“He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?'” Genesis 3:11
January 4, 2024
Adam had to have been breaking into a guilt induced sweat when asked another rhetorical (“asking more than what it appears to ask”) question by God. God was not bullying Adam. He wanted Adam to think more deeply and face up to his need to confess his sin and repent. Eve was complicit in this. Our first parents did not set a good example. The “who” question provokes the issue of allegiance. Who is the authority to which Adam and Eve have consigned themselves? Long time superlative counselor who is now with the Lord, David Powlison, offers a series of probing questions (Seeing With New Eyes), among which is “what do you want, desire, crave, lust, and wish for? What desires do you serve and obey?” Satan has a smorgasbord of deceptive allegiances: The “who” of making oneself the determiner of what is truth. The “who” of everyoneism, that everyone has his or her own truth. The “who” of emotional authority. We are left to ask, who or what rules our decision-making process? Allegiance is everything.
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“When we attempt to deny our guilt by pleading circumstances, we are ultimately blaming one of only two possible individuals: God or the devil. Adam blamed God.” (James Boice, Genesis).