I read today in Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve sinned against God. Verse 7 stood out to me: “…they strung fig leaves together around their hips to cover themselves” after they’d eaten from the forbidden fruit.
Fig leaves around the hips, eh? I can almost see the couple cowering in an orchard, trying desperately to string the greenery before God shows up for their daily walk in the park. Their hands are shaking and sweat beads are forming on the foreheads. They know they’ve done wrong, and they know their actions have built a wall between themselves and God. And so they try to cover up, to pretend that everything’s okay. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.
God walks onto the scene knowing full well what His kids had been up to. He speaks with them to make sure they understand the seriousness of disobeying Him, He levies the consequences for what they’ve done, and then…I love this part…He provides a cover-up for them.
Big difference between the first and second cover-ups!
The first is flimsy, inadequate, and manmade. The second is crafted by God’s hands and covers the nakedness completely. More importantly, it’s made from animal skins, which require a blood sacrifice. This cover-up is sufficient.
How many times do we sin, and then try to set things right on our own? We string fig leaves together — using flimsy excuses to cover our tracks — but our feeble attempts don’t work. God knows what we’ve done, and, because He loves us and wants nothing to interfere with our fellowship with Him, He has provided the perfect cover-up for us.
Like the animal skins that covered Adam and Eve, this one covers us. It, too, required a blood sacrifice — the blood of Jesus Christ. And it’s sufficient. Nothing else is needed — just our willingness to accept the gift of God’s cover-up for us.
What an amazing proof of God’s love for us!
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