4. Divine Hiddenness in Eden: The Enigmatic Beginning
In the Garden of Eden, shortly after God’s creation, we learn that God had given a command to Adam, forbidding him to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God also warned him about the dire consequences for disobeying. We read this in Genesis 2:16–17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Obviously, Adam also conveyed God’s command later to his wife, Eve, after she was created. But when Satan showed up as a serpent shortly thereafter to deceive Eve, the humans would soon get their very first real-life test to distinguish truth from falsehood, and good from evil. As it turned out, they failed terribly, causing untold misery for all generations yet to come.
It is undeniable that God was conspicuously absent to forestall the fall of Adam and Eve on that fateful day. His hiddenness can be characterized by the absence of His intervention, revelation and mercy for Adam and Eve. Let’s take a closer look at each of these very briefly.