The Great Hunter
And YHWH called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9
Where – God is looking for you. That fact is fundamental to human being. God considers you an object of His concern. He is seeking you out. If this were not the case, you would be nothing more than the random accumulation of molecules, an accident of evolutionary progress. If God were not the Great Hunter searching for Man, none of us would mean anything at all. Without God’s concern for you, the only real solution to your accidental existence in the universe is suicide.
This question, so routinely overlooked in our sweep past the details, is THE question of our existence. “Where are you?” God asks each of us. It is the first question of existence. You will remember that the Hebrew word here is ‘ayyeh; not a word about location but a word about relationship. God is not asking our geographical position. He is asking each of us why we are not alongside Him where we belong. He is asking why we are not acting as He intended us to act in perfect harmony with our created design and in syncopation with His rhythm for the cosmos. We were supposed to be partners in the grand scheme of glorifying Him in His creation. Why aren’t we right beside Him?
“To the Biblical mind man is not only a creature who is constantly in search of himself but also a creature God is constantly in search of. Man is a creature in search of meaning because there is a meaning in search of him, because there is God’s beseeching question, ‘Where art thou?’”[1] Abraham Heschel’s penetrating insight throws new light on this seemingly innocuous question. Now you and I must answer God. Where are we?
What would life be like if God were not in search of us? Would anything really matter? Qohelet (The Teacher), author of Ecclesiastes, describes the reality of life without God’s question. All is emptiness, emptiness. What difference does it make if I succeed or fail, if I am rich or poor, a genius or a dunce. Death swallows everything. I cease to be and memory of my being passes into the darkness of time. I return to the dust. Better I was never born than to live knowing that my life means nothing at all in the great abyss.
But if God searches for me, everything changes. If I am the object of divine concern, if God truly expects me to be a partner with Him in His grand scheme, then my being matters. It is not for naught. I matter because I matter to God. Now I can seek my own meaning because His meaning finds me.
Unless you have answered the question, you have no idea where you are. The answer must be directed to God for He is the one asking. The answer is:
“Hineni.” “Here I am, Lord. What would you have me do?”
Topical Index: where, the question, human being, Genesis 3:9, hineni, ‘ayyeh
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[1] Abraham Heschel, Between God and Man, pp. 238-239.
First, and above all, I am grateful and will be for eternity, that God asked me “where ARE you?” Although I was unaware He had asked me the question, He created the desire for the answer in the same way He loved me before I loved Him. I took a crooked path in order to find the answer because I was lost and did not know the way. BUT the good news is He provided for me when He found me and gave me Light in order that I might see. He healed my blindness, He healed my lameness, and He gave me a new Name when He adopted me into the sheepfold. Now, as a result of this…what is next? My “reasonable” service is to present myself, as a living sacrifice, since He has made me holy and pleasing to Him, through the blood offering of Jesus. Cleansed and free to worship Him with the life He has given me!
WOW, I want to dance, run and shout!
He provided life for Adam and Eve, in spite of their bad choice, in spite of their failure. They were unable to restore themselves. Even with their new “knowledge” they needed their Savior all the more. Thank You Father!
Wow! Wow! How very uplifting and freeing! Tis true we heard the question before but …”so routinely overlooked in our sweep past the details” … but thanks for the reminder! Lord, I’m here, studying your Words. I’m listening!
Don’t you just love (while also being terrified) in the way God asks a sequence of questions that He already knew the answer to but wanted Adam and Eve to respond to nonetheless? And isn’t it equally interesting that these same questions almost have an echo to them that one can hear even today?
“Where are you?” – verse 9
“Who told you that you were naked? – verse 11
“What is this you have done? – verse 13
I have often thought that I would love to do a study on what I would describe as diagnostic questions or statements made by Christ. So many of these cut right to the bone and demand a response from us. I think this was the nature of God’s you-can-run-but-you-cannot-hide diagnostic question to Adam of “Where are you?”…and notice that rather than saying, “Here I am, Lord”, Adam’s response was a sequence of “I’s” (“I heard you…I was afraid…I was naked…I hid”). Sounds to me like the fruit of “I”dolatry in full bloom or perhaps a confession of regret but without any demonstration of Godly sorrow (II Cor 7:10).