“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:8

When the LORD first made Adam and Eve, there was perfect communion. When He spoke with them, there was no fear or guilt. However, when they were disobedient, in a now fallen state, hearing the voice of the LORD created in them a fear they had not previously known. Being in a fallen state, now conscious of their guilt, as any who are in spiritual darkness and blindness, they vainly imagined that they could flee from God’s presence, who is everywhere (Psalm 139) and futilely attempt to hide themselves from Him, before whom every creature is manifest (Hebrews 4:13). We see clearly the foolishness of a darkened mind in thinking that the thick trees and bushes in the garden would be a screen and shelter for them, or that God finding them in an apparent state of obedience, since He had previously given them the right to be there, not considering now their state of condemnation because of their disobedience (Romans 5:12).

The greatest evidence today that people are yet in a state of blindness and darkness, never having been shown by God their lost estate, is that they continue to reason as did Adam and Eve, until it pleased God to reveal in them the Person and Work of the LORD Jesus. When was this? Genesis 3:21- “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” To show Adam and Eve the severity of their fall and condemnation, God shed the first innocent blood, as a type of what He would do millenniums later in giving His very own Son as the sacrifice for the sin of those that from eternity He gave to His Son to come and save. Without the shedding of the very blood of God in the flesh (Acts 20:28), there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). The blood of innocent animals could no put away one sin, but it typified the kind of vicarious death required for God to put away sin and justify those for whom it was shed, fulfilled in the death of the LORD Jesus.

Genesis 3:8 reveals that they heard ‘the voice of the LORD walking in the garden in the cool of the day.’ This is unusual language personifying the voice of the LORD walking. And yet, this was also prophetic of what God would do in coming to live and walk among sinners in a fallen world in the person of His Son, the LORD Jesus. Hearing His voice, it was the very voice of eternal God speaking. And yet, while many heard Him speak physically, yet they remained in darkness and blindness. However, the LORD Jesus declared, ‘My sheep hear My voice, I KNOW THEM, and they follow Me,’ John 10:27.

In Acts 7:31, when Stephen was preaching to the unbelieving Pharisees and Scribes, he declared plainly to them that the voice of the LORD calling unto Moses from the burning bush was none other than the voice of the Eternal Word of God (Christ) John 1:1-4. They, as unconverted legalists, feared Moses, but not Jesus of Nazareth, God in the flesh. And yet, Moses in hearing His voice, trembled, while they would not, because of their unbelief.