LESSON 3Hiding from God
Teaching Material.—Genesis 3:1-24.
Pupil’s Reading.—Genesis 3:1-15.
Memory Text.—Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Jeremiah 23:24a.
Psalm 139:7-12; Proverbs 28:1, 13; Jeremiah 2:17, 19; Romans 5:12-19; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22.
As of the tree of life which stands in the paradise of the future it is said, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life”; so in Eden man’s immortality was suspended on the condition of obedience. And the trial of man’s obedience is imaged in the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From the childlike innocence in which man originally was, he was to pass forward into the condition of moral manhood, which consists not in mere innocence, but in innocence maintained in presence of temptation.... Only by choosing the good in presence of the evil are true manhood and real maturity gained.—The Expositor’s Bible,Genesis,Marcus Dods.
Like the great Teacher of Nazareth, the prophetic author of this marvelous story was dealing with the deepest experiences of human life. His problem was to make clear and plain even to children the nature of that inner struggle which we call temptation. He accomplishes his end by the use of the simple story and dialogue. Attention and interest are fixed from the first on the experiences of a certain man and woman. The story has all the personal charm of those fascinating popular tales which come from the ancient East. Its prologue, the primitive story of creation, was old centuries before the days of Moses. In the first scene the actors are the serpent, the woman, and the man. In the dialogue between the serpent and the woman is brought out vividly the struggle that raged in her own mind between her natural inclinations and her sense of duty. In the second scene Jehovah appears. The acts and motives of the man and woman and the terrible consequences of sin are portrayed so concretely and dramatically that even the youngest and simplest reader can fully appreciate them. The thoughtful reader, however, soon discovers that the marvelous biblical narrative is far more than a mere record of the experiences of a primitive man and woman. Like the inimitable parables of Jesus, it is a chapter from the book of life.—Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History,Charles Foster Kent.
Among the many religious teachings with which this marvelous story abounds may be noted: (1) Innocence does not become virtue until it is tested and proved by temptation. (2) If the testing is to be effective, the temptation must be of a character to appeal to the individual tested. (3) Sin is not God’s but man’s creation. (4) To sin is to act in accord with the baser and more selfish rather than the nobler and diviner motives. (5) An act of sin destroys a man’s peace of mind and purity of thought. (6) Sin unconfessed is a sin constantly committed, and it absolutely prevents even God himself from forgiving the unrepentant sinner. (7) In keeping with the law of cause and effect, sin brings its own inevitable punishment. (8) The worst effect of sin is the severing of the normal, harmonious relations between God and the individual. (9) Most of the pains and ills of life are the result of some one’s sin. (10) Man must learn in the school of pain and toil the lesson of obedience. (11) Even though guilty and unrepentant, man is still the object of God’s unceasing love and care—Ibid.
To show through the story of the first disobedience the character and consequences of all sin, and to point out the only way to escape from it.
The story that we have in this lesson must make an appeal to every child because there is no child in our Junior Department who has not had the experience of being disobedient, and also, doubtless, of trying to hide both the sin and himself from the one disobeyed. Probably there can be no more effectual way of beginning the preparation of this lesson than for the teacher to think back to his own experience as a child, and recall in what manner he made his way back through repentance and forgiveness to a complete restoration of the feeling of loving freedom that should exist between parent and child. The attitude of the one in authority is always a very important factor, but even with the most wise and loving of parents or guardians, the natural tendency of the one who transgresses is to concealment. With the facts of the story clearly in mind and the memory of one’s own experience as a guide, it should be easy to make the children realize that disobedience always brings unhappiness in the end, and a sense of separation from those who love us; that the worst thing anyone can do is to try to hide a disobedient act, because the only way to get back to the right road again is through the opposite course—brave confession insteadof cowardly hiding or denying, repentance and the determination to forsake instead of clinging to the wrong.
Prayer is always the most essential part of our lesson preparation, and in this lesson especially we need to pray that we may be given such heavenly wisdom and so much of love in our own hearts that we can make the children see the heavenly Father as a God of infinite love and compassion, one who hates sin but loves the sinner. Many people who are now teaching children have testified that in their own childhood, from the way in which these Old Testament stories were presented, they saw in God only an avenging Deity, eager to punish or destroy. We must always remember that Jesus never presented his Father and ours in that way, and that he whose life was given to provide a way of escape for sinning humanity said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
(Describe the happy home life of a family of children, each having his own work to do in the home, each taking a pride in doing his work in the best way, and tell of the playtime following the work. Picture the children going down the street to meet their father as he comes home from work, and the joys of the evening time when all are together. Then tell of a day when the playtime was not so happy because one of the boys did not care to play. He said he was not sick, but he certainly was cross, and took no pleasure in any of the things that he generally loved to do. When the time came to go to meet father he would not go, but instead went to his own room. Of course the father missed him and when he found his boy was not ill he was anxious to know what the trouble could be.) Can you guess what it was that made Walter wish to hide from his father that night?
What a beautiful garden that was of which we heard last Sunday! And how happy Adam and Eve were as they did the work God had given them to do, and enjoyed the loveliness of the place which God had given them for a home, looking forward each day to the time when he would come andwalk and talk with them there! But there came a sad day, when all that was changed. The garden was just as beautiful, but Adam and Eve found no pleasure in it. The work was there to be done, but they had no heart for it. Open your Bibles to the second chapter of Genesis and read with me verses 16 and 17. That does not mean that the moment they disobeyed they would die, but that the sin would open the door for death to enter the world, and that some day death would come to them as the result of disobedience.
One day the tempter said to the woman, “Is it possible that God has said that you must not eat of the fruit of all the trees of the garden?” Eve answered (Genesis 3:2, 3). The serpent said: “That is not true. You will not die. The real reason why God does not wish you to eat of the fruit of that tree is that when you do so you will become as a god yourself, for you will know good and evil.” It seems strange that Eve would listen to anyone who said that what God had told her was not true, but she did. She even began to look at the tree and its fruit and to long to have it, until, finally, she took it and ate, and gave some to Adam, and he ate. Then they did know good and evil, for they could remember the days when they were obedient and the happiness that they had, and now through shame and fear and the wretchedness of a guilty conscience they saw what evil is, and that with their own hands they had opened the door to let it into their lives. There was no longer any joy in the thought of the heavenly Father’s coming to the garden, and they tried to hide themselves from him. “Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah.” How would you answer that question? Of course they could not hide from God, and it would be the worst possible thing to do if they could. God knew of the wrong they had done and the punishment that the sin must bring to them, but his only wish was to help his sinful children, for he loved them then as always. (Have the children read verses 9 and 10 to themselves and then answer this question:) What reason did Adam give for hiding himself? Was that the true reason why he was afraid? No, for he had been naked before and had never been afraid. It was his sin that made him afraid. (Read verses 11, 23, 24.)
You have guessed that the boy I told you about in the beginning of thelesson had disobeyed his father, and that that was the reason why he wished to hide. You knew because you have sometimes felt like hiding yourself for the same reason. So you can see how this old, old story tells what we know is true when it shows us that wrong doing separates us from the one whom we have disobeyed and makes us miserable. What was it that spoiled the happy home that Adam and Eve had in the Garden? What was it that spoiled Walter’s good times? Yes, disobedience; and it is always so. Those who break God’s law have to suffer for it in some way. But how glad we are to know that God loves us so much that when we are sorry and tell him so, he will forgive us and give us a chance to try again. Listen while I read you something that the Bible says about this. (Psalm 86:5; 1 John 1:9.)
There probably will not be anything in the work outlined for this week that the children cannot easily do. It would be well, however, to call their attention to the memory text printed on page 8. Have them pronounce the name of the book from which it is taken, and help them to find the reference and read the words from the Bible. Ask them what the “a” after the reference means, and if they do not know, have them read again the paragraph explaining this on page 3. The easiest way for the children to find the book of Jeremiah when unfamiliar with any of the books is to open the Bible in the middle. The book opened to will be Psalms, which you can explain is the hymn book of the Bible, and then they can turn the leaves to the right until they reach the book of Jeremiah. Tell them that the name is that of the man who wrote the book.