Keith Battle - How Did We Get Here?

I want to talk about relationships today, and even though I’m reading a passage that primarily discusses marriage and a relationship with God, I’m not specifically talking about marriage at all. I’m not excluding marriage, but I’m talking about relationships in general. So, when you hear what I’m reading, this can be related to any relationship you have with a neighbor, a co-worker, a teammate, a family member, a sibling, or someone from a small group. It can be a girlfriend or a boyfriend—just relationships in general. Keep that in mind.

It says in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18: «Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.’» Verse 21: «So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib and brought her to the man. At last, the man exclaimed, ‘This one is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh. She will be called woman because she was taken from man.’» This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united as one.

Now, verse 25 says, «Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.» The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Chapter 3, verse 1: «The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day, he asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? ’ ‘Of course, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ’ the woman replied. ‘It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we’re not allowed to eat. God says you must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die.’ ‘You won’t die, ’ the serpent replied to the woman. ‘God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.’ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So, she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too. At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.»

I’m going to stop reading right there. We’ll cover more of this material in chapter 3, but I want to go back to chapter 2, verse 25, which says, «Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.» The man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. Chapter 3, verse 7 says, «At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness.» My subject today is: How did we get here? How did we get here? How did we go from chapter 2, verse 25, being naked and unashamed? When you think of nakedness, don’t just think of nudity. Although they did not have clothes, you need to understand nakedness in its metaphorical state as well. They were transparent; they had nothing to hide.

How did we go from having a relationship where we had no secrets, where we shared intimate details, where we had intimacy—into knowing each other? How did we go from that in chapter 2, verse 25, to having a relationship that is so shame-based that now we’re covering ourselves with fig leaves because we realize we’re naked? How do we go from transparency being something we were okay with to it being something we are no longer comfortable with? How do we go from having a cool relationship to now having a careful one?

Have you ever been in a relationship like that? You were cool with the person for a while, and now you’re just careful with each other. Does anyone know what it’s like to see a relationship shift into an area where it’s no longer close? And you know what happens? You don’t even really know what happened. You think you know what happened if somebody asks you the reason, but you don’t really know because you haven’t talked about it. You never talked to the person about what really happened between us; you just talked to others about the person. You never spoke to the person about what transpired. You just kind of talked through others and had your sources. You connected the dots and thought, «I kind of know when this started, ” but you don’t really know.

I think something was said that shouldn’t have been said, or something should have been said that wasn’t said. I think they did something that wasn’t supposed to be done, or something was left undone. Whatever it was, we used to be close. We used to share a bond. We had different experiences together, and now we don’t even go to the same gathering anymore…