God’s Word for You

Genesis 3:9-10 Where are you?

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, September 14, 2026

9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 The man said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

It will help us understand what happens next if we identify the questions that God asks. What should we call them? Luther calls this question in verse 9 the beginning of “the trial” (LW 1:172). That’s a good broad definition. But it will also help us understand what is happening if we identify the three questions, “Where are you?” (3:9), “Who told you…?” (3:11), and “What have you done?” (3:13), as calls to repentance. Notice that three similar questions also appear in the account of Cain’s sin: “Why are you angry?” (4:6), “Where is your brother?” (4:9), and “What have you done?” (4:10).

God’s question is a proclamation of law, since it is meant to crush Adam’s feelings about himself. Like the chemist’s mortar and pestle, God’s question grinds all of Adam’s resistance and excuses down into powder, so that there is no excuse left. Why would anyone who is righteous be hiding, or trying to hide, from God? Jesus tells us that “the angels always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).

The only answer to God’s question should have been, “Here I am, Lord. I have sinned.” But it’s not the answer that Adam gives. And notice that it is to Adam that the Lord asks the first question! Adam was the head of his family. He had responsibility for what he and Eve said and did. And what is his answer to the first question? “I was naked, so I hid.”

He was naked, all right. He had tried to cover up his body, and he was trying to cover up his shame. The last thing he wanted to do was to have to stand before God his Creator and answer why he had sinned. But until the Lord came right out and asked about the fruit…. Did Adam think that God didn’t know? Did Adam actually think that God, who numbers the hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30), did not know the count of the fruit of the forbidden tree? Did Adam think that it was God who was born yesterday, and not he?

Here we see the way God works in the hearts of sinners. Repentance is brought about in us by the law, which crushes us and causes us grief or remorse over our sins. This brings us to say, like the son in the parable, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (Luke 15:18). And through the preaching of the word, God plants faith in our hearts so that we grasp his forgiveness and know that it is ours, a gift from him; therefore “people believe and turn to the Lord” (Acts 11:21).

So repentance is remorse over sin and faith in forgiveness. As Professor Hoenecke (1835-1908) teaches: “Nowhere in Scripture where the work of repentance or conversion are referred to, are any further parts mentioned in addition to remorse and faith.”

Let’s return to the text, since we have one more sin to lay at Adam’s feet in verse 10. He said, “I heard the sound of you… and I hid.” Now, this is not the action of a person who is deep in thought who is suddenly startled when they notice another person in the room, and shout, “Oh, you scared me!” No, this is a man who is guilty; who knows what the approach of God means. But he chooses, he makes the deliberate choice, to lay an accusation against God. “Your sound frightened me, so I hid.” This is how sin grows and grows. Luther explains: “This wickedness and utmost stupidity Adam regards as supreme wisdom. He has become so confused by his fright that he does not realize what he is saying or what he is doing, and by excusing himself he brings the most serious charges against himself and increases his sin to huge proportions.”

We do the same. Our sins make us so crazy that we make them fruitful and make them multiply. We would fill the earth with our sins if God would not step in and stop it.

Here in Genesis 3, God has more work to do; more to say to the man and his wife. But we know that when his law crushes us and pulverizes our excuses, that he also holds out the gospel of forgiveness. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” he says (Jeremiah 31:3). And in his kindness he asks us new questions, loving questions.

“Where are you going after you die? Isn’t it heaven?”

“Who told you that you were going to heaven? Wasn’t it me?”

“What has my Son done for you, that made this a certainty?”

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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