What is this that thou hast done?

The one who asked the four questions I'm going to look at already knew the answers.  The first three were pretty simple.  It's the forth question that is still being answered even today.

Let me take you back to Genesis chapter 3 where the answer to my title question ... "What is this that thou hast done?" ... begins.

We find by looking back at history, what has always happened, and usually happens immediately when God puts any responsibility in the hands of man ... disobedience and failure.  So it was with Adam and the "helper" God gave him.  God only asks one thing of them, and even that could not be done.

The subtlety and schemes of the hidden enemy of our souls are now at work, for unknown to man, he even beguiles the serpent to do his bidding with a lie to the woman.  The first effect is the distrust of God which he inspires.  Satan is suggesting to the woman that God keeps the best gift from them out of envy ... lest man should be like God.

Man trusts and believes Satan instead of God to gratify their desire for the forbidden fruit.  Not trusting God, man uses his own will to seek fulfillment, just as men still do today.  So nothing has really changed since the beginning has it.

The first question ... "Adam, where are you?" ... brings with it, the terror and fear of God.  So they go into hiding, as if one can hide from God.  Being honest with God when He calls, Adam says ... "I was afraid because I was naked and hid myself."

Which brings me to God's amazing second question ... "Who told you that you were naked?"  Now what?  Adam, knowing no one told them they were naked, didn't know what to say.  Adam must have thought ... He knows.  He knows it all.  Then he hears the Lord ask with what must have been an inquisitive sound in His voice, this third question ... "Have you eaten of the tree I commanded you not to eat of?"

Self preservation.  It started way back in the beginning with Adam.  Blame someone else.  Cast the blame upon the only other one there ... the woman.  She gave it to me.  If that doesn't work, cast blame even upon God ... "the woman you gave to me."

Why does man always flee from the face of God when we sin?  We know we can't hide.  We should run to the Lord and to His mercy.  But many times we don't.  We are ashamed.  We are openly naked before Him and we know it.  The knowledge of good and evil through disobedience makes us afraid of God, so we try to cover it up.

It's not just God that we can't face in the natural.  It's the Holiness of God that we are afraid of, because we are not.  It's His Holiness that separates us from Him. 

Then turning to the woman, God says to her ... "What is this that thou hast done?"

What is the answer to God's question to the woman?  What did she do?  The simplest answer must be ... she brought sin and everything associated with it, including death into the natural earth which forever changed man's heart and soul.  And Eve was to become the mother of all living.   

Because the first man and woman would be exiled from the garden, they no longer would have access to the tree of life ... death would come to them.  But for the moment their life was still there.  So God would have to deal with their nakedness. 

The scriptures allude to and portray a picture of God Himself using His hands to shape the clay Adam was made from, and here in this setting ... God's hands bringing death for the first time to one of His own creatures to make coats of skins into garments to cover their sin and shame, represented by their nakedness. 

Through a real death brought into the world by sin, man was no longer naked.  Through the death of an animal, God made Adam and Eve a covering, a robe of sorts.

May I speculate and suggest that a lamb would have been the logical choice for God to have slain and used as a covering for Adam and Eve's nakedness.  A lamb would become God's choice for a sacrifice during the period and dispensation of the Mosaic Law as well. 

And then there is Jesus ... the true Lamb of God.  It's through Jesus that God has also made a covering for our nakedness, called ... the robe of righteousness ... which we obtained through the death of Jesus on the cross. 

The world may mock at such a thought.  Let them scoff and ridicule our faith in Jesus ... but we know better.  Without that garment ... washed white by the blood of Jesus ... well, their end will not be pleasant.  

God is merciful ... but He's also Holy and just.  I'll leave it at that.

I was intrigued by the question presented only to the woman ...
 
"What is this that thou hast done?"

She brought sin and death into the world.  But if I had been there ... would I have done the same thing? 

Sadly ... I would say, most likely.

And the results would be the same as hers.


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