The Rake

Let’s play I Spy? I Spy (with my little eye) God’s grace in Genesis 3:21-24. Can you find it?
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the tree of life.

It’s hard to spy God’s grace here. No wonder, with terms like, “banished, not allowed, and drove out.” Adam and Eve were blissfully naked, ate God forbidden fruit, saw their nudity as embarrassing, God was disappointed and they were kicked out. Okay, so where do we spy God’s grace in that?

In verse 21, God made them clothing. They disobeyed God’s command, shifted the blame and tried to hide the evidence. It’s obvious God was disappointed and possibly even hurt and yet God makes them clothes? I can just imagine what I would tell Adam and Eve, “See, I told you not to eat that fruit. I know you feel awkward being naked. That is why I told you to stay away from that tree. Hey, don’t whine to me. I don’t know where you’re going to get something larger than a fig leaf.” With His grace God provided for them even after they utterly disobeyed Him. Psalm 103:8 says, “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. It’s easy to see God’s punishment in this passage, yet in the midst of God’s anger, we spy grace. Praise God for His abounding GRACE!