‘And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze (ruach - literally “‘in the wind of the day”)'.
It may well be that they had communed with God each evening, and that the sound in the trees had indicated to them His presence. It would have brought to them the thrill and joy of worship. But now the overtones are different. Now the sound is to them the approach of a vengeful God which is made known to them by the sound of the wind in the trees, and the would be filled with terror. Compare 2 Samuel 5:24 where God is known by ‘the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees'. (See also 2 Samuel 22:11, ‘he was seen upon the wings of the wind'; Job 38:1, ‘the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind'; Psalms 18:10, ‘he came swiftly on the wings of the wind'; also Psalms 104:3; Ezekiel 1:4; John 3:8; Acts 2:2). This is no stroll. To their guilty consciences it is the sound of the approach of God to tackle them over what they have done.
‘And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.'
Like the scrabbling together of coverings from fig leaves, this was another desperate and foolish attempt to hide from the all-seeing eyes of God. They were almost frozen with fear. They sought out the darkest place they could find among the trees of the garden, the trees which God had provided as a blessing and which had now become their only hope of hiding from Him. Possibly they hoped that if they could not be seen God would pass them by. How foolish we are when we think that we can hide anything from God or avoid facing up to Him.