Did God literally and visibly walk in the garden (Genesis 3:8)?

It may seem a strange thing to say, but I have no doubt it is just as true as it is strange, that had sin not come into this world we never would have had the Creator here in the way in which we have had Him. It appears certain He would have visited man had man remained an innocent being, for our first parents heard His footsteps walking in the Garden in the cool of the day. But this was not until man was fallen. Still He comes into the Garden, giving no indication that He knew the true state of His creature, but apparently taking it for granted that everything was just as it should be. And this gives one the impression that there would have been these visitations of God. Alas, instead of man being found at the feet of his Maker rejoicing in the unspeakable blessedness of such a glorious visit, he is found in a state of abject misery, and crouching behind the trees of the Garden from the eye of his Creator.

To Abraham He appears in angelic form, and though in a sense it was incognito, still the guise assumed was not beyond the penetration of the holy Patriarch, for in one of the three men who came to him he recognizes the supreme Being. And the intimacy into which he is drawn by the grace of the Lord gives him a boldness that is astonishing (Gen. 18).

We learn that that intercourse took place, the Lord God walking in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day.

But sin came in, and intercourse with man was rudely broken. Yet God ever pursued His thoughts of blessing for man, and we find angelic visitations to specially favoured individuals at long intervals, the Lord Himself at times appearing in this way, as witness one of the three men in Genesis 18 being none other than “the Judge of all the earth,” the Lord Himself in the appearance of a man.

At the beginning, as Creator, He formed His works, so that He Himself might rest in them. He saw everything which He had made, that it was very good; and all furnished Him with a desired habitation.* The Sabbath at the end of creation-work tells us this. Whatever measure of happiness was provided for man in the arrangements of creation (and that measure was indeed complete), still the Lord God was to have a place in the garden. He walked there in the cool of the day, seeking the presence of Adam.

But let us look at this a little in detail, taking up a few scriptures which give us foreshadows of the dwelling of God with man. We look back first to Eden, man's paradise, when our first parents in innocence dwelt there. We have a suggestion that God was on terms of holy intimacy, if we may use that expression, with them. For after the fall He is said to have walked in the garden in the cool of the day, and we may gather from the expression that this was no unusual visit on the part of the blessed God. While Eden, as the abode of unfallen man, was not the place of eternal righteousness, yet sin had not entered there, and God could, in some measure, have intercourse with His creatures. What a beautiful picture it is — the garden planted by His hand for the enjoyment and employment of man, and the Creator coming down into this place to enjoy such fellowship with him as was possible.

Remark the beautiful simplicity of Jehovah Elohim exactly in unison with these primeval days. Here we are told of His "walking in the garden in the cool of the day." So Jehovah spoke to Cain in remonstrance (Gen. 4); shut Noah in the ark (Gen. 7); and "came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded" (Gen. 11). Favoured Moses knew much of this gracious familiarity in a later day; but here even strangers to the covenants of promise were not without considerate communications of a personal kind. Does this provoke wretched man's unbelief, especially in this day of artificial habits? Let him judge himself, believe that every scripture is inspired of God, and enjoy the wisdom and goodness there vouchsafed abundantly.

"And they heard the voice of Jehovah Elohim walking in the garden in the cool (wind) of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah Elohim, in the midst of the trees of the garden" (ver. 8). Confidence in the Lord God was manifestly gone and sin had filled their hearts with terror as well as unbelief. For faith would have known that distance or darkness makes no difference to Jehovah, as is so beautifully expressed in Ps. 139. His voice was no attraction now; His rich unvarying goodness toward them was forgotten. They had acquired the knowledge of good and evil, but alas! to their own self-condemnation. So it is always. Not death only, but a bad conscience, they have left as a sad legacy to all their descendants. Man conscious of evil shrinks from God and distrusts Him.

So we find here the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah Elohim in the midst of the trees of the garden. No more flagrant proof could well be of the mischief the enemy had wrought. The wiles of the mighty and subtle Satan had drawn the first pair into rebellion, and their instant attempt to conceal themselves was the unmistakable evidence of it. They "hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah Elohim." Had there been the least working of repentance, they had sought Him in self-reproach and horror at their sin, they had cast themselves in confession on a mercy which endures for ever. But there is no genuine repentance without faith, and faith in Him was wholly wanting. The voice of Him as He walked in the garden alarmed them, and they hid themselves away from Him.

God came down to talk with man (Gen. 3) - man already fallen; and "they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day." But God then had no "habitation" on earth. God's Spirit had dealt in power in various ways in the history of man; but the moment the people are called out, it is, "The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation," etc. (Exod. 15:2.) This is the first thing we find in the song of Moses.

The word of God is truth, where and when ever written, be the matter in hand what it may. How solemn when He, from Whom no appeal can be, is personally addressing man! So it was here when man had just fallen. "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. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou?" (vers. 8, 9).

We may remark the charming simplicity of the earth's prince, but also the suited directness of God's dealings with man. As there could be no prophet nor priest, there was no angel to intervene. The intercourse was unbroken, and communication immediate. Man needed no argument on the being of God, no disquisition on His attributes Who "blessed" and "commanded" him, Whose voice, or sound, as He walked in the garden in the cool of the day they heard to their fear when they had transgressed. Yet no man had ever imagined such a condition. The truth of it accounts for it to all save those who naturally love a lie and prefer the dark. For present experience would rather lead men to deny it.

338 The question of God, "Adam, where art thou?" was equally touching and overwhelming. Why, when he heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, with the divine familiarity of a goodness which could enter into communication with an innocent nature, did not man run to meet Him? Where was he? In sin and in nakedness.