and evidences its sacred character, the Eden test condemns excusing Sabbath-breaking by appeal to mercy or majority practice. Adam's disobedience and fall serves as a warning to shun his example. Disregarding the Sabbath after learning its claims is likewise disobedience and leaves a person without excuse, as warned by the example of Adam and Eve in the garden against disobeying God's law. Adam's failure to bear God's slight test, though the step looked simple and unworthy of notice yet brought bitter experience and expulsion and terrible retribution, stands as a beacon of warning not to move on a liberal plan, become careless in little matters, talk of liberality, and refuse to be particular about God's requirements, for those who do so deviate widely from Christ's perfect example as the only true Pattern and standard, keep defects of character and become more faulty because Satan bewitches the mind and they lose sight of the true Pattern.

Disobeying God's requirements opened upon the world the floodgates of disappointment, sorrow and suffering, and parents, with mothers as queens in their households, are to keep this result before their children's tender minds to train them to be obedient to all God's statutes and commandments. Adam's disobedience, transgression and fall began a succession of falls ever since, and to keep disobeying God is to perpetuate that disobedience, with parents who do so setting a bad example that leads their children and families to follow the same disobedient course. The law given in Eden in Genesis 3:1-19 with the reward of obedience and the penalty of disobedience, and the transgression of Adam and Eve and its results, is to be set before everyone standing in a position of responsibility, especially rulers of nations and those united with them, to show the divine law as the basis of all right conduct and their accountability to obey all its requirements, magnifying the law before all as a golden thread running through the fabric of the gospel while the blood of Christ is the sinner's only hope. God warns human agents traveling the downward path in regard to His law but does not compel obedience, desiring all to open their eyes to behold wondrous things out of His law filled with positive promises to the obedient, requiring obedience to become members of the royal family as children of the heavenly King, and to protect the human family the light of the law must be proclaimed as clearly as a city set upon a hill so all human intelligences can understand it if they will.

Man lost his right to Paradise by eating what God had forbidden, and in preparing for Paradise restored man must bring perverted appetite under strict control, because indulgence of depraved appetite weakens the power to resist evil and enables Satan to fasten evil habits upon man and ensnare him in the net of his devices. Their fall through intemperance in desire shows that appetite and errors in preparation of food influence the moral tendencies of human nature, and that indulged inclination and unhealthful habits weaken physical, mental and moral efficiency, take away sincere piety and religious fervor, and make it impossible to overcome temptation, calling for decided reform in eating and living. Adam and Eve recognized the voice of the Lord Jehovah in the garden as His personal presence, and that same presence is to be recognized in every room where His work is done, for the Lord comes to His own place and from His presence go forth blessings of light imbuing with His Spirit every worker doing Him service so that not a trace of Satan's attributes is revealed in the look of the eye, the hearing of the ear, the words spoken, or the attitude taken. God's presence is real and discernible and religious activity and service that does not recognize Him is vain, unacceptable and unappreciated.

Choosing the same disobedience by which Adam and Eve lost the right to their Eden home, by pleasing self, remaining on the side of the great rebel, and giving time and talents to the enemy, forfeits the right to Eden restored, and the remedy is to cease pleasing self, seek the Lord without delay while He may be found, give the whole soul to God, repent for what was given to the enemy, and before the heavenly universe choose the good and refuse the evil. Adam hid from the approach of his heavenly Father because after transgression he did not want to see God, having been led by Satan's lying sophistry framing lies to substitute for a Thus saith the Lord, and his hiding is the example of all who separate themselves from God by wicked works and love not to behold God or retain Him in knowledge, an example that must not be followed for no one can hide from God since a sinner may turn his face so he cannot see Him but cannot place himself where God will not see him, for darkness is as light to Him and He knows every secret thing. Adam wandering from his Maker brings no happiness for any man following that example.

Genesis 3:8 belongs to the inspired history of the race that presents a boundless field for imagination and develops the mind with light from God's throne to an extent philosophy cannot impart, showing our first parents in Eden in holy innocency enjoying communion with God and sinless angels and then tracing the introduction of sin and its results, marking a step in disobedience and impenitence breaking that holy communion and meeting just retribution. It belongs to the outline of the fall and its consequences which opened the floodgates of woe, a grand truth of sacred history possessing amazing strength and beauty and reaching as far as eternity. It belongs to the authentic Bible history of the early world, the origin of the earth, the creation of man, his fall and the introduction of sin, without which true account the mind is left to fables and conjectures, bewildered by false theories, subjected to tyranny of superstition and falsehood, and enfeebled in intellect by entertaining error, so that with this history there is no need to be hampered by human conjectures and unreliable theories. It is part of the inspired account of the fall, one of the great facts and very pillars of Christian faith together with creation, the atonement and the perpetuity of God's law, yet though the Bible is within reach of all it is but little valued as guide of life and is practically rejected wholly or in part by a large share of the professedly Christian world, while placing implicit confidence in it is regarded as weakness and caviling at Scripture and spiritualizing away its most important truths is regarded as wisdom, independence, superior talent and learning. That teaching of the fall and its consequences opening the floodgates of woe is among the most important knowledge that can be received, together with the teaching of Christ's first advent as a helpless babe born in a stable and cradled in a manger.