The first death in the bible was not Abel as one might think. It was an animal, we don’t know what kind of animal it was, though some say that it might have been a lamb. We see this death in Genesis 3:21
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
This event seems strange, why do humans need to be clothed. Why is it that only after their sin do they need clothing. What purpose does it serve. The straight forward reading seems to suggest that because of their shame they needed to cover themselves, but if we look a bit deeper there seems to be much more in this story.
The fig leaves, why? But more importantly why wasn’t it good enough. There is a ton of symbolism associated with the fig tree but that is not what I’m going to focus on. God in the garden saw the fig covering and it was not good enough. There was nothing that man could do to redeem himself before God. God took it upon himself to clothe Adam and Eve to make them presentable to himself. This one act is so symbolic of the cross it is amazing.
Here’s what we learn from Hebrews 9:22 Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. It also tells us just a few verses later in Hebrews 10:4 that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So why are there so many sacrifices in the Old Testament and why does God kill an animal to clothe Adam and Eve. The animals don’t take away the sin but instead it covers it. The blood of the animal covers the sin of Adam and Eve. John 1:29 calls Jesus the Lamb of God. While a lamb which was commonly sacrificed in the Old Testament was used to cover sin, the Lamb of God, Jesus was slain the take away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ is the perfect sacrifice, every thing else comes infinitely short. While the sacrificing of this animal in the Garden of Eden is a picture of the cross so is every sacrifice of blood in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Jesus is referred to as the passover lamb, another illustration that sacrifice in the OT is fulfilled with Jesus.
Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
If we dig a little deeper this picture holds much more meaning. Let’s revisit the question as to why the fig leafs were not a good enough covering. These plants did nothing. In the story of Cain and Able the same is true. Cain brought an offering of fruit of the ground and Abel brought the firstlings of his flock. The offering of plants was not good enough. Why is this the case? What was just observed in Hebrews is that only blood can take away sin, and only blood can come from living creatures. It must be a sacrifice of blood. Why this is significant is that it would mean that plants are not alive in a biblical sense. This really is true, plants are not alive according to the Bible’s definition of life. I will try to explain this in a later post.
A deeper look into this clothing of Adam and Eve paints an even sweeter picture of the cross. We see that God provides us with garments of salvation.
Isaiah 61:10 “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
and with out these garments we are unacceptable to the Lord.
In Matthew 22 we have the parable of the wedding feast. To paraphrase what it says it compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He has killed the oxen and fattened livestock and prepared an amazing wedding feast. He sent out slave to beckon those who were invited, they ignored them. He then sent them out to any one and everyone as there were many places left unfilled at his table. The wedding hall was then filled. The king then came upon one of his dinner guests and saw that he was not dressed in wedding clothes and said to him, “Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?” The man had no answer so the king had him bound hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness.
Again we see that one needs the appropriate garments to be pleasing to the Lord.
Revelation 3:4-6
He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
What a picture this one short verse paints. Jesus Christ became a perfect lamb so that we would be redeemed not by works of our own, we cannot save ourselves, but by the work of the holy spirit, so that we might be presented as a perfect bride dressed in garments of salvation to our God and King.
Wow. this was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for the awesome bible study you led me through this morning!
I like the whole bible study
Awesome studying and great description…I loved every word
Amen.