Lessons in Leather: Genesis 3:21 and Unfading Promises
God's use of death, common elements and Fatherly care in the divine narrative.
Setting the Scene
Genesis 3 is one of the most tragic accounts in the Biblical narrative. God creates all things for His glory and declares it good, before creating man to have perfect, glorious rule over His creation, thereafter declaring it very good (1:31).
We know how the story unfolds from there. The serpent whispers in the ear of the woman, seducing her to the ever-present sin of doubting God’s provision and eating the forbidden fruit. She gives some to her husband and he eats, and the fracture lines immediately appear.
And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. (Gen. 3:7 LSB)
The state of free, shameless communion with God which had been all that Adam and Eve had known (2:25) is the first thing to go, as they immediately seek to hide themselves in fig leaves. Their eyes have been opened (3:5) and their previous communion has turned to shame as they scramble to hide themselves from the presence of God, as He seeks them out.
“The state of free, shameless communion with God which had been all that Adam and Eve had known is the first thing to go.”
Essays could be written on the exquisite typology of God calling out to them after their sin (3:9), but here the focus will be on an easily overlooked verse that follows on from 2:25. The Judge speaks with Adam, Eve and the Serpent and finds them guilty of treason. All God’s perfect creation immediately groans under the weight of the Curse, as though it has had the air knocked out of its lungs.
Directly after this, The Lord God makes tunics out of animal hide, dressing Adam and his wife in them. (3:21)
Then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. (Gen. 3:21 LSB)
This strange instance of kindness seems almost jarring: a brief matter-of-fact statement wedged between the Curse against Adam and mankind's banishment from the Garden. However, nestling in this action is a blessing, a warning and a divine statement of love, justice and redemption that will span thousands of years.
God’s Care for the Banished
The first thing to note is that God’s first action after cursing the Earth in which Adam will live out his days, is an act of tender, fatherly provision.
Through their sin, Adam and Eve are severed from the Garden, from the physical (3:8) presence of their Creator. Their rebellion against an infinitely glorious God has rippled through the cosmos, leaving cracks and chasms and whispers of death in every shadowy place on Earth. It seems as though their Paradise is crumbling around them. Yet God in His mercy seems to break in between His awful utterance of the Curse and His declaration of their banishment and stoops down to Adam’s height. The thunder of His voice ceases for a moment and with infinitely powerful yet gentle hands, He tenderly wraps a hairy cloak of leather about Adam and Eve’s bodies.
One must imagine Adam and Eve remembering this moment for centuries until they returned to dust. In what must have been the saddest day of their lives even as, Esau-esque, they had squandered their inheritance for a mouthful, Yahweh God bends down and promises to remain a Father to them. “You must go”, He says to Adam. “You will endure thorns and thistles as you toil for bread (3:18), but I will keep the thorns from biting your bones and the thistles from choking your crop.” Millennia later, the incarnation of the Serpent-Crusher and Curse-Lifter Himself would be heralded by one crying out in the wilderness, who would come garbed in an Adam-esque tunic of rough camel-hide. (Mark 1:6)
God has filled our weary life below with reminders of His love and mercy revealed to Adam and the sons of Adam. As you dress for work in the morning, recall how God clothed Adam with not only clothes fitted for his work - but shod him also with a promise of faithfulness and love to a thousand generations. As the sons of Adam thousands of years later, we can thank God for the continuation of this blessing to us. God Almighty will never leave us nor forsake us. (Deut. 31:6)
“Millennia later, the incarnation of the Serpent-Crusher and Curse-Lifter Himself would be heralded by one crying out in the wilderness, who would come garbed in a Adam-esque tunic of rough camel-hide.”
God’s Bracing of the Banished
The second thing to note: God’s kindness to Adam and Eve also serves as a veiled warning about the new nature of the world.
He does not give them more fig leaves, barely adequate to conceal and protect, but he clothes them in thick, durable hide. This is not a world in which leafy foliage will suffice to keep them safe, and Adam and Eve are not capable of protecting themselves with their current knowledge. God Himself will clothe them in armour to withstand the thorns and thistles in which they now live and work. He will blunt the bite of the Serpent (Num. 21:8-9) and boot the heel that will crush him.
In the midst of the Curse, God provides today for His saints who toil on Earth. He has promised us tribulation in the world, yet our shield and sword in the face of it is that in the death and resurrection of His Son, He has overcome the world! (Jn. 16:33) We are not yet glorified in linen robes and we still eat by the sweat of our brow, but He sustains those who call on Him not merely with coarse leather garments - but the entire armour of God. Therefore, Christian, take heart and put on! For this is how we stand firm against the schemes of the Devil. (Eph. 6:10-18)
These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world. (Jn. 16:33 LSB)
God’s Promise to the Banished
The most essential gleaning from this act is this: That blood must be shed for the covering of shame.
Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve are unashamed in their nakedness before God (2:25.) With the Fall comes a tragic loss of innocence that results in shame, as they scramble to clothe themselves in fig leaves to conceal their state before God. This seems to be an appropriate response, but the Lord deems their tailoring inadequate, as He clothes them Himself. This is the first death in a freshly shattered world: God kills an animal before Adam and Eve and garbs them in its hide. Matthew Henry posits that this is also the first act of atoning sacrifice: the skin is given to Adam and Eve, and the flesh is given as an offering to the Lord1. This foreshadows the sacrificial system instituted later at Sinai, where in atonement for the people's sins, the blood of innocent animals must be shed.
Like the sacrificial system, this also typifies the death of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God Himself. Like the (supposed) sacrifice of the unknown beast here in Genesis 3:21, the body of God the Son is humbled and broken as an atonement offering. This is a pleasant aroma in the nostrils of God, by which the sins of the believing are forgiven (Jn. 3:14-16; Eph. 5:2.) Jesus’ death, like that of the beast, is shared with us. Instead of being clothed in coarse, tough hide, God clothes us in glory-white robes that are washed in the blood of Calvary’s Lamb: the ultimate, final atoning sacrifice. Through this act of clothing, our sins and shame are not merely covered and concealed, but they are cast away from us entirely! They are hurled into the depths of the sea (Mic. 7:18-19.) They are removed from us as far as the East is from the West - a distance which, unlike North to South, is immeasurable (Ps. 103:12.)
Christian, the unnamed, innocent creature in Genesis was put to death so that Adam and Eve could be covered in God’s presence. The spotless livestock were put to death in Israel so that God’s people could be declared right before Him. The perfect, beautiful, innocent Son of God died the death of a criminal so that you and I could be wrapped in the everlasting Mercy of God, which is unchanged from age to age. The God of Adam is the God of Israel is the God of the Church, and His steadfast love endureth forever - from then, to now, to eternity (Ps. 136.)
Put on Jesus Christ! Through faith, through the sacraments, through the ordinary means of grace (Gal. 3:27.) Wrap yourself in the rich mercies of Jesus Christ through the given means of word and water, bread and wine. Unite yourself to the One who clothes us with armour fitted for war here below, and royal robes for eternal rest with Him above.
By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb. 10:10 LSB)
Reflections on Leather
One legacy of modern culture, (especially among Reformed men,) is the use of leather. We make bags out of it, jackets and shoes and even wrap our Bibles in it. It’s a rich thing to handle a supple, aromatic leather-bound copy of the Word, and there is no harm in using this to remind you of what’s been written above. The next time you pick up your leather Bible, the next time you sling your leather jacket or bag around your shoulders - Remember God’s mercy and love toward a sinful Adam and Eve back in the Garden. Remember how He clothed them in a type of leather so that their shame could be hidden before God. Then rejoice, remembering how Christ has covered you in not just the same, but so much more.
“The beasts whose skins they were must be slain, slain before their eyes, to show them what death is, and (as it is Eccl. 3:18) that they may see that they themselves were beasts, mortal and dying. It is supposed that they were slain, not for food, but for sacrifice, to typify the great sacrifice, which, in the latter end of the world, should be offered once for all. Thus the first thing that died was a sacrifice, or Christ in a figure, who is therefore said to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” -Henry, M. (2021). Complete Commentary on the Bible: Genesis. Independent.