Read Luke 1:5-25

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Genesis 3:21

A Ugandan pastor tells the story of the day his father kicked him out of the house. The young man had grown restless and disrespectful, thinking he knew better than his father. His father told him to leave the family home and directed him to a hut at the edge of his property. He provided his son with enough goats to start his own herd. At the time, being forced from the family home felt like a punishment, but later the son was able to see how his father’s gracious provision allowed him to mature and to learn how to be a man.

God’s treatment of Adam and Eve following their rebellion was a severe but fitting punishment. Because they had not cooperated with God’s rulership, the woman’s body wouldn’t cooperate with her attempts to bear children; the ground would not cooperate with the man’s attempts to bear fruit. Even their relationship would be defined by tension and frustration (v. 16). Their lives would become a constant struggle against death, reminding them of the dust from which they were made and the low position to which they would return.

But embedded in the punishment was a gracious provision. As a wise Father of prodigal children, God cut them loose to fend for themselves, kicking them out of the garden to work the ground (v. 23). His goal was their eventual return to Him as humbled children. And despite the frustrations to their labor, He also promised that they would succeed in bearing children and producing food.

By faith Adam clung to this promise, giving his wife a name to match their new hope in life (v. 20). And in love God covered their shame, sacrificing the lives of animals to clothe them for their new status in life.

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