Genesis 3:7-11 (NLT)
7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. 8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” 11 “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
I was riding in my car thinking about a couple of different verses and the depth of God's love when this passage came to mind. It began to roll through my mind. As it did, each verse started bringing more thoughts with it: God's love for us, the expression of our love for Him, how His love never changes, He is constant (Isaiah 54:10), and how He is, was, and is to come (Revelation 1:8).
Then, I began to think about how deception and sin keep us from pressing into the fullness of God's love. Is it a coincidence that Adam and Eve were naked and completely open before God when He created them, and before sin took its toll? Is it a coincidence that both physical and spiritual birth are initiated by a being entering into another being; physical birth through the being of man, and spiritual birth through the being of the Holy Spirit? Is it by chance that the most intimate setting we can experience with another human can only occur in the same openness we were originally created in? This same openness occurs between the bride and groom in both the physical and spiritual sense with nothing hidden. It is only in openness that birth is possible! Has anyone other than Mary ever conceived a child while remaining fully clothed?
We draw close to Him and He draws close to us. It is impossible to know someone that we don't spend time with. Nothing can separate us from His love, but the enemy will certainly do everything he can to deceive us, lie to us, and condemn us in an effort to keep us running or hiding from the One who loves us. As a father, I will always love my son Landen; there is nothing he could do that would keep me from loving him. My love doesn't change, but my ability to hug him does. I can tell him I love him and assure him of my love from a distance through my words (voice, letters, texts, notes, etc.) But if he wants a hug or wants me to wrap him up in my arms, he is going to have to be in my presence. All of this brought me to the verse "...love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).
The enemy accuses us and tries to condemn us but that is not what our Father does. As I thought about the very nature of love and how it "covers a multitude of sins", and that's when it hit me. When sin first entered into the world, "at that moment" they knew they had sinned. They knew they had done wrong and that they were naked. The very next thing Adam and Eve did was to try to "cover" it up. Isn't it interesting that when the first sin occurred, man’s first reaction was to "work" his way out of it by sewing fig leaves together and covering the shame that sin brought? Sewing is a very tedious and time consuming process, I might add. This is still one of the enemy's tactics to this day. But it didn't take them long to realize that it was "not by works" that they were going to be saved.
That evening the breezes came and it got a little drafty in that camouflage fig leaf suit (AKA hidden but not covered). I wonder after they sewed all of those leaves together if there was a period where they thought they were really covered from their hard work. But then the breezes came! Is it a coincidence that the "breezes" started at the same time they heard God walking in garden? Almost every other translation uses "presence" rather than "breezes". Perhaps it was the draft of His presence that they encountered which revealed to them that they needed more than fig leaves to cover what they had done.
Despite their sin, God went looking for them. Sin tried to hide itself in the very beginning and to this day it tries to hide itself. Why? Sin hides in darkness.
1 John 1:5 (NLT)
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
This brought me back to love "covers" a multitude of sins. Other similar verses and translations use the words "overlook" or "pass over”. A cover can't cover something that doesn't exist, and it's impossible to overlook something that is completely hidden. If I were to walk down a dark hall at night, I don't overlook the things I can't see... I stumble on them! In order to be overlooked, it must first be brought into the Light! What Adam and Eve tried to cover and couldn't, God could and did.
Genesis 3:21 (NLT)
21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
He made clothes for them out of animal skins. And with that, the first sins occurred, the first blood was shed, and The Lord clothed our nakedness. But this was only a short-term solution to an eternal problem. The very next verse says:
Genesis 3:22 (NLT)
22 Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever.”
Despite our sin, they immediately committed to providing an eternal solution to the problem we created! We disobeyed, and in our sin had "...become like [them] knowing both good and evil." But out of the unfailing love of our Father and His only Son, Jesus agreed to reverse the process in the only way possible, which was for Him to become like us. He became a man! By one man (Adam) sin entered into the world and by One Man (Jesus) it was overcome.
Romans 5:18 (NLT)
Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.
We were banned from the fruit of the tree of life, so Life Himself came and died on a tree so we could bear fruit!!!
Yes, He paid or debt! He covered our sin! An eternal sacrifice was made for us! No need to fear, no need to run! Our Father calls us, and He knows what we have done. We have no need to hide because He wants to clothe us!! Not in the skins of animals; He wants to clothe us in His righteousness, in the blood of the Lamb! We wear a wool coat and have been washed white as snow, and we will once again walk in the garden with our King!
Thank you Lord! Your ways are perfect! There is no one like You, and You alone are worthy of all praise! May Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth and in our life as it is in Heaven! We love You, we honor You, we and praise You! Amen.