Fear – Genesis 3:6-10

And Adam said, “I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.

Today’s passage marks the entrance of fear into human affairs. To better understand it let’s take a look at God and at man, before fear laid hold of him.

God is revealed as a being with a personality. He possessed all knowledge and was moving about on earth in a body interacting with man. He was provoking him to think and explore everything he had created. Since He had designed them in his image, there was going to be some very big discoveries!

Most prominent in our story is man’s relationship to God – something, like breathing, that  was taken for granted by Adam and Eve. God and man were intimately connected.  This is how the story begins and, after a season, this is how the story will conclude. Jesus is making all things right.

Satan, a bitter and proud angel, was already a resident of earth when Adam and Eve were created. His involvement in human affairs has proven him to be a liar, a murderer and thief. He hates God, God’s people and has a singular mission to disrupt and destroy God’s plans. His method is to sow masterful deceptions into the heart’s of men.

His methods are subtle. He packaged his lie to Eve as a proposal that God may be withholding something from her. In Eve’s case it was wisdom. Apparently she could be more than she was; she could be wise like God! The poison our parents ingested contained knowledge about both good and evil – knowledge God had warned them would cause their death.

As the toxins were absorbed into their being, their capacity to live comfortably in God’s presence without fear died. The forbidden substance, now operative in them, obscured their awareness of God and left them instead with a miserable substitute – an acute awareness of themselves. Their new found knowledge informed their consciousness that they were inadequate and inferior and that God was the one they must fear and hide from.

Adam and Eve feared the Lord. We are told in Ps 111:10 that fearing God is a prerequisite to wisdom. So, was this the beginning of their wisdom? It was surely the beginning of a worldly type of wisdom that equips the sons of Adam with a genius in dealing with their fears. Men find ways to cope with their fears of isolation, failure, intimacy and a myriad of others. Men either live from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or, the Tree of Life.

Fear, born of the knowledge of good and evil, can birth both good deeds and evil deeds. Our self-orienton and fear produce both the devout and the debauched. The root motive for both the alms giver or the murderer could have a common denominator in fear. Both of them can be exercising their worldly wisdom – compensating for their acute insecurities, traceable to the garden.

Yesterday’s passage was 1 John 4:16-20. We read, “Perfect love casts out fear“. While one tree produces fear and religion, the other produces love and intimacy. The Tree of Life reestablishes the human spirit’s capacity for intimacy with God. Our fatal wound of Eden is healed in Jesus’ wounds at Calvary …

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

 

In the wisdom rooted in the cross, we learn a new definition of fear. The old definition which anticipated punishment from an angry God was cast out by love.

By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgement; because as He is, so also are we in the world.

There is a wisdom available to us that will allow us to once again think, explore and discover in the context of a relationship with God where we do not need to hide ourselves in fear of punishment. There is no condemnation for us who are in Christ because Christ absorbed the punishment due us. God desires that we avail ourselves of this costly gift which has made it once again possible to walk with him and others in intimacy.

Father, may we see with new eyes that you have laid the axe to the root of our old nature, rooted in fear. May we comprehend that, in Christ, we are grafted into you – legally immune to accusations of inferiority. Thank you that we are completely acceptable and welcomed into Your presence. Let us resume our intimate communion.

Now to Him, who is able to keep us from stumbling, and to make us stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

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