Garments of Skins

Did you know that people aren't perfect, and that includes me? Also, things people create (like web-based blogging services) are not perfect either? If anything should fail to post for one reason or another, I would like to tell you all now that the reading plan we are following is in The Lutheran Study Bible. It begins on p. lix in the introductory material. It breaks it down to a chapter or two or three every day and completes the whole Bible in 2 years and 3 days. Pretty simple, huh? So even if there is a post failure, you can pull out your study Bible and read anyway. Don't have a Lutheran Study Bible? Check it out here.

Now, on to our daily reading:

Read Genesis 3

How different things were now after the Fall! Oh, that they had never disobeyed God! Great birth pains, thorns and thistles, labor, toil, and sweat, and in the end a return to dust. Death is now the end of life. Not a natural "part of life" as some might say, but a cruel, harsh destruction of life. Death was not part of God's creation. Death is a corruption of it.

In sin, humanity is cursed. And all creation with it.

But, "the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them"(3:21). Their nakedness, which had once been a sign of perfection and glory, was now after the Fall a sign of shame, of guilt, and of a great need to be cared for. Now nakedness was a sign of their guilt, and dangerous (think of extreme heat and cold). But the Lord God cares. He provides. Death is a destruction of life, yes. But in the destruction and death of some animals (now a "natural" part of this fallen existence) God provides Adam and Eve humans better clothing than can be made from fig leaves.

About this, Luther comments: "Here Adam and Eve are dressed in garments by the Lord God Himself. Whenever they looked at their garments, these were to serve as a reminder to them to give thought to their wretched fall from supreme happiness into the utmost misfortune and trouble. Thus they were to be constantly afraid of sinning, to repent continually, and to sigh for the forgiveness of sins through the promised Seed. This is also why He clothed them, not in foliage or in cotton but in the skins of slain animals, for a sign that they are mortal and that they are living in certain death" (TLSB note, p. 20).

Though we too are living in certain death, we can rejoice that the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, was slain for us. He is the promised Seed, or offspring, of woman who would crush the serpent's head. Yes, he crushed the Devil in victory as He, Jesus, hung on the cross and rose from the dead. And the Devil's offspring, the Death and Hell that follow Sin, have been overcome as well. Thanks be to God for our victory in Christ!

Ask Yourself:

God not only promised a Savior but also cared for Adam and Eve's needs. What sin of yours needs to be confessed and forgiven today? Then, what needs to you have that you will ask God to meet today?

Pray:

How can I thank You, Lord,
For all your loving-kindness,
That You have patiently
Borne with me in my blindness!
When dead in many sins
And trespasses I lay,
I kindled, holy God,
Your anger ev'ry day.

It is Your work alone
That I am now converted;
O'er Satan's work in me
You have Your pow'r asserted.
Your mercy and Your grace
That rise afresh each morn
Have turned my stony heart
Into a heart newborn.

(LSB 703:1-2, Public Domain)

Study with me tomorrow,

Pastor Jon

Soli Deo Gloria!