He Covered Me

The Inspiration

"And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21).

Wow! I find this to be some of the most beautiful words in Genesis, perhaps in Scripture, and I enjoy spending time thinking and meditating on them.

The Backdrop

Adam and Eve are in the cool of the garden enjoying unhindered, unencumbered, unadulterated fellowship with the God who created them. Everything is perfect, until the serpent begins to hiss the sly sentiments of Satan himself. A sprinkle of deception. A dash of doubt. A pinch of despair. And viola! Creation falls. And the human dance of entanglement with sin and Satan begins.

They Are Naked, And They Are Ashamed

Immediately after eating of the forbidden fruit, Scripture tell us "the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked" (Gen. 3:7). Their immediate impulse is to cover their physical bodies. For the first time, they feel shame.

While they immediately address their physical nakedness, I cannot imagine the pain of feeling spiritually naked and exposed for the first time. I was born a depraved sinner; I've known nothing else. They were created perfect; they never knew the feeling and pain of sin. Until they ate the fruit of the tree, they never had the "knowledge of good and evil."

Can You Imagine?

How terrified Adam and Eve must have felt when they covered themselves, but the dirty stain of sin and shame shown through the futile fig leaves! They could cover their bodies; they could not cover their hearts and their souls. They could not make their sin go away. Their attempts fell short.

God Intervenes

Fig leaves can never cover a person permanently. Leaves crunch and crumble as they are crushed on the ground. Fig leaves fail.

So God intervenes. He writes Himself into the story, over and over again. He is their only hope. He takes an animal. I wonder if it was an animal that Adam and Eve knew by name. After all, God gave Adam the chore of naming all of the animals. I wonder if their eyes locked with the creature as it was taken away, wondering what God was about to do. I wonder if God killed the animal in front of them. I wonder if they were horrified as they saw life drain away from the animal they named as it slowly went to sleep and awoke no more. I wonder if they cried as they saw its blood flow from its lifeless body. Scripture doesn't spell out the details, so I am left to wonder.

He Covers Them

God then takes the skin of the creature and wraps it around Adam and Eve. He corrects them. He clothes them. He covers them. Through the death of another creature, they are covered!

He Covered Me

Two thousand years ago, the process repeats itself on a grand scale. All of life has built up to this moment. The King doesn't take His throne; He is nailed to a cross. His blood flows down and spiritually naked individuals gaze upon the sacrifice, hoping that they might be clothed.

He dies, but His death isn't permanent. He rises again, and there is power in the sacrifice. He defeats death. He crushes Satan. He provides a way for those who respond to His message. And those individuals find that they are covered.

I stand here today fully clothed, washed clean by the blood of the sacrifice. My fig leaves have been replaced with garments of righteousness. The Bridegroom has adorned His bride in white for her entrance into glory, and I am counted among that number. Praise God, for He was the garment that covered me!