Where are you?

Although the name El Roi is only used once in the Bible, He’s always the God Who Sees me, isn’t He?

In the cool of the evening, the man and his wife heard Yahweh Elohim walking around in the garden. So they hid from Yahweh Elohim among the trees in the garden. Genesis 3:8, Names of God Translation

Let’s think about this. God knew they’d eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He knew where they were hiding. They knew He knew. And yet they hid. Why? Fear and shame. I get it.

Take a look at the picture above. I think I must have seen this or something like it when I was a child. And I felt what they were feeling. The desperate need to hide from God when I messed up. But is that image an accurate representation of what happened in the garden?

Yahweh Elohim called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9, Names of God Translation

The man and his wife hadn’t horsed around and broken God’s bowling trophy. They hadn’t squeezed mulberries in their hands and dyed a polar bear purple. THEY’D BROKEN CREATION! God had every right to be hopping mad. But He didn’t stand at the bottom of the stairs and yell, “You better get down here and explain yourself!” He didn’t stomp around shouting, “You think you can hide? When I get done with you, you’ll really have something to cry about.”

No.

He called out, “Where are you?” He didn’t pursue them in anger. In love, He asked them to come to Him and confess.

In his new book It Is Finished, Charles Martin says this,

Rather than bend them over his knee, God expressed his kindness, goodness, mercy, and grace, and out of His love for them, He asks, “Where are you?” Because to answer, they need to know their need.

The gentleness of God in dealing with their sin brings tears to my eyes. Look again at the painting above by Cornelis Van Poelenburgh, a 17th century Dutch master. He can paint, but his theology stinks.

The God Who Sees us in all our ugliness calls out, “Where are you?” He wants us to come out from our hiding place, repent, and receive forgiveness. His discipline is done in love. Just as He killed an animal to cover Adam’s sin, He sent His Son to the cross to redeem us.

I wish I could draw. My picture would have Adam and his wife hiding in the trees, knees knocking in fear. And El Roi would be standing in the clearing, hands outstretched, inviting them to come to Him.

Here’s another image from my childhood. It’s the stuff of nightmares. Adam and Eve running from a creepy, bloodthirsty angel. But what does the text say?

So Yahweh Elohim sent the man out of the Garden of Eden to farm the ground from which the man had been formed.  After he sent the man out, Elohim placed angels and a flaming sword that turned in all directions east of the Garden of Eden. He placed them there to guard the way to the tree of life. -Genesis 3:23-24, Names of God Translation

 

God placed cherubim and a flaming sword as guards, preventing Adam and Eve from approaching the tree of life. Why? Because if they’d eaten from the tree of life in their sinful state, there would have been no hope for redemption. Even this action was motivated by love.

When God calls out, “Where are you?” run to Him and say, “Here I am.”

 

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16 NLT

This study is inspired by Ann Spangler: Praying the Names of God for 52 Weeks