Friday
Friday
Glimpses of Grace
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” … The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Genesis 3:8–9, 21
The situation is now dire, and the prospect bleak. Adam and Eve have rebelled against God’s authority; they can expect only to reap the harvest of their own wrongdoing. But against this background of sin, guilt, and judgment, glimpses of grace begin to appear.
Firstly, the Lord God “was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” The day’s work was over. The Lord was taking his customary evening stroll. Normally, we may assume, Adam and Eve accompanied him. But now they were nowhere to be seen, for they had gone into hiding. Yet he continued his walk seeking, searching for the missing couple.
Next, “The LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” Nowadays the roles tend to be reversed, and we talk about man’s search for God. But the reality is that God is searching for man. While Adam and Eve were hiding among the trees, the Lord God missed them, sought them, and called out after them.
Thirdly, although the self-conscious nakedness of Adam and Eve was their fault, being due to their disobedience, the Lord God felt for them in their shame and wanted to do something to alleviate it. So he “made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (v. 21). Now, skin would be available only after the killing of an animal. Is it then hinted at here, as it is plainly taught elsewhere, that the covering of human guilt in forgiveness is possible only through the shedding of blood in sacrifice, thus foreshadowing salvation through the blood of Christ? Maybe. But what is explicit is that God determined to give Adam and Eve a covering far better than they could give themselves, providing them with his own personally tailored skin garments in place of their aprons of flimsy fig leaves. In each case God took the initiative, and the proper name for an unmerited divine initiative is grace.
For further reading: Psalm 32:1–7