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!
About Me
- Grace
- My life revolves mostly around career ministry - writing, speaking, and fulfilling my responsibilities for International Messengers (raising awareness of short-term ministry opportunities in Eastern Europe, training volunteers, and then traveling to EE for ministry). I absolutely love doing these things, knowing that they're God's divine assignments for me. But at the end of each trip away from home, there's no sweeter joy than being reunited with my family, whether it be my husband or grown kids and their families. There truly is no place like home.
1 comment:
I just had to reply to "A Cover-up!"
This is one of my favorite thoughts on being redeemed. I wrote this poem June 7, 1991.
Fig Leaves
Adam and Eve, in the garden they sinned
And so they suffered grief.
In guilt they grasped for a covering-
'Twas only a small fig leaf.
God sees beyond our fig leaves
That we use to hide behind.
He knows the human heart of man
So stubborn and so blind.
He offers a land to enter
So full of peace and rest-
And the only way to go there
Is by Him to be blessed.
He wants to be our Father
And His love is the way it's done.
He too wants us covered
And that covering is His Son.
Just as in the garden
When innocent blood was shed
Some skins became a covering
So now Christ for us has bled.
Only His blood can cover us
In fact it washes away our sin.
For us 'tis the land of mercy and grace-
It's by faith we enter in.
Oh what a loving Father
Who clothes us from on high.
He'll help cast off those fig leaves-
That's why Jesus had to die.
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