Who Told You That You Were Naked?

"And He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" Genesis 3:11

Oh boy, here we go. In the oft replayed conversations of the four beings in The Garden of Eden we least often refer to this particular line of The Supreme Being, God. Who, knowing that they would start pointing fingers, cuts to the chase by holding all three of them responsible and doling out some tough consequences. The Serpent gets the rawest deal and the man and woman get pretty equal punishment. I think we should go back and answer God's questions, since nobody did at the time. Oh, they made excuses, threw hand grenades to draw attention away from themselves, but nobody was totally honest. Man blames God and 'that' woman. The woman blames 'that' snake. So typical of us humans, somebody else is responsible, not me.

Adam answered an earlier question of God's kinda (lol) honestly. God said, "Where are you?" Adam says, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." Well... Kinda honest. He did hear God coming and he was afraid, but he shoulda fessed up that he had been disobedient, so that is why he hid. Hiding from God is a real trick anyway. He knows that. So, who told them they were naked? Initially I want to blame it on the devil. Granted, he seduced them, tempted them, deceived them and lied to them. he is like that you know. But, he didn't say "neener, neener, neener, you're naked, you're naked!" The honest answer is again, "I was disobedient and surrendered my innocence and everything changed, including my awareness of my nakedness. My fault, my bad.

The devil is always bad, or faking being good for ulterior motives. We, on the other hand, have a choice, always. We are the only choice makers. God doesn't choose to be good, He just is. Part B of the question is the key here. "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" Simple answer only please. "Yes sir!" God says, "I told you not to." Simple answer only please. "I know, I did it anyway, my fault, my bad. The woman should have said, "The serpent deceived me, and I fell for it." God says, "You know I would never lie to you." She should have said, I know, I believed him anyway, my fault, my bad." You see, as soon as we are disobedient, every time immediately, pride sets in and oh boy, here we go, here comes the excuses, rationalizing and blame letting. Fall of Man, Original Sin, Bye-Bye Garden and the battle rages on between us and ourselves and our choices. No one else to blame, no excuses.

So, lesson for the day. Believe God, resist the devil. Accept responsibility for your choices, stop falling for the lies, stop throwing hand grenades and making excuses. We sure should appreciate the mercy and grace of God. Hope this sheds some light and provides some better understanding of who everybody is in The Garden and still today.

Believing Him Alone,
Pastor Fred

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