A Tardy and Reluctant Confession
Genesis 3:9-12
And the LORD God called to Adam, and said to him, Where are you?…


Here is, it is true, a confession of his sin. It comes out at last, I did eat; but with what a circuitous, extenuating preamble, a preamble which makes bad worse. The first word is, "the woman," aye the woman; it was not my fault, but hers. The woman whom "Thou gavest to be with me" — It was not me; it was Thou Thyself! If thou had'st not given me this woman to be with me, I should have continued obedient. Nay, and as if he suspected that the Almighty did not notice his plea sufficiently, he repeats it emphatically: "She gave me, and I did eat!" Such a confession was infinitely worse than none. Yet such is the spirit of fallen man to this day. It was not me...it was my wife, or my husband, or my acquaintance, that persuaded me; or it was my situation in life, in which Thou didst place me! Thus "the foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord." It is worthy of notice, that God makes no answer to these perverse excuses. They were unworthy of an answer. The Lord proceeds, like an aggrieved friend who would not multiply words: "I see how it is; stand aside!"

(A. Fuller.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

WEB: Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"




The Working of the Sin-Stricken Conscience
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