“Thank you, Lord, for reminding me that new insights can be found in your Word as often as I look.”
It’s so good to know that I have much more to learn from those scriptures that I’ve already read countless times.
Why is this pleasing to me? Because it shows me that the Bible really is a living document that comes to life within me no matter how many times I read it.
And that reinforces my interest each year in renewing my journey through the One-Year Bible.
I’ve noticed several new, telling insights since starting this journey, prompting me to wonder how I hadn’t picked up on these before.
Oh well…. I saw them this time around and that’s good.
One such insight that I want to share is found in Genesis 3:6-11.
I’ve known since my childhood days in Sunday School that Adam and Eve stitched together fig leaves to cover their private parts once they sinfully ate the forbidden fruit, lost their innocence and felt naked.
And I’ve known since childhood that Adam and Eve hid behind trees in the Garden of Eden when they heard God walking down the path in search of them.
What intrigued and instructed me this morning, though, was what Adam said when God asked, “Where are you?”
Remember now, Adam and Eve are clothed with garments stitched together with leaves.
Yet, this is what Adam said:
“I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Naked? Or clothed with leaves? Which was it?
It was actually both.
Even though Adam and Eve had covered the nakedness of their flesh, they still felt naked in the presence of God.
Wow.
That’s what sin does, my friend.
When our conscience reveals to us that we’ve been duped by the Devil, our pride attempts to cover the damage in a way that we don’t feel guilty.
And apart from the presence of God’s Spirit and revealing Word, we might even feel OK. After all, look at all the people around us wearing hand-stitched fig leaves in one form or another.
Some people craft fig leaves in the form of personal popularity with peers.
Others craft fig leaves in the form of material prosperity that fuels ego.
And there are those who craft fig leaves with upwardly mobile careers.
When we encounter an approaching God, though, our fig leaves are failed veils.
God knows the truth of our sin, and so do we.
That’s why we hide rather than run to Him for cleansing and covering.
If you’ve been duped by the Devil with a recent choice, don’t reach for fig leaves.
Don’t hide in the bushes, thinking that God is blind and stupid.
He sees you and me before, during and after our sins.
Our spiritual nakedness is not hidden from Him just as it is not hidden from us.
There’s one remedy for tasting forbidden fruit — the covering provided by God.
That’s the blood of Jesus that takes away the sin of the world.
Including yours and mine.
Be clothed with Christ. (Galatians 3:27).
Confess Him as Savior with your lips and be covered by His blood in baptism.
That way, you won’t have to hide from God when you sense His approach, but instead you can run to Him as your Abba Father.
As always, I love you
Martin
