An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.
Continuing our general theme of last week, “Great Questions in the Bible,” this week we are going to concern ourselves with the next question found in the Bible, “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” In other words, God asked Adam who told him that he was in this state?
Something speaking to Adam made him positive in his thinking that he was naked. Many times man finds himself in a state which, to him, is unexplainable. The first impulse is to do like Adam – place the blame on someone else. The man who finds himself a drunkard, or a murderer, will, first of all, attempt to place the blame on the next person.
But God will someday direct the question to him as it was directed to Adam.
Who told Adam that he was naked? No one but a higher voice speaking to him, telling him that he was living outside the pale of God’s will. Whatever might be our shortcomings, we are mindful of them, but with the growing consciousness of our straying from the will of God, we awake, mindful of the fact that we are naked.
The very fact that Adam knew that he was not in the original state as God had designed him, now, for a lack of a better explanation, he said, “I was naked and came out here to hide myself.”
TRUTH COMES THRU
But what actually brought about this keen awareness? Motivated by a strong inquisitive mind, he was led to a place where God had forbidden him to go. It was at this point that he realized what he had done was not in conformity with the will of God. It was at this point that Adam saw himself as he actually was. Adam was mirrored to himself in his true state. A voice that had been dormant all these years now spoke to him and told him of his true state. Adam saw himself standing before God’s great mirror. He saw himself as a wicked, undone person who had gone contrary to the will of God. It was at this point that he realized he was naked. Maybe like that rich young ruler who came to Jesus, he tried to rationalize and say that he was a good person minus any faults. But try as he might, he still heard that voice of guilt speaking to him and when he came in the presence of God, he cried out, “I was naked.”
A SINNER
It was not actually true that he was naked, because he had been naked from his creation. Now, for the lack of a better explanation, he said he was naked because that was the first thing that popped in his mind. Today, many people are at that same place in life. As we look back over life and see what we should have been and what we actually are, we would like to cry out that we are naked. The term “naked” said that he was a sinner, that he had disobeyed the will of God.
One author said sometime ago, “Oh, if we could only see ourselves as others see us!” I would like to go a step further and say if we could see ourselves as God sees us, what a change would be wrought in our lives! But today, many of us are hiding behind a pseudo-perfection that leads us only to the worst that is in us and of which we are capable. The very fact is that we hide behind the thought that we are perfect or that we are good. It is in this state that many of us lull ourselves into nakedness.
In man’s most sober mind, he awakes to the fact that he has failed to live up to the expectations of God. When Adam said that he was naked or the prodigal son cried out that he had sinned, they gave evidence of a rude awakening that was brought on by a new awareness of their shortcomings as far as God was concerned. It is at this same point that men on their death beds cry out, belatedly, their shortcomings. When we come to such a point in life we are aware of the fact that, in the sight of God, we have failed to live up to His expectations. God has placed in each of us a higher authority which constantly speaks to us.
Some people have labeled it “conscious,” but conscious or not, there is something that constantly reminds us that we have done those things which fail to meet God’s approval. Adam had been forewarned about this condition and, although he attempted to hide behind excuses, he didn’t have one. We are all in the same boat. Through the Bible, all of us have been forewarned. When the time comes for us to give an account for our stewardship, we will be in no position to try to place the blame on someone else.
It is human nature that makes us always want to place the blame of our failures on someone else. By the same token, we want to draw all of our successes to ourselves. Many of us are naked this morning, but our awareness of this nakedness is brought about only when the God-consciousness in each of us speaks to us and makes us realize that we have gone contrary to the will of God.
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 