As soon as man fell by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we read, "And the EYES OF BOTH OF THEM WERE OPENED, and they KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED... and Adam and his wife HID THEMSELVES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD amongst the trees of the garden." There is bitter pathos in this scene. Two people, conscience striken, overwhelmed with a sense of sin and shame, furtively slink away into the shadows to hide from God! "The eyes of them both were opened," no doubt about it; but, alas! to what a sight! – it was only to discover their own nakedness and shame. They had gained knowledge but had lost peace of soul and mind. No human tongue could possibly describe the awful nightmare that must have scared their souls when they awoke to their nakedness, unclothed, nude, undraped, disrobed, bare – BEFORE GOD! It was not any fresh knowledge of heavenly excellency they had attained, no fresh beams of divine light from the pure and eternal fountain of life and glory – alas! no; the very first knowledge that came was the shocking discovery that they were naked – followed swiftly by a chilling fear!
Where conscience is permitted to speak, the pain of conscience will be experienced in all its gradations, from almost imperceptible restlessness to peacelessness, fear, anxiety, horror, and wildest despair. Suicides bear witness to the fact that the pangs of conscience can become greater than even the dread of death itself. It is these terrible and unending pangs of conscience also which compel the criminal to make confession of crimes, which the police have not been able to solve. He prefers any kind of punishment to the torments of his conscience, which he feels he can no longer endure. As every psychiatrist knows, people in our mental institutions are there primarily because of guilt. People have wrestled with the guilt they cannot bear up under, until finally their minds snap, and forms of mental illness develop. Nothing contributes so much to a negative self-image than a deep feeling of guilt. We read about it in literature: After committing murder Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth exclaims: “Oh, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!” All of us have had enough experience with unresolved guilt-feelings of our own to know what they do to our self-image: We begin to despise ourselves, to feel utterly worthless, and are likely to plunge into a nightmare of despair. Guilt is a function of the conscience.
It was the pangs of conscience – guilt – that sent Adam fleeing from God, hiding from Him. He did not insolently confront God, but when he heard God’s voice in the Garden he hid from Him. Adam’s reaction was not one whit different from man’s response today. How quickly the small boy who has stolen the tarts hides when he hears his father’s voice, not only for fear of punishment, but from shame of his own condition and at disobeying a loved one. What a strange delusion of Adam’s, both then and today, to think that he could hide from God, as though the world were opaque to God! But in the throes of conscience-pangs he could not flee fast enough. “Adam, where are you?” With this word God calls Adam forth out of his conscience. God speaks to him, He stops him in his flight. “Come out of your hiding-place, from your self-reproach, your self-covering, your secrecy, your self-torment, from your vain remorse, do not lose yourself in despair.” God calls Adam forth out of his conscience and presents to him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to reveal the Creator’s forgiveness and His power to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
Do not forget for one moment, dear ones, that God, omnipotent, omniscient, PLANNED ALL THIS. Adam was intended by God, ere the morning stars sang, and the sons of God shouted for joy, to take part in his own development unto perfection by a series of moral choices, with ensuing failure, sorrow, redemption, and discipline, whereby He would transform him FROM INNOCENCE INTO HOLINESS!
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