Road to Emmaus: Animal Hides

Jevon Martin: yeah. ⁓ you just we'll rack a roll and then we'll Yeah. We'll do the whole thing. Yep, see what happens. All right. ⁓ All right, good afternoon, Waterway Church. I am Jesse. That is Jevon. Hey. We are sitting here on a Tuesday afternoon in the Waterway studio, also known as the Waterway Prayer Room, and we are recording ourselves talking. Jevon, why are we recording ourselves talking? Yeah, so as you might have heard in our sermons the past two weeks, we're going through a series we're calling the ⁓ the road to Emmaus. Is this the one? Kind of that idea the disciples walk along with Jesus and say, We thought he was the one. And Jesus went through scriptures. And showed them all the ways that that he was revealed in the Old Testament. And as we kind of talked about it and we were excited about the sermon series, and we were putting down our ideas about okay, what can we preach on? The list just is so big of all the all the ways. And ⁓ so so we were like, hey, you know, maybe if we do this podcast, we can give you guys a taste of some of the other things that we don't cover on Sunday morning in the sermons. And you'll notice actually on the on our wall and in the Back on our path, we have these smaller pictures that'll be appearing, and those will be related to the things that we talk about here in these podcast series. So just trying to help give a full picture for all the ways that Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament because it's just it's it's awesome how much ⁓ the old testament refers to him, talks about them, and really just makes that plan known all just even up to Jesus' coming. So, yeah, and so on Sunday mornings we're gonna preach about these different events in the Old Testament, and those get a big picture. Picture throughout the week. We're thinking about podcasts for some of the little events in between. Those will get a little picture. But today, one of the little events is actually found in Genesis chapter 3. Two weeks ago, Jevon talked about Adam and Eve and the serpent in the garden, and we saw how sin was introduced into the human race. This past week I talked about Cain and Abel and how Cain killed his brother Abel after he was jealous about offerings and all that kind of stuff that didn't go very well. But in between those stories, there is the This story about humans trying to cover themselves up and then God helping out. It actually comes from Genesis chapter 3. I'm just gonna read two different verses, Genesis three and then Genesis three, seven, and then three, seven. Genesis three-seven and three twenty-one. We're new with this. You don't have to be very patient with this. But in Genesis 3 7, the serpent is talking to Eve, and Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, and so she gave, she ate some, she gave some to her husband. It says in Genesis 3 7, the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then they heard the sound of the Lord God. God came into the garden and said, Adam and Eve, where are you? What did you do? And we know that God doesn't ask questions to get information. knows everything. He's having a conversation with him trying to get across the point that what they did was wrong. But after there are some curses and God speaks to Adam and to Eve and to the serpent, it says this in 321. It says the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Jevon, how many ⁓ pairs of leather pants do you have? I none. None? None. The Lord has not provided you with any pants. So I'm I I think it's an interesting thing. It's a minor point. It's just these two verses here. Adam and Eve sinned and suddenly they were aware of their nakedness. Yeah. It seems as if they've been naked the whole time. They've been running around in Eden and everything is perfect. The conditions are perfect. The weather is perfect. They just pick food off the tree and eat it whenever they want to. Apparently there's no need for any covering. Yeah. Now all that sin has entered the human race, they look at each other and they're aware They feel ashamed, they feel embarrassed, nervous, they feel bad. And so they try to cover themselves up. Right. And what do they cover themselves up with? Fig leaves. Fig leaves. Have you ever made clothing out of fig leaves? I have not. I don't know how that works. I don't know. I don't know. Did they sew I don't know how you get good coverage with fig leaves? Did they sew it? Did they tie it? Did they weave it together? I don't know. But they made coverings out of fig leaves. And this is the first event of human hiding. ⁓ it's Interesting, not only do they hide their bodies, but they hear God coming and they try to hide themselves. why? Yeah, and yeah. Because of sin, right? Because the because their nakedness, their be the their sin is being laid bare before them, right? Their sinful nature. I I find it interesting how it's it could be easy for us to kind of look back at that and be like, Well, what's going on here? There's this shame piece. But we we do the same things with our sin. Sure. We often find when our lies are exposed or whatever, we try to hide it. I mean I I get a kick out of my kids. We cover it up, right? Right, right. It's the cover up story. Right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's what that's what's going on here. I think you're exactly right. Yeah, so we've got Adam and Eve, they have they have sinned. God has called them out for that. And ⁓ they cover themselves up, probably not very well. It's fig leaves. They try to hide, not very well. God still finds them. ⁓ and after after some curses are levied and they're told that they may not stay in the Garden of Eden, before God just sends them out in nothing but their skin. He clothes them. It says he clothes them with animal skins. Right. Right. Right. ⁓ animal skins, now I did in my studies this week, I thought it was interesting. one fellow said that God can create anything out of nothing. We know that God created the universe, ex nihilo, right? Out of nowhere. so God may have been able to create these clothes of skins interesting without killing something. Yeah. I always kind of read it and figured, well, where do you get skin from? You get it from an animal. Right. Right. And we know all through the Old Testament, and and again, this is kind of pushing forward as we look through scripture and even look forward to you know the lamb who was slain. We know that. Oftentimes it takes death to cover up the the shame that we all of those sacrifices in the old testament that they had to do. Exactly right. This seems like it may have been the first one. Right. At least that's how I read it. I don't know how you read it. There may be other details that we could pull out. Right. But here before God sends them out into the world that is now going to be difficult to farm, there's going to be weeds, there's going to be thorns. They only eat by the sweat of their brow. God provides for them clothing of skin. Mm-hmm. And I don't know if that's like a Davy Crockett, you know, coon skin hat, leather, you know, buckskin kind of clothing. ⁓ don't know what kind of animal this came from, whether it was leather, whether it was something from sheep, whether it was some kind of wool or I don't know. We so so in other words have you learned anything about that in your studies? No, no, I have not. But in other words, something had to had to die. It sure seems like it. To to cover for their sin, right? New Testament. Can you see where we're going here? This stuff? Fun, right? Two little verses here in Genesis 3, and it's all pushing forward to kind of giving us hints, foreshadowing stuff that we're going to see really come into fruition with Jesus. But God gives them these new clothes because God recognizes they're going out into a difficult world. Conditions are not as perfect as they have been, they're going to need to be covered up. I mean, imagine doing your hard work right with no clothing on. I mean, how many of you have like specialized clothing that you go to work, you have to wear this kind of shoes or this kind of hat or these kinds of Kind of gloves or glasses. Right. We would prefer our coworkers to show up with clothes on as well. I am very thankful that you did. Yeah. But I mean, this is the kind of thing we're seeing that that oftentimes there is some kind of a sacrifice that has to take place to cover our sin and cover our nakedness. And we can see that in Jesus Christ. His sacrifice covers our sins. Right. But even here just in Genesis 3, we see this very practical example of not just our sins being taken care of, but But God meets a very practical need too. I mean, Adam and Eve needed clothes. And before God again just kind of kicks them out on their own, he at least gives them this protection. Right. They didn't, they didn't deserve that. Absolutely not. God could have just said, get out of my garden, go figure it out. Exactly right. Exactly right. But instead of Adam and Eve killing the first animal, it appears that God did. Which is a whole nother set of things. You know, we have all kinds of human and animal relationships that are very interesting. Yeah. ⁓ but here very clearly God says humans are more important than animals because he's willing to kill an animal to clothe them. He also, he also recognizes that he's not going to require them to kill to be able to take care of themselves. Interesting. He provides and takes care of of their needs. I think there's a lot of stuff there that we could dig into if we really wanted to pull apart Genesis three. Yeah. I love the contrast too of the the fig leaves that they made for themselves versus what God provided and and just how piddly those fig leaves were. Piddly, is that a theological term? I don't think it's in the Bible. No, but you're exactly right. Yeah, yeah. Just how how just think about how scant those those fig leaves would have been and how well covering those those leather hides would have been. Yeah, God's provision is always better. Right. Right. I mean, we try to take care of ourselves sometimes when we we sin and mess up, we try to fix it ourselves, but really all we can do is just repent and rely on God's grace. but again all this stuff just keeps pushing forward. We're in the third chapter of the Bible. Right. It just keeps pushing forward and giving us hints and clues about the one who is going to come. And how awesome this is that in the third chapter of Bible we're already getting evidence of God's grace and provision. for this sin that was just laid bare. Yeah. In chapter three. Yeah. Yeah. And ⁓ of course that that's all gonna be somewhat partial, you know, all the way through the Old Testament. We see the events here in Genesis where people are trying to figure it out. God helps, we see in the book of Exodus, and then later in Deuteronomy, we see God brings the law and more sacrifices are called for to cover over the sins of humanity. ⁓ And then of course Jesus' perfect sacrifice covers all of our sins. Yeah. ⁓ but ⁓ this is gonna be fun to unfold as we see the old testament continue to push us towards Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well ⁓ I'm Jevon. This is Jesse, and that's what we have for you today on our sermon series Road to Emmaus podcast series. Podcast series. Come back on Sunday. We'll get the next big topic. We'll see what the big picture is. Yeah. Sounds good. Join us on our Road to Emmaus. See ya. Yeah. What do you think? ⁓

Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 3 · chapter mention