Choosing Alone
He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10 NASB
Was afraid – Nahum Sarna points out that this Hebrew statement can be read as irony because the declaration, “I heard the sound of You” can also be translated “I obeyed You,” which is precisely what Adam did not do. Furthermore, Adam does not say that he was afraid because of his nakedness. The verb yare is a Qal imperfect. That means Adam says, “I am afraid.” The action continues. Adam’s fear remains unabated in spite of his attempt to cover himself. What is the connection between “afraid” and “naked”? Why is the natural state of Adam’s previous existence suddenly something of alarm?
The first occurrence of “naked” (arum) in Genesis 2:25 expresses mutual transparency and innocence. The man and the woman are naked and not ashamed. Adam’s response in Genesis 3:10 shifts the subject from plural to singular. Adam does not include the woman in his statement despite the fact that she is in the same condition. Now Adam is alone. His fall from uninhibited enjoyment of God’s presence is accompanied by a singular myopia. The world is no longer communal. Now he is self-consciously aware of his individual condition. His consciousness has turned inward. He is naked and afraid, not “we” are naked. The first effect of disobedience is division. Sin shifts my perspective from “we” to “me.” Failure to keep the first great commandment automatically results in failure to keep the second. Adam is afraid because Adam is psychically alone. He has broken faith with God and that results in breaking faith with his ‘ezer kenegdo. For the first time in his life, Adam is now “man against the world.”
Adam’s expression of fear requires us to look deeper at his psychological consciousness. He says, “vaeera ki-eirom anoki vaehave” (“and I am afraid because naked I and I am hiding”). Notice the use of the longer form of the first person singular pronoun (anoki). This is the first time the word is used in the Genesis account. Adam has identified himself prior to this statement, but in his previous identification he called himself ish, a word that expresses relational existence.[1] He is ish because she is ishshah. His identity is intimately locked to hers. Now things have changed. Now he is anoki, an independent individual. Previously God recognized that it was not good for man to be alone. The word is bad, expressing abandonment by community and YHVH. God resolves this desperate condition with the creation of the woman. The rabbis note, “Whoever has no wife exists without goodness, without a helpmate, without joy, without blessing, without atonement . . . without well-being, without a full life; . . . indeed, such a one reduces the representation of the divine image [on earth].”[2] As a result of sin, Adam is experiencing what God never intended, that is, isolation! Adam is afraid because he is, for the first time, self-aware of his vulnerable separation. He has always been a creature in community, first with God, then with other living creatures and finally with the one who is perfect for him. Now he is abandoned to himself.
Adam hides, but not from God. Who can imagine that is possible? Adam hides from his own self-awareness. Today we call this addictive behavior. Instead of clothing ourselves with leaves, we hide behind other forms of masking behavior. We adopt ways of fleeing from the abandoned isolation of our seared consciousness. We hide among those who are also alone just as Adam hid among the trees. We are desperately individual searching for a way to escape the reality of being alone. Addictions are essentially private. We might practice them in the company of others, but they are internally focused on self-medication. Addictions are desperate isolation.
God prods us to reconnect, first with Him and then with each other. That is the cure for bad, but our isolation often convinces us that failed relationships are our inevitable future. We have failed, therefore, failure is always possible again. So we hide—and suffer the consequences of regret, remorse and emptiness. Every addict knows that if you really knew me as I know myself, you would leave me. The serpent introduced Adam to addiction and the world changed.
What about you? Are you hiding too?
Topical Index: Adam, hide, alone, bad, afraid, yare’, anoki, isolation, Genesis 3:10
[1] see David Stein, “The Noun vya (‘IS) in Biblical Hebrew: A Term Of Affiliation,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Vol. 8, Article 1, 2008, p. 24, and https://skipmoen.com/2011/12/06/essential-redundancy/
[2] cited in Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis, p. 21.
I did not invent sin. I want to state that first. I am not the fall guy for it, either. Nor am I expected to bear it. Or ‘fix’ it. Or go along with it. Nor is it sin’s job to punish me. (Punishment is for the end of time. The curses are for remediating me; they are NOT punishment!)
These are some of the things I wish I had known way back when, when I got devastated and snookered. I felt I got robbed of everything I held dear, and then got handed the bag to carry!
It is easy to convince a child it is ‘their’ fault when disaster strikes. It should be harder to convince an adult, but how many of us fall for it all the time! We get tempted, and then, while we are still wondering where in hell (I am not swearing; just stating the facts!) THAT came from, we get told that we have already sinned, so might as well go ahead and DO IT. And we do! Because we have been trained that cognition bears the same weight as action! Snookered, is what I call it. (A thought is something to catch and hold accountable to Yeshua. We are even told to do that! We can be lied to in our thoughts, and are, all the time, but those lies can be ported in from elsewhere, else why would the Liar bother to lie?)
And if we do fall for the sin, fear comes on board. Now, fear is designed to let us know a thought has not been captured, and is running around loose. We need to catch it before it finds the control room and takes over the ship (or at least the dining hall!), but how many times do we just believe the lies fear tells us, starting with the lies that fear itself is based on?! This is because we believe that we are sacred territory, and that that territory BELONGS TO US, and so are sitting ducks for the fact that our borders are NOT sealed well, and that stuff leaks in all the time that did not originate with us! All these false beliefs are designed to leave us high and dry and helpless in the face of sin, cut off from all the options we really have been given. (It may be true for the heathen, who are without the promises and the ability to claim them, but it should not be true for us, who are supposed to be the inheritors of the promises and the light!)
Then, if we happen to wake up and find ourselves invaded, and often anesthesized, how many times do we just roll on over, believing the lie that we are out of options; choices (a lie); when at that point all we are is suffering from an invasion of the Liar?
And if we do manage to summon up the gumption to resist, how many times do we pull out that old ‘warfare’ language, and set out to battle the windmill (oops, I mean, the ENEMY) like good little Christian soldiers, marching off to war? (I still find it hard to believe that song was composed and sung for people trying to get sober!) My current definition of trying to battle evil in the flesh is witchcraft, y’all, and I am sticking with it. We are warned against witchcraft, but when you go look at what witchcraft purports to accomplish, isn’t it trying to do deals with the devil at the crossroads at midnight? Isn’t it trying to ameliorate the EFFECTS of evil, using evil? Beelzebub driving out Beelzebub? That is about as far as the flesh can get against evil, but how many of us still think we have to ‘try’? And what do we try with? Why, things designed by devils, of course! But how many of those unholy ways did we buy down at our local Christian Sunday morning sermon or visit with the pastor (well intended, mind you), who is just whitewashing the current pop psych flesh answers to sin?
And when we fail (which we are going to, if we do any or all of the above), how many times do we fall back to the next thing our flesh gets handed, which is either blame the devil or blame ourselves? In other words, we then believe that either our innocent little selves are just being PERSECUTED, or that we are being PUNISHED for our sins, which then leaves us the next flesh options of self pity, or self blame.
Now, how far in the hole are we?
Sorry for the cliff hanger, but I have to go to work. If any of you are wondering what in heaven you are supposed to do next (right question), I will be back this afternoon and will try to get you back down off the cliff. Until then, adeiu!
Laurita, hurry home from work. You are too funny and real. I like where you are going with this.
Insightful. Provocative. And so true.
Thanks, Skip.
Laurita, When are you coming home from work? We are hanging on. . . Good insight: Being persecuted or punished – self pity, or self blame. And it is what we tend to do.
I’m interested in your idea of battling evil in the flesh as witchcraft. Would you write more about that? I’m not sure what unholy ways I’ve brought along and haven’t recognized, trying to be the good Christian Soldier you mention.
As usual, Laurita, your words are a delight to read. Skip’s entries that discuss addiction have been a blessing to many. I befriended a man here in Creston a few years ago who, as it turned out, lead the local addictions recovery program. I got involved casually, spending time with the fellas and have learned a great deal.
We all face addiction. The beast crouches at the door for all of us.
Thanks again Skip for all you do.
Until we actually acknowledge that we are all susceptible to addictive choices as a means of self-anesthetic, we will have little to offer those who are struggling to recovery–and less to see in ourselves. Close to home. That’s what it takes to be able to help. No one knows the agony and the terror who has not confronted the demon within.
It took me this long to realize that just because I’m not addicted to a substance or even an activity doesn’t mean I don’t struggle with addictive behavior and thought patterns and emotions. This has not been a fun revelation.
Now you are making progress.
Why do we hide? Accusation. We feel accused. That’s it. When I looked for the open door to my heart that I was told to keep shut, I found something interesting. I found that only one thing knocked at that door if it was already shut, and that one thing was accusation. If I could manage to keep accusation out, no other temptation had a chance! This was too good to be true! So I decided accusation was worth studying.
What is the goal of accusation? It is separation. When Eve believed the serpent’s accusation that God was withholding good from His children, then and only then did she become susceptible to temptation. Accusation tells us we are not already loved. When we believe that lie, we become susceptible to all other temptation, which comes to tell us ‘ways’ to get loved! Accusation is how the enemy creates the problem, banking on the fact that we cannot live without that fulfillment of love. Sin, is a profound way, is a counterfeit for love. Sin is the straw we grasp when we believe the lie that love is not available to us. The focus and method of accusation is to destroy our faith, because we sin when we lose that faith. It is impossible to believe accusation and to have faith at the same time. IF I am believing accusation that is telling me that I am unlovable, then it is impossible to have faith that I am being loved. This is why we have been warned to guard that door! Accusation is what opens that door to evil. This is why the shield we have been given is faith. As long as we have faith in what is true, the fiery darts of accusation fall to the ground.
Accusation, then, is the main snow job of the devil. It serves as an anesthesia of sorts to knock us out and down and make us susceptible to all the other lies. It is a sucker punch. Yeshua pronounced a curse on accusers. The Greek for accusation is skandalon, which means the bait part of the trap. Accusation is what baits us into sin.
So what makes accusation a sin? Accusation is judgment before the time. We are told NOT to judge before the time. Built within all of us is a recognition and reaction to judgment. Yeshua will sit on the throne of judgment, but not yet! But our Accuser HAS already been judged, and he wants to share his judgment with us.
Accusation offers us a counterfeit law, and then condemns us under it. It will use truth, but it uses it as a weapon. It will talk to us as if we do not know the truth. Only the Law shows us the truth about evil. Accusation will either SET YOU UP, or BUILD YOU UP. It will promote and sow fear, cause suspicion, and create bitterness.It will offend others, and take offense. Its goal is to steal your faith- to make you feel like a second-rate citizen in the Kingdom. It can cause you to look to others where you should be looking to God or even yourself instead. It can accuse you of sin already forgiven.
Accusation is behind all splits of relationship. It is, in fact, the #1 problem on the planet. All sin breaks fellowship, but accusation will do it in the NAME of fellowship. It will tell you “I am only doing this for your own good!” and then proceed to bury you 6 feet under. We are called to be an excuser, not an accuser, to others. We accuse others based on our own sins. It is always looking for faults, and will use them to shift responsibility. It sets the stage for all bitterness and rejection.
Misunderstanding is the root of all accusation. It sets the stage. But we must reserve the right for ourselves and others to be wrong. Accusation will prevent us (there’s that judgment and condemnation!) from correcting a problem. Our failings are just where we still need sanctification, but if accusation can keep us from acknowledging them (because we are so busy thinking we have to defend ourselves!) then we cannot exercise faith!
Accusation is, first and foremost, an attempt to establish identity at the expense of others. This is how accusers HIDE. The drive to slander comes out of a profound lack of identity, I am convinced.
Accusation wounds the belly. You feel it in your gut! It will use fear: fear of man, rejection, failure, abandonment. These can cause gastro problems, and cause you to go into hiding and separation, which is the foremost cause of stress. You have to be in agreement with accusation before it can join you.
How do you close the door and keep it closed? Yeshua did not answer accusation. He kept His peace. Answering accusation will give it the only validity it will ever have. People and devils who accuse are not interested in your defense! Ps. 7:10 “My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.” If you answer accusation, you are agreeing with it that you are not upright. So just keep quiet!
Self accusation is a false conscience. It is condemnation. Conviction does not speak in that voice. It comes with a solution; a ram in the thicket, as it were, along with a true recognition of what is causing the problem. Ungodly grief will also accuse you, but it is CAUSED by accusation. True grief is frustrated love. Ultimately we change for the better, not because we are convinced of a problem, but because we become convinced that we are already loved by God. Accusation can never take us there.
How to recognize accusation in our lives, whether we are listening to others, ourselves, or something that comes to us AS IF IT WERE GOD? Here is a list I have on hand: all bitterness, including murder with the tongue; rebellion, division, control, manipulation, judgmental and critical spirits, religious spirits, competition, misunderstandings, confusion, envy and jealousy, comparison of any sort, self exaltation, self righteousness, self condemnation, insecurity, perfectionism, shame, guilt, self fear, scapegoat/victimization, self pity, fear, isolation (lack of trust), mistrust, self torment, fabricated personality, self accusation, deception, gossiping, inuendo, suspicion, bigotry.
Well, does that give ya something to repent and forgive with?! I have some more discernment work to do here, myself! Love ya’ll!
I would say something, but my mouth is agape and won’t work
For so many years…no…for too many years I embraced condemnation..welcomed it…accepted it as conviction because self hatred is addictive. A hungry demonic spirit that grooms the next generation of one who is bound in its deception-so it continues from one generation to the next. After almost wearing out my counselor/friend, the heartfelt prayers prayed for me began to light a flickering reality in my heart and mind, and the difference between conviction and condemnation became as clear as night and day. “..God, in Christ does not count my sins against me when I am reconciled to Him…when I want Him more than my self hatred…when I accept my reconciliation to Him – I AM A NEW CREATION! WHAT HAS COME TO ME..IS A ME THAT IS FRESH AND NEW!!! I CAN CHOOSE TO DROP THE CHAINS OF THE PAST-SHAKE THEM FROM ME – AND BE THE ME HE CREATED ME TO BE!! WOW! It really is true – that I (through my acceptance of Him) have already been crucified with Him – so now my stinking ego no longer lives but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in my body I live by the same trusting faithfulness that the Son of God had, who loved me and gave Himself up for me! SO – I begin to walk my life into His..step by step…oops, tripped, cry and carry on…get up and step again and again and again…stronger bit by bit…until the last bit of rusty chain is gone and I am free. Until then, I can be certain…He is patient and kind, not rude or easily angered when I trip…He keeps no record of my stumbles and falls, He doesn’t gloat over them when they happen. (It’s not Him that says, “I KNEW she would do that!!!) Instead, He bears me up, trusts I will be victorious in His Love…always hopes, always endures, He’s actually cheering me on!…His Love never ends. That gives me the courage to shut the door to the accuser and get up again. He is Glorious and Magnificent – Honest – Honorable – and Holy! I love Him – I think He’s Great!
Oh yes, Marsha! Isn’t He the whole point of it all? Halleluah!
Makes you want to grab hands and dance around the Throne doesn’t it Laurita?!!!
Freedom is the song of Moses, for sure! Ain’t it fine stuff? It can all go and you and I can stay! With Him! What a great plan! I’m in!
Meet you there!!!
Sharing with the brethren here an interesting study of ‘Anokhi’, sparked by Skip… excerpts below are from Jeffrey M. Cohen from Jewish Bible .org.
” ‘Surely the Lord is in this place – and I knew it not [v’anokhi lo yadati]’
Gen. 28:16)” וַיִּיקַ֣ץ יַעֲקֹב֮ מִשְּׁנָתֹו֒ וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ יְהוָ֔ה בַּמָּקֹ֖ום הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי׃
Was the strange exclamation that Yaacov made, upon his realization of YHWH’s very Presence, for surely Jacob knew full well that God was in
every place.
The Anokhi (אָנכִי ) relationship is active, close, immanent, and reciprocal, as reiterated by Jeremiah: ‘And you shall be to Me as a people, and I [Anokhi] shall be for you as a God’ (Jer. 11:4). The Ani pronoun, on the other hand, betrays a far more superficial relationship.
When God appeared to Abraham at the Covenant Between the Pieces, He states, ‘Fear not, Abraham; I [Anokhi] shall be your Protector [magen lakh]. (Gen. 15:1).
God had protected not only Sarah but also Abimelech himself from sinning, the protective attribute of Anokhi is employed twice: ‘I [Anokhi ] also knew .
. . . And I [Anokhi] also restrained you [Gam Anokhi yada’ti . . . Va’echsokh gam
Anokhi otkha] ‘(Gen. 20:6).
Anokhi eired imkha mitzraimah v’Anokhi a’alkha gam aloh [ I (Anokhi)
will go down with you to Egypt, and I (Anokhi) will surely bring you up again]’
(Gen. 46:4).
Not surprising too -Hence, in response to God’s query, ‘Where is Abel, your brother?’ Cain says, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper [ha-shomer ahi anokhi ]?
It was the anokhi , Adam’s new identity, that was now “naked,” manifestly transparent, sense of self, existential identity, self-esteem, concept of human purpose, fulfillment and destiny – are all at stake here.
Now he is anoki, an independent individual, which is not of YHWH, community is!
Independence is addition to self.
(v. 16:5). It was not a straight-forward thing for Sarah to grant her husband intimacy and shared parentage with her handmaid. The use of anokhi conveys the enormity of the emotional and existential surrender that she was making, a surrender of self, of self-esteem, and, to some extent, of part of her husband’s love and concern. Implicit in that anokhi was the intensity and enormity of the sacrifice that she believed she was making.
Death does not involve merely the removal of the presence of the ani, the
physical being. Contemplation of our non-existence has the profoundest existential significance; it impacts powerfully on our sense of anokhi , our identity, our sense of uniqueness and place in the world. It is thus one of the most difficult situations for a human to confront. Anokhi is suggestive of the self reflecting on the self, of man acutely aware of his creation in the Divine image, with a mission to accomplish in the Divine scheme of things, yet tragically unaware of what that mission might be and to what extent he has played his, or any, part in its accomplishment. Its employment is so appropriate, therefore in the context of man’s contemplation of the end of his earthly pilgrimage.
Not only did it fill Jacob with courage and confidence that, whatever adversity lay in store, his safety was guaranteed, but it also constituted confirmation of the special relationship that existed between God and his family and of the special national destiny to which it was being called.” – JEFFREY M. COHEN
This digging has been so enriching to me. Shalom.
Inspired insight. I am in wonder of it all!
All the good information you all offer on anoki and bad (“I,” “alone, by oneself”) simply underlines what should be easy, that God is an Individual, single Divine Person, who is by Himself, alone. This is the strict “Jewish” monotheism which Jesus endorsed in Mk 12:29. None of this is complicated.
it is the strict Jewish monotheism, too, of the Greek LXX Dan 3:17: “our ONE Lord.” (Note how the English translations hide this!)
Jesus cites and approves the same One Lord God of Israel as “the one who alone is God” (Jn 17:3; Mk 12:29).
I wish the conversation would turn to why Christians do not follow Jesus in the Great Commandment (Mk 12:29), on which all the others hang. Jesus went on immediately to define his own status as the “my lord” (not Lord) of Ps 110:1. This is the classic prooftext of the NT, and it defines the Son of God as not-God, but rather the Messiah lord, as in the birth certificate of Luke 2:11. Paul repeats the shema (Deut. 6:4), of course, in I Cor. 8:4-6 and then puts alongside, the one lord Messiah, not another Lord GOD!
It is so nice to see your comment here. Our previous telephone conversations need to be renewed again. I am traveling so much these days that there is hardly time to write between flights. In fact, I am at the airport right now waiting to fly to Johannesburg. But soon, I hope, we will actually be able to personally spend some time discussing your investigations of this matter. I look forward to that.
I too find it difficult to understand why some branches of Christianity (not all, as history demonstrates) don’t follow the clear endorsement of the Messiah in the cultural context of his own words. It seems that we are determined to remove any Jewish orthodoxy from the “Jewish” Messiah. It often troubles me that we are so ready to rewrite the culture in order to fit later theological developments. I suppose it is somehow threatening to suggest that the Messiah is not ontologically YHVH, as if his role as Messiah is somehow diminished. Why is that that we MUST HAVE God on the cross rather than the Jewish Messiah chosen by the Father, authorized, validated, endorsed and proclaimed as such?
If I may, the way I see it Paul’s quoting of the Shema is perfectly congruent with a Trinitarian understanding. On another thread I made a series of comments referencing John 10:24-33:
https://skipmoen.com/2016/09/from-genesis-to-proverbs-to-john-2/comment-page-1/#comment-46878
Following is my concluding comments (minor alteration):
Clearly His adversaries’ expectations regarding the Messiah were different than what Jesus told them! By Jesus’ words they understood Him to be claiming that He was God. I AGREE!
If we’re looking for first century Jewish conceptions of messiahship, clearly Jesus exceeded them by the Scriptural evidence here. In the Jewish milieu of the time, these words of Jesus were clearly construed as Him making the claim that He was Deity on par with the Father.
The question then is how to reconcile all this.