Where Was God?

Where Was God?

9/16/17

All of us at one time have either wondered about or have asked this question about God.  It is hard sometimes for us to understand why things and events occur in our lives and still believe that God is around while these horrible acts play out.  It is this question that fuels many skeptics and all-out atheists because of the concepts that they have entertained in their lives concerning God Himself.  It is this product that concerns God the most because we have not done our jobs correctly and thoroughly enough to those who do not believe; therefore, setting into motion a society that knows not God and only knows the world.  Until we understand the basic notions of God we will not be able to teach others about how much He loves us and more importantly His salvation plan that He has for our eternity.  There is a reason God allows things to occur and when those issues occur, as we will see, God is right there waiting for us to give Him the signal.

There have been a few times in my life that I have asked this question about God and at the time that I asked this question, were times that seemed quite difficult for the people involved.  These types of settings can come in any form, shape, size, person, group, turmoil, or any other easily or difficultly described turn in life, but whichever complication comes into our view it would be quite normal for this question to run through our minds.  Seeing a hurricane completely wipe out a town, city, or nation is mind boggling to say and when we hear about an entire family being murdered by a serial killer it is hard to imagine that humans can do such atrocities to each other.  When children are sold into slavery or used as sexual pawns in prostitution rings the atheist has common ground with others when they wonder why such acts are committed.  This list of horrors could continue on paper for weeks and not just in a few sentences or paragraphs.  The answer to this question lies within the actions of the humans themselves and what we do immediately after the acts of disobedience, no matter what they may be, is completed.

As from the first word of the Bible states until the last punctuation of the last verse of the Bible proclaims, God has one task to get across to His people and that is He loves us and that He has provided a way for us to be redeemed if we only call out to Him and to really and truly repent and turn to Him.  It is the heart of mankind that God focuses on and it is this same condition of the heart that God deals with humanity as well.  We do not have to travel too far in the Bible until we find the example of what God has just shared with us, an important issue that we need to know about God for this type of setting did not just occur in Adam and Eve’s life but in our modern nation and societies as well.  In fact, this type of setting is ongoing today and it is one where we are now seeing almost every day and a trend that will only become more common unless we figure this message from God out real quick.  To be honest, I have never thought about this characteristic about God before even though I have heard many things about this characteristic all my life. 

In Genesis Chapter 3 we have a change in the lives of Adam and Eve that proves to be catastrophic in nature.  Genesis 3:1-8 gives us the detailed orientation of the introduction of sin into our lives and how it now consumes our inner beings well enough that it eventually overtakes us and we return to the ground.  And it is this point in human history, verses 6-7 that give us the clue about this characteristic of God and the answer to where was God all at the same time.  We have talked about a few times concerning these verses and how things changed for Adam and Eve but what about God?  Did He change at this time?  Many people have had and still do have the philosophy that when mankind sinned God had no choice but to alter His character in order to understand the human and to further increase His ability to be smarter than the human.  In truth, God did not change one bit nor did He switch places, changed hair color, stopped caring, or even quit hanging around the human, none of these lies about God are true.  God was right there with Adam and Eve when they took the bite of fruit and He is right here with us in the same capacity as He was back in the Garden of Eden.  God wanted Adam and Eve to understand that even though He was not in their physical presence all the time He was with them and overseeing their protection all the while continuing to observe them and feeling the relationship develop and grow.

Adam and Eve had been tricked well enough that when they were eating of the fruit they had no worries about what was about to happen to their lives.  It is obvious that they had forgotten about God being present at all times for the bible does not say that God was present at the time they disobeyed.  And do you think that they would have brazenly taken from the tree in complete defiance right in front of God?  Could be, but I do not really believe such an event would occur.  I mean it is so much easier to believe that we can get away with things when our parents are not around so why would Adam and Eve believe any differently when the influence is egging them on?  If matters of the heart were not an issue here then both Adam and Eve would have not entertained the serpent nor and they would have told God about the conversations they had been having as well.  Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as God had told them not to do and it was through this act that God reveals one of His important characteristics that many of us forget.

I know that I have lied to my parents about events that took place while they were not around and I know that Adam and Eve thought that they could do the same with God.  But while our parents may not be physically there with us at all times and do not witness everything that we do I guarantee you that any parent who is in touch with their child will know what occurred in some detail about that period of time.  It is this type of gift of discernment that God has given to us that is demonstrated here in this message but with an added amount of dimension that we tend to forget.  The book of Genesis holds a great deal of information about God and mankind and while it takes a while to process everything that occurred in this beautiful Testament we can miss some things or have to wait for a while in order to understand the finer details of what is going on in the passage.  There are many verses in the Bible that describe God’s presence and how He is everywhere but Isaiah 66:1 sums it nicely and gives us the characteristic about God that Adam and Eve should have known.  “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me?  and where is the place of my rest?”  A powerful verse that gives us the truth about where God is and since God is everywhere He can be in heaven and on the earth at the same time, a concept that Adam and Eve should have witnessed firsthand and had no problems figuring out.

So, we have the answer to where God is at and where He was at when Adam and Eve decided to disobey His command.  Now, there are times in our lives where we walk into situations that are not of our doing or not in our control but this setting with Adam and Eve was not the case for it was their choice to be at that single place and thus it was their choice of action to disobey a totally unrelated to an accident occurring in a life.  It is this omnipresent characteristic that is the important factor of God that He wants us to understand for there is a reason that God is present everywhere at all time and that is for one reason, to hear His child ask for repentance for the wrong they committed.  Do you believe that God did not want to stop Adam and Eve from committing the one disobedient act that would cost them their eternal status?  Of course, He did!  But God would be interfering with the will of mankind if He did, thus nullifying what the act that He had previously allowed at some previous point in time, is when Lucifer chose to disobey and fall from his position in heaven.  God was there as well and He allowed such activity to take place so it would have been the correct thing to do for God to do nothing but wait.  If you are wondering what the difference is between the fall of Lucifer and the fall of mankind is go back and read the article that describes the holy order of mankind’s creation by creating the physical first and then the spiritual placement inside.

Have we really thought about this question and wondered why God wants to be around all the time and why He is always around us in the first place?  God is not in the habit of being around His children so that He can condemn them or erase them from His book when they do things wrong.  God values and understands the process and truth of a repentant heart and it is this reason alone that God desires to be around you and me all the time because He is our Father who loves us and wants His Will done in our lives.  God understands the magnitude and the gravity of the reckoning that we endure from our own doing and it is at this time that He longs to hear our hearts cry for help when it has done wrong.  God has not changed His policy concerning the presence He has with our lives and He has no plans of changing this policy either; however, He will not stand in the way of our choices no matter if they are wrong.  He just wants to hear a true heart repent and learn from these instances so that He can guide the way in order to do His best to minimize the consequences.  We must remember that the ones who want a relationship to develop and grow WANT to be around and it is through this wanting that begins a longing and a need.

There can be no mistake and no question that an epic event occurred to Adam and Eve’s lives that day as Genesis 3:6-7 played out.  And while there is no direct mention of God’s presence there at the tree He was there understanding exactly what was occurring and first of all hoping they would have listened and understood well enough to obey His command but when the reality revealed itself God’s heart immediately turned to see if they would repent and have a heart as such.  But what Adam and Eve did next must have broken God’s heart into pieces for God’s ears heard nothing about repentance from them, instead, He heard nothing at all except running away to hide themselves.  God’s ears must have tickled when He heard the fig leaves being sewn together for their actions were confirmed that they had fallen for the selfish betrayal and not remembered what God’s Words had been.  It is this reason that God stuck around and wants to be around His children, for when they get into trouble God wants to hear the cry of repentance as David cried after he sinned against God.  Man did the best thing that a selfish heart could do and that is to hide from the truth even knowing that the truth had been exposed for all to see.  The consequences of the human disaster were immediately felt and that they far stretched hearts of Adam and Eve were nowhere to be found.

Does this sound familiar at all to anyone reading this message?  Does it describe a setting that is playing out today in societies all around the world, namely ours?  Adam and Eve were busy trying to fix their newly acquired problem on their own ignoring God and His presence that was still around them.  This is exactly the picture that we have painted for ourselves today in that we have done God so badly and kicked Him out of most areas of our lives that we no longer recognize that in all of our blind problems that we are trying to fix He is right there waiting for our hearts to surrender back to Him, yet we continue to sew our fig leaves as our covering.  This process of fig fixing came to a head back in 2001 on a fateful day in September and while the world stood in shock we bowed our heads to God for a moment but we never had any intentions to do the same with our hearts.  This showed again seven years later when another disaster occurred and today we have continued that forgetful trend until God no longer exists in our hearts at all.  All of the superficial repairs and memorials we constructed represent the exact same procedure that Adam and Eve did after they had disobeyed.  This is something we really need to think about on an eternal basis for it is this basis that the covering we choose shall be based upon.

It is evident that our enemy has done a pretty good job in forging the true meaning of the covering that we have as humans and more specifically where and who provides this covering.  A more gruesome realization is that Satan has also swayed the Church into believing that this covering is not necessary in order to have God’s protection a grave error and lie that will cost all of us one day.  Adam and Eve must have understood this truth or most likely had become numb to the truth because it is clear that they had no intentions of asking for forgiveness or calling on God immediately after their actions were completed.  It is at this point where the characteristics of disobedience (sin) and the characteristics of God clash and we see the permanent division that is between them.

It is a true statement and fact that after Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit there was nothing that could be done to change the newly arrived effects of sin.  The proper thing to have done in this setting would have been for Adam and Eve to call on God to let Him know what happened even though He already knew what had transpired.  It would have shown a true sign of regret and a heart that was repentant for what had occurred and provided a resounding truth about how God loves us and how He is always right there with us no matter what the situation might present.  God allowed this awful tragedy to occur because it was our choice to do such iniquity but God did not run away or hide Himself from our lives when we did not call out for help either.  He waited until His appointed time of the day to appear and it was then that the truth had to be spoken even if it was displayed from a hidden perspective by the humans.

It is also obvious that Adam and Eve had already forfeited their place within their own dominion because of the act that they completed in Genesis 3:7.  It is an act of disgrace to ask of your dominion to cover yourself when there was no need for covering in the first place.  This means that some huge change occurred and the status of the ones in charge differed from the original placement, it also explains that their status changed when they ran and hid from God in their own dominion.  Once a pure and holy stance was now graced by sin and torment strong enough to force the people over the dominion to hide within its ranks.

Where was God in all of this newly established chaos?  He was right there in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve waiting for them to initiate what God had been teaching them about Himself even when they had grossly failed His obedience plans.  All God has ever wanted His prized creations to do is to obey His Word and to keep His Ways close within our hearts, this was true for Adam and Eve and it is still true today for you and I.  God understands that through the act of sin we can no longer understand the perfect and pure living that Adam and Eve gave up but since we have learned that God is a consistent God and that He cannot change in any way this means that He is right here with us waiting for us to repent of our sins and to call on His name so that His protection can once again be intact.

The only problem is that we have fallen so far away from God and have purposefully thrown Him out of our hearts we no longer believe that He is around and present all the time.  Satan has done a thorough job in destroying the physical relationships between humans and thus severed the eternal relationship with God and us at the same time.  He has basically recreated the setting of the Garden of Eden right before Adam and Eve ate from the tree and as a result, our arms and hands are on their way up to the fruit.  We no longer have the discernment to stop and know who the enemy is and what he is trying to make us do, in fact, he has done a well enough job that we believe that God is the enemy another detail that Adam and Eve portrayed in Genesis 3:6.

God’s Word says that only a fool would say there is no God and this is a true statement with each bat of the eye at the physical creation of the earth.  Why would God create something, anything and then leave it be to fend for itself without any guidance to ensure its safety and survivability?  God cannot do such a thing for He is a consistent God and one of the characteristics of consistency is being consistent; in other words, being consistent is continual and once God made His presence known to Adam and Eve in the Garden and was right there with them even when they sinned He has to be in the same capacity today too.  God was so in hopes that Adam and Eve would have immediately repented when they sinned but they only immediately realized the consequences of their actions and instead a divisional process that could not and still cannot be reversed resulted but it would have made for an interesting difference if they had repented immediately instead of clothing themselves on their own.

We tend to forget and this is a huge part of Satan’s plan for our separation from God, is that when God is all around us even when we sin and if we continue to “get away with” such activities we will eventually become comfortable with these activities and therefore not take them as being such a bad thing.  Adam and Eve justified their sin and actions by making coverings from fig leaves instead of reverting to the covering that God had already given them.  In fact, when you study the remaining portions of Genesis Chapter 3 we find nowhere when or where that Adam and Eve actually asked for repentance from God.  Some procedural and occupational tones were made concerning their lives and who they were but no actual repentance statement by either one of them.  Even through this lack of response God provided them and showed them of the importance of His covering when He sacrificed an innocent animal and provided the appropriate covering for their bodies before they embarked on their new lives outside of the Garden of Eden.

Two important details and characteristics about God here that is vital for us to keep close in our hearts and in the forefront of our minds.  First of all, we have the eternal assurance that God is all around us at all times no matter what the conditions or circumstances may bring.  When the storms of life come our way He is there and when we choose to disobey our Creator He is also there as well.  In all settings, He is there and willing to hear our calls when we utter those sounds of acknowledgment.  But how many times have we withdrawn from His presence and went along the journey alone and relying on our human understanding instead?  Many of these storms we cannot prevent but serve as a reminder of who is in control over all things and why such activities may occur, a very important detail about God that would bring in so much knowledge if we just open our hearts to His Ways and understanding.

Secondly, God is always present to hear what His children are saying when we choose to do things on our own and sin against His Ways.  He is not here to condemn our actions but to hear the call of repentance and the willingness of our hearts to honestly say that we are sorry and to not do such activities again.  This is the sign of true repentance and the one signal that God desires to hear from His children.  The consequences of such activities may still occur but instead of multiple and continued destructive allowances it can be nipped in the bud immediately and that door closed to any further options down the road.  This detail and characteristic of God is the most important one of all for it eternally demonstrates that He is willing to forgive us of our sins and disobedience if we only ask for it.  It is well known that if a wrong is committed and not immediately repented from, the human heart has no real intentions of being sorry unless a true awakening occurs sometime down the road.  The beneficial thing about asking for forgiveness immediately is that it frees us from the continued lies that we will endure and will provide an extended covering instead of a broken one.

It is easy for us to understand why Adam and Eve forgot about the presence of God being with them at all times, for we do this every day as well.  But it is of vital importance that we keep this truth about God within constant reach for it is the only way that we are going to understand and keep the communication line open with God.  God is not all around and ever-present as a slave master or overseer of enforcement but His character defines Himself as a Father who watches over His children and is there for them when things go wrong.  He wants to protect us from such harm and to be there to ask for advice about situations before things have to be dealt with on a consequential basis.  God has not changed one bit according to the responsibilities that He offers it was us who changed our status to suit our own choices.  It was never God’s intention on being a silent or absent partner in the relationship between His prized creations and himself but an active and totally committed partner which supplies the necessary protection that we need to survive.  So, the answer to this age-old question of where was God, He has been in the same place as He has always been in, right next to us waiting for us to call on him so He can help us, heal us, comfort us, talk with us, and just to hear our hearts ask Him questions.

Church, we need to start understanding God’s Word again and place it on an individual and responsible level that includes God’s Ways as the only way of covering and salvation and not with the inclusion of the world.  This type of living is not by a theocratic overseeing government but one that places God first in our lives through the direct relationship that He authorized from the day of our creation.  God’s Ways free His children from the world and if we live according to these holy means our lives shall be so much better and different than what the world offers.  God desires a repentant heart and a heart that knows that it needs God every second of every day that it beats and when the time comes for the forces to try and stray the heart that it will automatically remember God and turn to Him for help and guidance and not hide within its dominion.  Let us use David’s heart as the example of how to live with God and not like Adam and Eve.  Our human bodies cannot help the fact that we live a sinful life but we can continually listen to God when He says there is a problem within or for us to watch out for.  It is the words of life that He speaks with and if we listen with a child’s heart our Father will provide the necessary ingredients to serve up a wonderful way of living.  Where was God back then?  He was in the same place that He is now, right next to us waiting for our hearts to cry to Him for help and it is obviously still waiting to hear those words.

DLB