The Beginning of Wisdom

and he said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  Genesis 3:10

Afraid – We know this word.  We just don’t know it in this context.  It is yare, the verb that means “to fear, to respect, to reverence and to be afraid.”  Of course, its most common use in Scripture is about reverence and awe before God.  The beginning of wisdom is the yir’ah of the Lord.  And what is required in order that we show proper awe and reverence before God?  Remembering! 

If you noticed that the language of the Fall twists many of the words associated with real relationship with the Lord, you have gained a valuable insight.  God’s vocabulary is based on the ordered creation.  There is a genuine and crucial place for yare.  yare belongs to the ordered creation.  But when sin enters the world, when the door to chaos is opened, everything falls out of place.  Now yare is no longer a description of proper respect for God.  Now it is fear about something else.  It is dislodged from its place in the created order and made to serve another god.

But even this disordered application isn’t enough to see all that is twisted.  Here the object of yare itself is twisted.  Adam says that he is afraid.  We expect that.  After all, Adam and the ‘ezer kenedgo have just disobeyed the only prohibition they were given.  We aren’t surprised to find them hiding.  But when Adam speaks, we are startled.  You see, Adam doesn’t say that he is hiding because he has been disobedient.  He says that he is hiding because he is afraid of being naked!  Why would Adam be afraid of being naked?  He has never been clothed!  Naked is his normal state of affairs.  Why is he suddenly afraid of what was perfectly normal?  This doesn’t make any sense at all – unless you read it in Hebrew.

Do you remember arom and arum (see Today’s Word August 10, 2008)?  Genesis 3:1 describes the serpent as ‘arum (cunning), a play on the word ‘arom (naked) from the previous verse.  In that study we noticed that the Hebrew pictograph helps: “to see a person and chaos.”  In other words, nakedness is now a symbol of disordered existence.  There was a time when being without the mask of clothing was perfect alignment with the Holy One.  There was a time when nakedness reflected ordered, honorable relationships.  Then the serpent turned nakedness against itself, using its vulnerability to bring about the destruction of the divine relationship.  Nakedness was twisted.  Suddenly we could see what we lost and were not able to recover.  It was not innocence.  It was order.  Adam has moved from ‘arom to ‘arum.  He has become like the naked snake.  Once he had nothing to hide.  He was truly naked, without a hidden agenda.  Now he is like the snake.  There is something in him that demands to be hidden from God.  Adam is not afraid of God (although he should be).  He is afraid of himself!   He is no longer transparent.  This inner voice of desire has alienated himself from his own being.  He is no longer comfortable in his own skin.  He fears being exposed.

The Genesis account of the Fall reveals some of the most important lessons in Scripture.  Paying attention to the detail uncovers truths about who we are that can help us understand why we flee from the God of compassion.  The detail also tells us what it means to be twisted and afraid.  For Adam, the world is coming apart. 

What about you?  Are you afraid of yourself?  Are you afraid of that power within that seeks to disorder your existence?  Or do you experience the ordered fear that accompanies standing before the Lord?

Topical Index:  fear, yare, naked, arum, arom, order, chaos, Genesis 3:10