How to Understand God’s Question: “Where Are You?”

A new year allows us to start over. God challenges us to use this season to question our priorities, activities, and relationships and align our primary concerns with his. 

As I prayed about my focus for 2024, God drew my attention to the word “listen.” I need to listen to him more carefully this year. “Hear” and “listen” are the same in Hebrew (shema) and include the assumption of obedience. To hear or listen is to obey. So, my obedience (or disobedience) reveals whether I’m listening.

We must determine where we are before discovering where God wants us to go. Since this is the start of a year, let’s consider the beginning of the story God tells in Scripture. 

Listen to the Context

“God created mankind (Hebrew: adam) in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). God created both males and females in his image. Then, he gave humanity a mandate to create a culture that honored him. He calls us to partner with one another and him to:

• Reflect God’s image to the world.
• Reproduce physically and spiritually.
• Reproduce physically and spiritually.

Adam and Eve, however, listened to another voice in the garden, one encouraging them to question God’s words and rebel against his authority. Too late, they realized the consequences. After yielding to temptation, they fashioned fig-leaf clothes to hide their newly discovered nakedness. When Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden, they hid. “But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9).

Why would the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Creator of the universe ask such a question? How could he not know where Adam was?

Examine the Question

Hebrew has two words for “where”—one (eyphoh) refers to location, and the other (ayyeh) refers to an expectation born out of a relationship. The biblical author used eyphoh when “Naomi questioned Ruth, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work?” (Ruth 2:19). Naomi asked the location of the field Ruth worked in. The writer used ayyeh when God called to Adam (Genesis 3:9). He used ayyeh again when Gideon quizzed the angel, “Where are all [God’s] wonders that our ancestors told us about?” (Judges 6:13). Based on their relationships, God and Gideon had expectations of the other party.

Rather than seeking Adam’s location, God asked Adam why he wasn’t where God expected him to be, which was by God’s side. One preacher paraphrased God’s question, “Why are you where you are?” Why, indeed? God desires that we remain in his presence. Instead, Adam hid like a disobedient child from a parent, overwhelmed with shame and guilt because of who he was and what he’d done. He defended himself, expressing fear because he was “naked” (Genesis 3:10).

The similarity between the Hebrew words describing the serpent as “crafty” (Genesis 3:1) and Adam’s explanation that he was “naked” leads us to wonder. Was the author accusing Adam of adopting the snake’s deceptive tactics? We know Adam didn’t hide because he lacked clothes since he had covered himself with fig leaves. Plus, he later blamed God (and Eve) for his willful disobedience (Genesis 3:12). Adam hid because his sin exposed his soul—his center of being—and he felt worthless.

Despite knowing what Adam and Eve had done, God searched for them, seeking to restore his relationship with them. When they responded to his call, God offered our first ancestors the opportunity to confess.

Personalize the Question

What emotion do you imagine in God’s voice when he called to Adam? Do you hear anger or accusation? I suspect anguish, God’s grief over a broken relationship, and an invitation to restoration.

God also searches for us even though we, too, have dishonored and disappointed him. He yearns for us to repent so he can repair our broken relationship and partnership with him. His mission hasn’t changed—he still calls his image-bearers to God-honoring relationships and to make his name and love known in the world.

The beginning of the year is a prime time to recognize that God is asking us the same question he asked Adam, “Where are you?” Not where are we physically, but where are we spiritually? Are we by his side as he desires? James encourages us: 

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 

James 4:7–10

Reflection

Consider these questions as you evaluate your priorities, activities, and relationships in your quest to partner with God and others to create a culture that honors him:

• How did Adam and Eve’s rebellion distort God’s image? How does yours?
• Name ways your words and actions lead to the reproduction of faith in your family, friends, and others. In what area(s) do you need to improve?
• Where do you reveal God’s heart as his representative?
• How will you answer God’s question: “Where are you?”