⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" ¹⁰ He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." ¹¹ And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

     I will begin with the question God asked of Adam " Who told you that you were naked?" What God was really asking Adam was "who have you been listening to, other than me?" God wasn't asking the question to be informed, He was asking so that Adam would humble himself before God and put aside the doubt and have faith in God again. God wanted Adam to realize that he had allowed himself to be influenced by something other than God himself.

     Who told Adam and Eve that they were naked? When we read this passage it is evident that it wasn't the enemy - it certainly wasn't God - so then  who told Adam he was naked? They told themselves that they were naked., they told themselves that they were no good, they told themselves they were not worthy to be in His presence. You see - their eyes were opened, just as the devil told them they would be. Satan told Eve the truth - however their eyes were not opened in the manner of which he allowed her to believe. Their eyes were opened to their own wisdom, to their own understanding.

     Genesis 3:5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened..." would have been more truthfully stated as: " for God knows that when you disobey Him, when you stop trusting in His ways and having faith, you will allow that doubt to come in, you will do things your own way with your own understanding and God knows that. And God knows how miserable that will make all of you. "

     Proverbs 3:5-7 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.

    Interesting - God tells us through His word that the way back to him is to do the opposite of what the devil enticed Eve to do in the first place. The way back to God is through faith and to gain faith we need to close our eyes to our own understanding. 

     "Have you eaten from the fruit of the tree that I commanded you to not eat from?" God was saying "Adam, who told you that you were naked - unless, did you disobey me Adam? Is that it? Did you sin? Because only sin could have allowed for doubt, the opposite of faith, to influence you to cause this separation.

     When sin comes in, guilt, shame, self condemnation - all these things will accompany it. So they told themselves they were naked.

     In the moment that they are of the fruit their actions told God that they did not believe what He had told them. That they did not trust of have faith in His word. How many times have we, ourselves said that? God would tell us something through others, through situations, to our heart, through His word and yet we do not believe it to be infallible. How many times have we 'but God...."? We've all done it.

     Adam learned an important thing that day, and we can learn from his example as well. Whatever you give your attention to will determine what nature will live in you. How you will live your life and the choices that you make. Eve gave her attention to the snake - she allowed his words to entice her to act outside of God's nature, to set God's nature aside for a sinful one laced in pride, lust, self righteousness and disobedience.  God's word says that without Faith it is impossible to please God.... and in this situation He most certainly was not pleased. He had to deal with the situation. Could almost hear Him say " this is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you. Because it hurt God's heart. His creation traded faith, and closeness for doubt and self righteousness.

     I want to encourage you to put Ephesians 4:22-24 into practice  ²²You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

     Put off your old self - God tells us that in Him we are a NEW creation so don't listen to your own condemnation and self-righteousness, or to the opinions of man and society because through those things all you will hear is that 'you are naked'. Instead do as God commanded and put your faith and Trust in Him fully again.

     Genesis 3:9 But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you"

     If we sin, we should seriously consider where we are - in the midst of sin, in the midst of our enemies, in bondage and on the road to ruin. Think about the prodigal son - it wasn't until he considered where he was - that he was ready to let it  go and let his father back into his life. When we sin, if we consider what it's doing to us we will realize that it gets us no where and we will not rest until we return to God.

     Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

     They covered themselves! God alone wants to be our covering. They did not repent, instead they said - it's ok God! We got this one! And God was saying NO! I want to be your covering, my covering is complete, my covering is perfect. My Covering covers both the inside ( the heart) and the out. It covers you totally... not just what you're trying to hide! Them covering themselves was an act of shame, and in trying to hide it themselves - self-righteousness.

     God alone provides the complete covering. We read in Isaiah 61:10  ¹⁰ I delight greatly in the LORD;  my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation  and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.  Not only that but if you think about other things too.. when we are heavy, depressed God tells us to what.. to put on the garment of praise.

     Jesus paid the price for the garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness. His covering is perfect. When we allow ourselves to condemn ourselves and tell ourselves that we are naked, in a sense we are telling the Lord that His sacrifice wasn't sufficient .... that we'd rather pick up our fig leaves and cover ourselves.  No no no God's covering is perfect!

     Are we going to mess up even after knowing that we need to close our eyes to our own understanding and humble ourselves and repent of our sins! Yes! Sometimes it's not easy to not berate ourselves.. sometimes it's not easy to not tell ourselves that we are naked, that we are worthless... Paul himself says  I do what I shouldn't do and I don't do what I should Lord help me! Take a look at 2 Peter 1:5-9 with me :

      ⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

     We do these things, in INCREASING measure. Means we get better at it! It is in our heart, the attitude of your heart. If we humble ourselves, repent of our ways God's mercies are unfathomably endless. God loves you, He wants to cover you. He wants you to put down your own understanding, and TRUST him, have Faith in him.

Who told you that you were worthless? Who told you that you were no good? Who told you to give up? Who told you your life was over? Who told you no one loved you? Who told you that you were not enough? Who told you that you were ugly? Who told you that your dream was foolish? Who told you that you would never be a good father?Who told you that you would never be a good mother? Who told you that without a job you aren't worth anything?

Who told you that you were naked? In Christ, you're not.