dam and Eve looked at each other and knew that they were naked. This didn’t seem to be a problem before. Well, before there was no sin, no lust, no lewdness, no evil desires. Just a man and a woman that had been made for each other, living in and caring for a land that God had created, a land that had been good, only good. But they disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit and brought sin into the world, destroying the original creation intent. Adam and Eve, now knowing that they were naked took fig leaves and made coverings for themselves. From the things God had created to provide for man they were able to make clothing for themselves. Even in a sinful world God’s provision is there for us and He protects us. But isn’t it like us to do wrong and then try to hide it. Instead of confessing and getting the wrong corrected, we hide things. We not only continue to sin we compound it.
There was a man, married to a woman who became displeased with her husband. She decided she wanted to live apart from the man and told him so. She then departed her home to live elsewhere disrespecting her marriage vows. She claimed that scripture allowed her to leave her husband quoting 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife”.
She claims that although God says that woman should not leave her husband saying that even “if she does leave” gives her permission to leave as long as she doesn’t remarry. This is a prime example at listening to the whispers and looking at evil and seeing the beauty in it ignoring the sin in disobeying God’s Word. In this verse God says, “A wife is not to depart her husband.” Don’t leave him is the command. Leaving him is ignoring the command and doing your will, taking of the forbidden fruit if you will. “But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband” the verse continues. What is being said is that the woman should not sin but even if she has sinned she should not compound that sin by remarrying and committing another sin. Or she should repent from her sin and come back to her husband seeking his and God’s forgivness. But when we want something, if we are not looking to God, we can see the beauty in sin and take the forbidden fruit.
God came walking in the garden and Adam heard Him, so he hid himself. Instead of going to God, his Creator, he hid from Him. As we said earlier, this is how the world was created. God would walk in the garden with us. We would be together in paradise with nary a care in the world, just a need to follow God. Now Adam is hiding from God. He hid from the same God who created him, the same God who created a special mate for him, who brought all of the animals to him so he could name them. They had spent time together. And it was intended that they would spend all of eternity together.
But God and sin can’t abide. Sin can’t be in the presence of God. God’s creation had been made perfect, sinless. But now man was filled with sin. We will see later where Jesus, the Christ, was born sinless in a sinful world. God came to Jesus several times in His life. Others heard it, or saw visions but they didn’t see God. Only Jesus was sinless. But on the cross when Jesus took on all of mans sins God had to turn away from Jesus. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me” (Matthew 27:46), He cried out. Jesus had sin and God could not bear Him. Separation from God. Then Jesus said, ‘“It is finished”. And bowing His head He gave up His spirit (John 19:30).’ He had defeated death, washed away sin and could now return to His Father and be in His presence. Just as you and I can, if we defeat sin. Redemption from sin.
Meanwhile not seeing Adam God called out to him. Adam replied that he heard God’s voice in the garden and was afraid because he was naked, so he hid himself. Adam never hid from Gods presence before. But suddenly he was afraid of God. Not only had Adam sinned, he knew he had sinned. He now had the knowledge of evil, of sin. He knew he had sinned and he knew it was wrong. So he hid. Instead of facing God and confessing his sin, seeking God’s forgiveness, he hid. And we continue to do so today. And this is not good. This is not God’s intended creation.
There are many churches today that teach their version of God’s Word, claiming that everyone will go to heaven, preaching only God’s promises omitting God’s commands to obedience. If the preach sin and the commands to obey, they are confronted with their sin so they hide from God and preach only what is pretty. And millions flock to those churches to avoid confronting their own sin and compound their sin by hiding rather than seeking forgiveness.
God knew what Adam had done but He seemed to be offering Adam a chance at redemption. He asked Adam if he had eaten from the tree he had been commanded not too. Did you sin Adam, He seems to be asking. It would have been so easy for Adam, already caught in his sin, to confess before God, in His very presence. “Yes God, I ate the fruit you told me not to eat.” Instead Adam chose to shift blame, “The woman You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate” (Genesis 3:12). It’s not my fault God. The woman gave me the fruit. She’s the one that did it. And besides, You gave me that woman.
This sounds so much like us today. ‘I thought about this girl late last night so I went to visit her. We had a drink or two and, well things got out of hand. I didn’t intend to have sex with her.’ Or, “Our team was hot. We couldn’t lose. I put down all I had on that game. I was going to make bank. But the ref’s kept throwing flags. They stole the game from us. I was going to make bank’.
We sin and make excuses. So we come back and sin again, and again. Then we look to the Lord for help, the Lord we have repeatedly denied. We sin then go to Him for help. ‘Lord, don’t let her be pregnant’ or ‘Lord, how am I going to pay my rent?’
But we’re separated from God by our sins. How is He going to help us if we can’t come into His presence? Separation keeps us apart. Sin keeps us separated.
God cursed the world, (Genesis 3:14-19) including telling man that “From dust you are, and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19). Then fearing sinful man would also eat from the tree of life he put man out of the garden and put Cherubim, angels, with a flaming sword to guard the tree of life so they couldn’t get to it, eat from it and live in an eternity of sin and evil. Woman was cursed to suffer during child birth and to want to be like the man but would be ruled over by the man. No longer partners but sinful men and women. Man was cursed to have to work to earn his keep. Remember, in the garden God gave man of all the trees in the garden to eat. But now, in sin, he has to work to survive. “Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:17).
Also, remember that God said that in the day they eat of the forbidden fruit they would surely die. They didn’t keel over dead right on the spot. They didn’t become immediately ill. Was God lying? Perish the thought. God cannot lie. He told man that now he would return to the dust he was made of, he would die. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed or if somehow you missed it, but from the day of your birth you are on the path to death. Each day that you grow older and more mature you grow one day closer to death. No one gets out alive. Only Enoch did not die but God took him. ‘And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him’ (Genesis 5:24). The rest of us will go to our grave.
That is one death. There is a worse death. Physical death is the first death. Those who do not know God will suffer eternal separation from God. That is the second death. We are currently separated from God. We have been excluded from the garden. But God, in His infinite mercy, has made a way to get us back to Him, so we do not suffer the second death but have eternal life back in the original creation of Paradise with God where we have access to the Tree of Life. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16).
Today, here on earth, we suffer separation from God as we move through our lives towards the first death. Upon that first death you will be before the judgment seat of God and either admitted into heaven or sent into eternal death, ‘ And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment’, (Hebrews 9:27). If you die in Christ, if you repent and confess your sins and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord you will not suffer eternal death but have eternal life, for Jesus is God. “I and My Father are one”, (John 10:30).
Even after man sinned, He did not abandon us. He put us out of the garden but He did not forget about us. God made clothing out of skin for man, something to protect us from the elements and from our nakedness. He knew we could not survive in the sinful world outside of the garden clothed in just leaves. He took skins, animal skins, to make the clothing. May not sound like much but that’s because you are still babes in the Word. There is more to learn, much more. It’s not my intent to teach it all to you here. Just to give you enough so that you believe and seek salvation. Then it’s up to you. Don’t just read or listen to the Word. Study it. Get to know God on a personal basis. Get to know Him like you know your own family, like a spouse, like a best friend. Then you can talk to Him, directly to Him, through Jesus Christ, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5 ). This is called prayer. That’s all prayer is, conversation with God. But what do you pray? That’s why you get to know God so that you can pray within His will.
You move into a new neighborhood, you see your new neighbor, you say hello. Then immediately you start discussing your favorite team with him, right? No! You don’t know anything about your new neighbor, whether he likes your team, whether he likes that sport, whether he cares about sports at all. Then one day you come home ready to watch the game, you go into your patio to light the grill; some burgers would be in order, when you suddenly hear your neighbors’ television. You hear the announcers discussing the game that is about to be played. It’s your game. Your team is playing. You rush into your den and turn on your 64” flat screen TV. As you go back out to your grill you look through your neighbors’ window and see that he’s watching the game on a smaller 19” TV. You go to the fence and call out to your neighbor and invite him over to watch the game on your TV and to share a burger with you, the grill is going. You’re getting to know your neighbor. You have something in common. You can visit and talk, and get to know each other better. He’s no longer the neighbor over there but he’s becoming a friend. You give him your phone number, her gives you his. You now have a direct line to him. You can talk to him, anytime you want. And get to know him better.
Let’s go back to where we left off. See, God had already made His creation and He rested from creating. There was no more making to be done. So where did the skin to make clothing come from? Pay close attention. This is important. God had to kill an animal to take the skin to make clothing for man, to protect man. He had to shed blood to save mankind. Does that strike a chord? As we continue you will see that animal sacrifice was needed to atone mans sins, to set them aside, but not to forgive them. Jesus shed His blood on the cross to wash us clean of sin, a blood sacrifice of the King of kings and Lord of lords, “…for He is Lord of lords and King of kings,” Revelation 17:14. God loves us so much He sent His only Son to die that we might have life. Yet man walks away from that love.
Here man has sinned against God, tried to hide his sin then refused to confess his sins. Yet God is still looking out for our welfare, doing what is needed to protect us from evil, to redeem us to Him. Even if you don’t know God and are not walking with Him He still loves you and is loathe seeing you suffer eternal death. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Let’s look at this love, let’s see if we can understand it. You’re out in the African veldt and a hungry lion is charging at you intent on devouring you. I’m standing by with my son watching. I could charge the lion and have it attack me instead or I could send my son to be eaten by the lion so you would be saved. I am afraid my friend that you would be lion food. I wouldn’t knowingly die to save you and I would absolutely not send my son to die that you might live. But that is exactly what God has done for you yet many of us refuse to believe it and wave it off as fantasy and let the lion have us. You’ll remember we talked about the ‘roaring lion seeking whom he may devour’ (1Peter 5:8) back in chapter 2. Ignore God and His salvation and the lion has his sights set on you.
We are separated from God by our sins but He has not abandoned us. He loves us too much for that. He will do what is needed to protect us, provide for us, show us the way back, including sacrificing His own creation, even His Son. The one thing He won’t do is to force you to love or believe in Him. You have to do that on your own. If you come to know Him and see what He has done and sacrificed for you then you can’t help but love Him. Come home, knock, the door will be opened for you.
