Summary
Scripture is filled with questions—Jesus asks, "Is not life more than food?" Matthew 6:25; "Why did you doubt?" Matthew 14:31; "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" Matthew 16:13. The Lord interrogates Job for two whole chapters Job 38–39. But the very first two questions ever recorded in Holy Scripture both come in the Garden of Eden—and together they tell the whole story of the human condition and God's response to it.
The First Question: "Did God Say…?"
The setting is the garden God planted for our first parents, lush with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, with two trees in particular set in the middle: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Genesis 2:9. The second tree was an opportunity for Adam and Eve to worship God by trusting obedience, for the command was plain: "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat" Genesis 2:16–17.
Into this garden comes the serpent—not merely a clever animal, but the instrument of Satan, the chief of the fallen angels (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4; Revelation 12:9). And from his mouth comes the first recorded question in all of Scripture: "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" Genesis 3:1.
It is a question with a purpose—to plant doubt about God's word and God's goodness. The serpent twists the command, then openly contradicts it: "You will not surely die… you will be like God." Suddenly the Giver is recast as a withholder, the truthful One as a liar. Eve sees the tree is good for food, a delight to the eyes, desirable to make one wise—she rationalizes, takes, and eats, and gives to Adam Genesis 3:4–6. Their eyes are opened, shame floods in, and they scurry for cover among the trees.
That first question is still being asked. "Did God say…?"—and we supply our own answers: because everyone is doing it, because there is no law against it, because we have made ourselves the origin of all truth. Every temptation since Eden replays this moment.
The Second Question: "Where Are You?"
The Lord God walks in the garden in the cool of the day and calls to the man: "Where are you?" Genesis 3:9. This is not divine confusion. The omniscient God knows exactly where Adam is hiding. The question is the question of a Shepherd searching for a lost sheep, of a father scanning the horizon for a wayward son Luke 15. It is the first gospel question—God seeking the lost.
"Where are you?" first confronts sinners with their sin, reminding them why they are hiding in the first place. But God does not come merely to expose; He comes to redeem. In the same conversation He speaks the first promise of the gospel to the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" Genesis 3:15. On the cross the heel of the woman's Offspring, Jesus Christ, was struck; through His death and empty tomb the serpent's head was crushed, and reconciliation between God and humanity was won.
Two Questions That Tell the Whole Story
When you understand these two questions, you understand a great deal of the Bible. The first, hissed by the tempter, still seeks to unmoor us from God's word. The second, spoken by the Lord who walks into our hiding places, still calls the lost home. "Did God say?" is the voice that ruined us; "Where are you?" is the voice that finds us, forgives us, and claims us as His own in the waters of baptism. For more, see What Were the First Questions in the Bible?.
Video citations
- "What Were the First Questions in the Bible?" 6-6-21 — Let's open our Bibles, please, for our study today, to Genesis 3rd chapter. Genesis 3 3 for our study today. The Bible contains a host of questions. I think, for example, of the question that Jesus…