Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together… This one act, this one feeling, was, above all things, expressive of the fall of the whole condition of man as he now is; it is the sense of something within which we wish to hide. For it has been said that there is no man who would not rather die than that all which he knows of himself should be known to the world. It is the want of a covering which we so deeply and thoroughly feel. Our souls must needs dwell apart, isolated in this their own consciousness of ill. So that when we turn for sympathy to each other, yet language conceals as much as it expresses; and when we turn to God, our prayers immediately take the form of confession, though it be but to confess what we know that He knows; yet it is expressive of a burden which we feel, and which we most of all wish to get rid of; and in turning to Him our feeling is, "Thou art a place to hide me in": "Thou shalt hide me by Thine own Presence." "Hide me," — but from what? Not from other men only, but from ourselves. And what are the pursuits of busy life, but to hide from ourselves this our internal want and shame? "Thou sayest I am rich, and knowest not that thou art miserable, and blind, and naked." And what is the great dread of death? It is chiefly connected with this divesting and stripping off of all disguises, and going naked into the land of spirits. "For in this, our earthly house, we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon"; "if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened." Hence the glory of the redeemed is to be "clothed" — to be "clothed in white raiment before the throne," and to "walk with Christ in white." The law of nature has become hallowed into the law of grace. "Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked." Our great care is that we be not "found naked." The judgment and condemnation is, "Thy nakedness shall be uncovered." Further, another expression here in the text is remarkable and emphatic — "made for themselves"; "made for themselves," in distinction from the covering of God. It is fruitless, and worse, to strive to hide ourselves from ourselves and God. "Woe unto him, saith the Lord, that cover with a covering, but not of My spirit." It is in this our great want He has visited us: "When thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee"; under the sense of sin I succoured thee, and "thou shalt see greater things than these." His comings to us are called Epiphanies and Manifestations, as dissipating all vain disguises of the soul. It is said, "He will destroy the face of the covering east over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." He unclothes us, that we may be clothed upon by Himself, "that mortality might be swallowed up of life." (I. Williams, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. |
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