Its just a short verse in the early chapters of the bible. I suppose it often goes overlooked by readers looking for more pronounced events, yet after it grasped my attention some years ago it has become a beloved statement of God's wonderful provision toward us all... a statement of His unending love for the fallen.
I've written about it, preached about it, and taught it to people in their living rooms. It is a beautiful illustration of the great cost of redemption and when the spiritual impetus is present has often brought both the student and the teacher to tears. It is a statement that brings the reader (if the meaning is caught) to a face to face understanding of the hopelessness that pervades all our lives... and with the means of hope that was mercifully placed within our grasp.
The book of Genesis begins with God creating all of the world we live in and all that live in it with us. While not every individual thing created was mention, all things fit into the categories that are mentioned. Light, atmosphere, land, plants, animals and man were all spoken of in creation's account. The sun and moon and stars are all mentioned in the days of creation's record. A garden home was spoken of and a serpent who invaded it. But no where do we read that God made coats of skin.
Man and woman fell into sin and disobedience... and into the sentence already spoken... even before their misdeeds took place. Shame fell upon their nakedness... guilt entered their consciousness. They were lost in their dilemma and sought means to rectify it. They sewed clothes together from fig leaves and their physical nakedness was covered. But the nakedness of their exposed souls was not.
When the voice of God was heard nearing the Garden home of the sinners, they sought further refuge... refuge for their souls. They hid themselves in the trees of the garden. They were not ready to meet their friend... God.
God found them with both judgment and pity. After a father confronted His children he declared their consequences and their means of restoration. Without even saying the obvious... that the fig leaves would not cover them adequately... He covered them with something that would be. He placed upon each of them something that was not His. He did not create coats of skin. They belonged to an animal... an animal that would die in the place of the garden couple. We too would need to be clothed with the covering of the slain one... JESUS.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. Genesis 3:21
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