Naked Before God

I’m not talking about anything lewd, nor am I suggesting anything to do with being unclad before the Lord. This is not a matter of being amorous, but being honest.

What I am talking about is exposure, in a spiritual sense, and through shame, our attempts. It has been on my heart for a week or so to write, it’s not something that has come from any recent event or occurrence… just something that I have seen in my life – and others, and felt to write.

Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”  So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:9-10)

It was no surprise to God that Adam and Eve were naked – he had formed them that way, after all. However, after eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve perceived their shame and had only one thought: to hide that shame from God.

The word, knowledge, יָדַע (Yada) is, as with most words in Hebrew, quite deep. It speaks not just of cognitive understanding but also familiarity and intimate understanding. So often in scripture are significant events impactful in many ways, that the moment of understanding good and evil was also the event of first experiencing good and evil. Adam and Eve had just personally carried out the first human evil act in that moment, betraying God and submitting themselves to a deceiver.

And in that moment came a desire to hide from God. It was not from His presence that God would later shun Adam and Eve – but away from the tree of life, which would have made their corruption permanent. God did not push them away, but invited them back so he may tend to their shame, and tended to their condition, removing them from the thing that would have made it worse.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24)

David knew that there was nothing that should be hidden from God, and his invitation to God was not just to be exposed, but corrected.

Corrupted human nature is selfish at heart, compounded by a tendency to fool ourselves into thinking that our selfish intentions were for the better good. We live in a complicated world, and it is easy to try this. Yet, this is no different to Adam and Eve seeking to hide behind bushes. This is why David seems so different – he is brutally honest before God. He trusts God; he loves God. Even when he is angry at God, he never loses focus on who God is – the good and righteous redeemer, protector and judge. Even when he sinned, he did not try to hide it or justify it. While we can gaslight ourselves, it’s hard to fool God.

If we live in grace, through faith, through the cross, we have no sin before God. We are righteous in His eyes – and through the Holy Spirit and our daily walk in maturity, our lives will reflect that righteousness more and more each day. We do not have to pretend before God that we are righteous – He already sees us in that way. Yet, he knows our daily struggle and is full of hope, strength and life. Repentance is not just an apology – it is a correction of direction and he is always there to walk us through it.

I invite you to walk ever more in the knowledge that we are naked before Him. Our strengths and weaknesses are no surprise to Him. He walks with us daily and even more powerfully through our flaws. And, as we know Him, we also know righteousness more and more in our lives – in the most experiential way. 

As His love covers us and renews us, we are beckoned deeper and stronger daily.

Kevin Vawser