And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
A devotion for November 19th through the 25th
Genesis 3 talks about the fall, when sin entered the world. It is the first time you hear a prophesy in the Bible, from God himself. It is God’s promise to mankind, humankind. It is here, in the beginning of the Bible, where God talks about how He will save all of us. There is a great deal in this chapter and so many promises from God. This one verse, Genesis 3:21, is the one I have currently been thinking about in detail. It is a short verse, but I believe there is more to it than what you first see.
It’s an easy verse to skip over and not think much about. God made garments of skins for Adam and Eve and clothed them. Doesn’t sound like much there. They realized they were naked, and God gave them clothes. So what. But think about it. This is the first time in the Bible where it hints at death. To make garments of skin an animal would have had to be slain. This is the first time this has happened. An innocent animal was slain so its skin could be used as clothing.
God covered their nakedness with these skins. This is where my mind suddenly realized something. For me, it is talking about an innocent animal (the lamb, Jesus) being slain and its skin (liken it to the blood of Christ) is used to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness (their sin). Do you see this in this verse? When we were studying and having a conversation about this with my church group, our pastor was talking about this verse. He didn’t mention the parts I put in this paragraph but what he did say brought my thoughts to this. For me it was an amazing thought!
Throughout the Bible we hear about being clothed in Christ’s righteousness. Christ’s blood covering our sins. The lamb being slain to save us from our sins. To me, Genesis 3:21 is the first place where God demonstrates what will be done to save us from our sins. He demonstrates it. He covers our sins with His righteousness. What a beautiful thing!
Thank you, Lord for Your atoning sacrifice, to cover our sins and clothe us in Your righteousness!