Gen 14: Chapter 3, vv 8-24
Book of Genesis #14
What a pitiful sight this must have been: the man and the woman hiding away from God.
The remainder of Chapter 3 from verses 8 through 24 presents us with a pathetic spectacle: Adam and Eve whose intelligence is dulled, whose passions have become unbridled, whose strength is waning, and whose mind is confused attempt to hide from God.
Yet the text grows strange when we hear God asking "Where are you?" Could it be that God does not know where they are and cannot see them?
Likewise, God asks them a series of questions that He should know the answers for. If He knows why is He asking? And if He asks does it mean that He does not know?
This apparent conundrum reminds me of the nonetheless apparent paradox: Can God creates a rock so heavy that He cannot lift? If we answer 'yes', then this implies that God cannot lift the rock which contradicts his omnipotence. If we answer 'no' then God cannot create that rock and again his omnipotence is in question.
The answer is that God cannot do everything: God cannot sin and God cannot perform a self-contradictory act since it is against the truth. So then since God knows all things, and He knows the answers to the questions He addresses to Adam and Eve, why does He bother posing them?
Is He toying with them?
Obviously not.
Then what is it? What is God up to here and what is the meaning of this text? Furthermore, does the curses that God proclaims applicable to Adam and Eve only, or do they concern us as well?
