Biblical Wisdom
Where Are You
The first thing God says to the man after the fruit is a question He already knows the answer to.
Scripture Genesis 3:8–13
The man and his wife hear the LORD God walking in the garden, and they hide among the trees. The first thing God says to the man after the fruit is a question.
“Where are you?”
God was not short of information. The question was for the man, who now had to decide what to do with it.
He answered, and gave away far more than a location. “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” What he had been covering, he told in one sentence, to the very One he was hiding from.
More questions follow, all of the same kind. Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree? What is this you have done?
Judgment does come later in the chapter. Before a single sentence is passed, though, God calls out and lets the man say where he is.
A question from someone who already knows is usually an invitation to come out on your own.
Scripture in English is from the Berean Standard Bible, placed in the public domain by its publisher on 30 April 2023.