The first question found in the Bible comes from Satan. The second question comes from God. A vast, fundamental difference in the characters of these two speakers is revealed by these two questions. These questions also lay the foundation of eternal destinies.


The First Question

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” ( Genesis 3.1)

Satan’s question to the woman revealed his nature which is to deceive. All we need to know about Satan is this: his nature is to deceive and he can never be trusted. Jesus called him the “father of lies” ( John 8.44). As such, he is the source of all lies and deception. The strategies he employs are manifold and work on many levels but their foundation is deceit. In Jesus’ great dissertation up end times he repeatedly warned his hearers not to be deceived for that time will be the time when Satan will be most convincing by working his greatest wonders of deception ( Matthew 24).

Satan’s question to the woman was designed to cause her to question God’s goodness. How long their dialogue may have lasted is unclear. Surely it lasted much longer than the record in Genesis and the account provides the main points of the conversation. Satan was successful in his plan ( 2 Corinthians 11.3). He succeeded in deceiving the woman by making her doubt God’s goodness and she ate.

Satan’s main objective was not the woman, however. She was his secondary target. His main effort was the man: Adam. Satan had concluded, correctly, that Adam would not fall for his line. Therefore, he attacked Adam through the woman. Adam, when he discovered what had happened recognized the problem. Adam chose badly to solve his problem. He too ate but was not deceived ( Genesis 3.13; 1 Timothy 2.14).

While aware of the consequence of his disobedience it is unlikely he appreciated the full meaning of his choice. His eating cost him dominion over the earth ( Genesis 1.26, 28) and returned rule of the world to Satan ( Ezekiel 28.12-15; Luke 4.5-6; 2 Corinthians 4.4). It plunged earth under a curse which resulted in decay and death ( Genesis 3.17-19; Romans 8.19-22).
From this point onward, everything that lived died ( 1 Corinthians 15.22).


God’s First Question

Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ( Genesis 3.9)
After Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they recognized they were naked. More is likely here than what appears on the surface. They may have been clothed in a glory that vanished with their eating. At the very least they acquired a knowledge of unclothedness they had not experienced: shame. This was the true nature of the “knowledge of good and evil” of which God had warned. Satan had represented it as something desirable that God was withholding ( Genesis 3.5).

In reality, this “good” was death itself. Because of the shame Adam and Eve felt, their first act was to try and cover themselves. They attempted to cover themselves by sewing fig leaves together and fashioned crude “clothing” ( Genesis 3.7). Volumes could be written about this. It was a representative act of what all do to try and cover sin, to excuse failure, and rationalize. The fig leaves were, “I’m ok, you’re ok.” They were not.

In Genesis 3.8, we read of God’s walking in the garden. 1Apparently, this was a habit He enjoyed with the couple during the “cool of the day.” During these walks He met and conversed with Adam and Eve. Prior to their eating, this had been the highlight of their day. But that had changed. They were now afraid of Him and they hid.


The Nature of the Question

Satan asked his question to cause
Eve to doubt God’s goodness. God asked his question to restore the couple. God’s question, “where are you?” was asked, in its superficial sense, because He could not see Adam and Eve. Most likely, they had an appointed place to meet. But His real question was psychological, not geographical. “Where are you?” Where were Adam and Eve? God asks each of us this question. Where are we? If we are truthful, we can only answer, Lost!

Jesus taught this lesson to the Jews of His day through statements and parables. One familiar passage is the parable of the lost sheep. Luke recorded:
3So He told them this parable, saying,4“What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’7I tell you that in the same way, there will bemorejoy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance ( Luke 15.3-7).

Adam and Eve were lost sheep. They were the human race. The point of Jesus’ parable was that the lost sheep knew it was lost. The ninety-nine the shepherd left did not. They thought they were ok. They didn’t know they needed a shepherd. They shepherd went and looked for the sheep for he knew it knew it was lost. God sought Adam and Eve in the garden for they were lost.


Conclusion

So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.8All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.9I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and haveitabundantly ( John 10.7-10).

Because of Adam’s failure, we enter this world without Christ, without hope, and without eternal life. We are lost. God asks each of us the same question he asked the first man, “Where are you?” If we are honest, our answer is that we are lost and have no hope. Jesus declared he was the door (cf. John 14.6). If anyone enters through Him he will be saved. Paul declared how one is saved in his gospel,
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures ( 1 Corinthians 15.1-4).

Salvation is a gift. Putting your trust in the fact that Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead is entering the door.
1This is the first account of a theophany. God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His pre-incarnate form visited with His creation, created in His image.