Who shed the first blood in the Bible? Did you guess God? Genesis 3:21 says, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”
When God rested on the 7th day of creation, he saw everything he had made was good. Adam and Eve were without sin, in a sinless world, living in perfect freedom. Genesis 2 ends declaring “ And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Perfect peace. Perfect harmony.
Chapter 3 opens with Satan entering the Garden. The accuser, the deceiver, our great adversary came on the prowl telling his lies and deceiving Eve by convincing her God didn’t really mean what he said he meant when he forbade eating from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Believing the lie of Satan that God was holding out on her, she took the fruit. Adam, with eyes wide open, rebelled against God, knowing full well what he was doing. They ate. Immediately their eyes were open. They saw. They saw evil from the perspective of a sinner. They saw holiness from the perspective of unholy. They saw God as a judge. They saw the command as accusator. Not only did they see, but they died. Spiritually, they died and will now come the sentence of physical death, just as God had promised.
Naked, and now exposed and open and vulnerable, they quickly hid to cover their shame. A new experience, guilt and feeling shame. Before, their rebellion they lived in perfect innocence. They had no reason to be ashamed. But their sin had opened their eyes, their shame is now uncovered and they wanted nothing more than to hide. Ever felt like that? You cover your shame. Whether by deleting your browser history, or by lying about what you do on the weekends, or drowning out your conscience with entertainment, you cover your shame. Being open and exposed is embarrassing and guilt ridden.
God could have come with immediate justice and killed Adam and Eve. Yes, he judges the serpent. And the man and the woman and the earth. Cursed. But in the curse there is a promise, there is grace. One will come and destroy the serpent and give life (Genesis 3:15). But what about Adam and Eve, in their preposterous fig leaf disguise? That won’t do. The works of their hands just won’t cover the shame. So we have the first shedding of blood. God Himself made coats of skins and clothed them. Through the shedding of the blood of these animals, God made provision to cover the shame of these sinners. God sacrificed the animal so Adam and Eve’s sins could be covered. God came in grace, and through the shedding of blood, showed us there is an answer to the sin problem. You can’t cover your shame in your own works, but only through Christ, and only through the shedding of blood.
