“Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. Genesis 3:3
I’m not sure when this Bible verse left its mark on me. I know that it was within the last couple of years, but I have never not known this verse. You see, I have never not been a Christian. I literally do not remember a minute of not believing in Jesus. I remember moments of decision of whether or not I was going to follow him, whether I was going to do what I knew the Bible told me to do or not, but I have always, always believed in Jesus. I have questioned whether it was too good to be true. Turned out, as I worked through that, I absolutely believed it. I’ve questioned what I believed about Jesus and the Bible. Turned out, a lot of what I believed about Jesus and the Bible was mostly right, but not all of it. I had some searching to do, as all of us should.
But this verse. This verse hit me hard one day. In Genesis, Adam and Eve were in perfect relationship with God. They knew him. Like, they went for walks with him. They talked to him. They knew he loved them, with the best and purest love we can even imagine. They knew everything in the garden that they walked around in, was for them. It was for their good. Even the work they did was for their good.
Every single bit of it except for one thing. God told Adam and Eve when he created them that they were free to eat from any tree except for one. God called it the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. He told them that if they ate from it they would die.
And then one day along came an icky, slimy serpent. (Yes, I hate snakes. Like, hate, hate. Even now, just thinking about snakes, I am feeling the heeby jeebies.) This nasty serpent, came to Eve, and he said, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Emphasis mine, because you need to see how crafty that devil is).
And Eve told him that God told them that they could eat from any tree in the garden except for the one in the middle, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they ate from that one, that they would surely die. Can we just discuss this fact? It was just ONE tree that they couldn’t eat from. Literally any other tree in the garden they could eat from. But that was the one that Satan made her focus on. (Gosh, I hate him.)
Satan responded with his slithery voice,
“No! You won’t die. In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And that made Eve take a really serious look at that tree in the center of the garden. The ONLY tree that God had told them not to eat from. She looked at it and saw that it was beautiful to look at and that it looked like it was good for food. And she saw that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some and she ate it. And then she offered some to her hubby who was with her, and he ate it, too. And their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked; so they sewed some big leaves together and made themselves some clothes.
Okay, so at this point, that slimy snake has no more words of advice for them. He’s just here for the show and it is about to happen.
Adam and Eve are now fully covered in leaves, and they hear the sound of God walking in the garden, so they decided to hide. (From God. They thought they could hide from God.) So, God called out, “Where are you?”
And Adam said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” And God said, “ Who told you that you were naked?”
God had never told them that they were naked. Their lack of clothes had never been an issue, and their nakedness had never made them feel shameful and hide from God before. But now it did. Why?
You see, that serpent knew something Adam and Eve didn’t. That the tree and the fruit weren’t the issues here. Sure, that was the first sin and that ACT was the proof of the real issue. The real issue was that Adam and Eve did not believe God. The act of eating that apple (or whatever kind of fruit it was. The Sunday School flannelgraph always showed me that it was an apple that Eve picked, so to me it’s an apple), was the result of them not believing God about that tree, and instead believing a lie that someone else had told them.
And believing someone/something else led them to feel shame. And that shame separated them from God. It separated all of us from God. The effects of that sin, of their unbelief, are still felt today.
Except!! There is more to the story now. A lot more, really, but I’m just going to go straight to Jesus because he is so awesome. I’m going to go right to his death and his resurrection. There is a lot of time in between there and a lot of history, but let’s talk about Jesus, as we wrap this up!!
Jesus died for our freedom as well as our salvation. In other words, on top of the fact that we get to spend eternity in Heaven with God when we believe in Jesus as our savior, Jesus also came to set everything right between us and God. He came to take away our shame. He came to remind us how much God loves us. He came to remind us who He is and then he gave us the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of us. The Holy Spirit is the one who reminds us over and over who we are as children of God. He reminds us of the Bible verses that tell us that we are a new creation when people around us tell us that we are just the same people we’ve always thought we were. He reminds us that he created us. He formed our bodies, he formed our personalities. He loves us ridiculously well even when we don’t love him well at all.
Satan is not slithering around as a snake anymore, but he is still around and he is trying so hard to separate us from God. He is still manipulating and lying to us, just like he did to Eve. He’s asking if God really said the things he said. And he’s planting lies all around us of things that run contrary to the Bible and what God says. He is telling us that we are too much or we’re not enough. That we are too big, too small, too quiet, too loud, too young, too old. And on and on and on and on. His goal is to take us out of the lives that God has for us.
The Bible says that we were created on purpose for good works. We were created for God’s glory. That we were created to be a blessing to others. But instead, we often hide. And we hide because of the lies that we believe and the shame that we feel.
So, let me ask you what God asked Adam and Eve. And what I know he’s been asking me for the last two years:
“Who told you that?”
Who told you that your body isn’t the way it’s supposed to be? Who told you that you are stupid? Who told you that you are too loud? Who told you that that dream you have is too much? Who told you that you aren’t doing enough? Who told you that??
If God didn’t tell you that, figure it out. Figure out whether or not what you are believing is what you should be believing. There’s about a 100% chance of it being wrong if it is making you feel full of shame and separated from God and people. Read the Bible. Talk to a friend who loves God and loves you. You have to figure it out. Do the hard work. I promise you that it is worth it.