Pastor John,
I want to share what the Lord helped me to understand today.
I was bagging up winter work clothes, getting things ready for warmer weather when I found myself standing in front of the mirror in our back bedroom. I paused there for a moment to look at myself, and as I did I considered, for the first time that I can ever recall, why it is that I was wearing clothing. I know the story of Adam and Eve, but it wasn’t until that moment in front of the mirror that I realized what my clothing meant. My clothing meant that mankind determined at a point in history that it was unacceptable to be seen in the skin that God had lovingly made for him, and that it needed to be covered up! I marveled at this. I thought “Lord, what other creature on Earth feels modest about the skin that you gave him? A chicken doesn’t seek out a covering for its body, nor does a fish or a cat or a dog.”
I just marveled at the fact that we feel the need to wear a covering over our skin, because I realized that the feeling of shame for having our skin exposed, and even the very idea that we are exposed or naked without clothing, is contrary to the order being experienced by every other living creature here on Earth. I realized, really realized, something had happened to make us go against that order that all other creatures in God’s creation are in-step with. No other living creature here on Earth, is ashamed to be seen in his skin.
For the rest of the day, and into this evening, I felt God filling in the gaps of my understanding, so that I could better take in what it was that I had seen and felt today.
What I understood today, is what I am hoping to share:
Men didn’t start out feeling the need for clothing, no more than fish do, or chickens, cats, dogs, and so on. Nakedness didn’t exist in the beginning – our skin and its design was good and clean and holy, it was our covering given to us by our loving Father, and there was no other way to think about it.
Man didn’t begin to feel the need to cover his body, until he started having wrong feelings and thoughts about his/her body. When man partook of the tree of good and evil, it allowed him to experience wrong thoughts, feelings, and ideas about everything, including the holy purpose for his wonderful body. Adam and Eve no longer saw their bodies as only perfect gifts crafted in love for them by their Father and Creator.
Their newfound and ungodly “knowledge,” caused them to see their bodies in a different light, and they covered themselves for it. By covering their bodies, they were trying to cover their new and ungodly feelings. Unable to cover their ungodly desires, they instead covered the objects of their desire.
Man has been doing that ever since.
Men lock away their money because they know men are incapable of locking away their desire to steal. Men cover their bodies because they can’t cover the ungodly lusts in their hearts.
All laws and rules manufactured by men on the Earth, are a testimony to the things that he cannot rule over in his own heart.
Every rule devised by, or that is out of necessity imposed by man is a testimony that we need Jesus. Every statute in the law library of Congress is a confession to the endless number of things that we need Jesus to wash us from.
These thoughts gave me a renewed love and pity for human beings, pastor John. And a new and appropriate reverence for those who make as well as those who desire law- the carnal law of men, over chaos.
The law of man, albeit a muzzle, is still God’s influence on this Earth, and it is a blessing and holds hope for people. The laws that men continue to impose upon themselves represent a confession that he still knows and desires to do good, yet without the power to do so.
God help all of us!
Help us to repent and do it your way.
Jerry
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Hi Jerry.
God made the first coverings for man when he realized he was naked, to help man deal with the shame he had begun to feel (Gen. 3:21). He is a good God. But I wonder if there is more to the story than what you are saying, for the Bible mentions the apparel of heavenly beings, including God Himself, as well as the apparel of humans.
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they acquired knowledge, and that knowledge included an awareness that they were, in fact, naked. That knowledge made Adam and Eve realize they were superior to animals and, unlike animals, should be wearing clothes, just as God and angels do. That is one of the ways that man became “like gods”, able “to know good and evil” (Gen. 3:5, 22).
So, becoming aware of the appropriateness of being covered appears to have been part of the knowledge of good that Adam acquired, not part of the evil knowledge that became his.
Before closing, let me also point out that Jesus recommended (figurative) clothing for a wayward pastor in Revelation (Rev. 3:17-18), and throughout the Bible, spiritual nakedness is an indication of evildoing. The clothing that godly people wear is, according to what was revealed to John, “the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19:18).
Pastor John