the voice that walks

Have you ever experienced a thunderstorm where the thunder was such that you could not tell which direction it was coming from?

It can be a truly awe inspiring moment and at the same time a rather scary experience as you encounter the power of the approaching storm.

Strangely, this brings us to the following verse:
Gen 3:8

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.

The Hebrew understanding of this verse is that Adam & Eve were experiencing what I just described above. They were in a "thunderstorm" and the voice of the Lord God was the thunder. They could hear it but they could not pin point the direction the sound of God's voice was coming from.

Consequently, it is extremely interesting that the word picture for "walking" is "to reveal the authority of a person".

In western cultures a common saying is to "walk the walk and talk the talk". However, when we use that expression we are not literally referring to how a person walks. Rather we are referring to integrity and character as what a person says lines up with what that person does.

This expression helps us to understand the Hebrew here. There is no actual physical act of walking on God's part. In fact this verse is all about God's "thundering" voice carrying with it the powerful reality of His character and His integrity!!!!

I have always been critical of Adam & Eve for hiding from God's presence, but now I realise what was actually happening to them I know I would have been doing exactly the same thing; hiding.

Most of our thoughts about the presence of God lack this perspective.

I believe the time is here when we must learn to experience the presence of God as Adam & Eve did; as a thunderstorm where His voice comes at as from seemingly every direction with such a fresh revelation of His character that we stand in awe and cry holy, holy, holy!!!

Remember, there is no such thing in Hebrew as hearing without obeying. Unless we obey we never heard the voice of the Lord God in the first place, maybe this is the real key as to why Adam & Eve hid. 

Obey: to see the name (even in the midst of a thunder storm!!!)