The Reason for the Question⤒🔗

This question speaks more of a condition than a place, does it not? The Lord knew very well where Adam was. There is nothing that escapes His eye, nor can anything be hid from the view of the Omniscient One. The Puritans had a term that encapsulated the idea of God’s omniscience: totus oculus – ‘all eye.’

No, this text has more to do with Adam’s condition than place (in the bushes). Further, we should also recognize that Adam’s place was the result of his condition. So it would fit the penetrating question of our Lord to Adam, “where art thou?”

We can assume that just a day before, Adam had been in the open air of the garden waiting for the arrival of his Creator and Friend, looking forward to that long walk in the garden in the “cool of the day” (v.8). What sweet fellowship this must have been, to fellowship with one’s Maker in uninterrupted friendship! To walk and talk with the preincarnate Son of God (for that is who we have here). It was a theophany, a ‘first vision’ of Christ, the eternal Son. We see these special instances elsewhere in the Old Testament with Abraham and the three visitors, as well as the Angel at Peniel, “for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32:30).

Yet, since Adam’s fall, there has never been a soul who walked with God perfectly and uprightly. “What about Enoch,” someone will ask, “or how about Elijah?” Ah, but these men were sinners just like us, tainted by sin.

No man has ever walked in perfect relationship with God since Adam. However, there is a promise that we will one day. 1 John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

Adam’s Condition←⤒🔗

But what of this question in our text? “Adam, where art thou?” It is first speaking of a condition.

“Adam, where art thou?” As if to say, “Adam, is this the return I get for all my gifts to thee? The object of My love, the focal point of My earthly affections; the centre of my earthly attention? Adam, what has become of you?! Adam where art thou?”

You see, dear reader, for Adam to sin he had to utterly turn his back on his Friend. He had to conclude, for one moment that his thoughts were above God’s thoughts, his ways above God’s ways, and delve into “momentary atheism.” You say, how so? Well atheism is not always denying the existence of God (as is commonly expressed). No, atheism can be as simple as denying one of God’s attributes. And Adam denied God’s truth when the Serpent said, “Hath God said?”

Genesis 3:1-5 tells us:

 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Here we have momentary atheism!  To deny the spoken word of God is to ever so briefly question God’s authority, His righteousness, and truth. It is raising an autonomous fist in the face of God.

God’s Lamentation←⤒🔗

“Adam where art thou?” As if to say, “Adam, is this My reward for endowing thee with noble faculties of mind?” “Adam where art thou?” You have sinned against knowledge, against righteousness, against truth itself! “Where art thou?”

Adam once knew, in the excellency of his uncorrupted mind, the command of the Lord, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Yet he questioned the authority of God. He believed the lie of Satan, “Yea, hath God said”?

We do this too every time we sin. We think our thoughts are better than His, and our ways more pleasing. But friend, a sin against knowledge is a heinous thing. Sins of the will and presumption are more heinous than sins of ignorance.

“Adam where art thou?” As if to say, “Adam, what more could I have given thee to make thee happy?” “Adam, is this the action of a kind and loyal friend?”

It was the first experimental, heart searching sermon ever preached: “Adam, where art thou?” Here we also see the language of lamentation.

God is Just Yet Merciful←⤒🔗

Friends, God is not only a righteous judge but also a loving Saviour. He is not only an exacting executor of punishment, “but slow to anger and rich in mercy.” How longsuffering is the Lord with sinners, that even though He is angry with the wicked every day, He is also, longsuffering toward us. And so, in this voice, we not only see alarm for the condition that sin had brought upon Adam, but of disappointment, “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

We are reminded in the walking of God in the cool of the day, and the earnest formulation of the question, “Adam, where art thou,” that God is just and yet merciful. Remember, God “delighteth not in the death of the wicked.” There is a sense in this of what we find Ezekiel saying to Israel after great and wicked sin (Ezekiel 33:11), “how shall I give thee up oh Ephraim”? And while God is eternally just He is also eternally merciful.

As James 2:13 declares, For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

“Adam, where art thou?” In this question we can see the love of God who after being sinned against does not destroy but seeks. It would have been very easy for God to exact His judgment from his throne in heaven, destroying the wicked with the breath of his nostrils. “By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed” (Job 4:9).

But He still comes down from heaven, like a torn lover (as He presents Himself in Hosea) who has been betrayed, and asks this lamenting question, “where art thou?”

The Implication of the Question←⤒🔗

What then is the implication of this question, “where art thou?” It is a panhuman question for us all. 1 Corinthians 15:22 says, “For as in Adam all die.” The Heidelberg Catechism asks, Question 7. Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature? Answer: From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise; hence our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin.

Many today deny the imputation of Adam’s sin. They find it hard to believe that Adam’s actions were our actions. There is, as you know, a universal application to this question, “Adam where art thou?” Sons of Adam.... Daughters of Adam... Where art thou”?

Your name and my name fit as well in Adam’s place as Adam himself, perhaps better. Why, because we are his sons and daughters, and He our federal head. Not only are we guilty of Adam’s disobedience, but we also have added our own sins to his. So men are hardened through deceitfulness of sin.

In a very real way, when the Lord comes in the preaching of His Word to the ears of the sinner, “where art thou?” is the penetrating question. Are we still trying to sew fig leaves of our own righteousness together to cover our spiritual nakedness? Be honest.

The Lord comes to us in the power of His word and asks every one of us: “Where art thou?” William Jay once said, ”Nothing hinders our full relief as sinners by the gospel but our ignorant pride in refusing to submit to the righteousness which is of God.” There is no better place to cry unto the Lord and answer, “Here I am Lord, have mercy upon me.”

And yet, as our Instructor (the Heidelberg Catechism) asks in Question 8: Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness? The answer is: Indeed we are; except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.

“Adam, where art thou” is a universal question to every sinner and it comes to you this day. “Where art thou?” “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Have you said, “here I am Lord?”