The Moment of Covering

The Moment of Covering

10/14/15

All of us need to be covered for many reasons at some point in our lives.  A covering resembles warmth and protection when things are no longer cozy.  But what we turn towards to cover ourselves says a lot about where our loyalties and beliefs lie and this pattern has held incredibly true ever since the dawn of mankind.  It is displayed in the Garden of Eden and can be readily found in our own lives today.  We need to take stock in what we cover ourselves for it says a lot about who we are and what we believe our trust is placed.

Most of have heard the story about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and how they walked and talked with God every day.  This is a phenomenon that just boggles my mind every time that I think about it.  To have the ability to see and to talk with God every day, on a routine basis, both entities being on an equal plane and being able to find out the knowledge of the entire creative universe on a spiritual and eternal basis.  Stop and thin about this unique position that Adam and Eve were in, talk about the epitome of utopia. 

I know that I have never had the awesome pleasure of seeing God and while I am gazing at His face being able to talk with Him.  Adam and Eve had this type of setting every day, a personal relationship like no other has had before.  And it is this setting that sets the tone and stage for the topic of this article.  We do not know exactly how many conversations that God with Adam and Eve before the fall of man but it would be safe to say that there were numerous occasions that these meetings took place.  There would have been countless topics that they covered with God explaining His ways and laws to them; see, a Creator just does not hand over dominion to someone that they do not know or understand so these types of talks must have occurred.

At first it is tough to believe that Adam and Eve would not have the desire or discipline to not deviate from God’s authority especially when God Himself walked with them every day.  But on the other hand, it is easy for us to understand this process because all of us have done the exact same thing when it comes to our personal authority over our lives, our parents.  We have all betrayed their trust, lied to them and rebelled against their wishes and rules, and when one puts into this perspective it becomes a little more realistic to believe.  But still, God was with them every day, one would think that the circumstances would be a little different; but when you deal with humans.

Our parents have a tendency to be more on the authoritative side of our lives than our friends do.  Even though God was not always serious He did have a job to complete by instructing Adam and Eve how to live and how to take care of things that were around them.  Now, we must ask ourselves that at first this job title and the job itself must have been exciting to have but with time it must have become a little less exciting to both of them.  While the conversations were continuing with God, Satan must have been waiting for the opportune time to make his advance towards the humans, and that he did.

On the other side of the issues, we all know that friends play a large role in the decisions that we make, even the decisions that should not be even in play, you know those that come from our parents.  Yet, in many cases we take the opinions of our friends because it sounds better or their options will represent an easier road to take.  We know that Satan is the eternal enemy of God and in turn our existence makes him our eternal enemy as well.  It is also well documented that some of the people we deem as “friends” have other motives for their presence and we miss this truth about these “friends” all the time.  It is evident that Satan was already working his cunning deviance while he was talking with Adam and Eve, establishing a false relationship between them and only desiring one wish, the separation from God.

As God has shared with us previously, Adam and Eve had to be curious enough about the options that Satan was discussing or they would have had nothing to do with the serpent.  Nor would Eve have deliberately lied about what God had told her about the tree, yet it was through this statement by Eve that gave Satan the necessary door to move to the next step and we all know what occurred next in the lives of Adam and Eve.  Satan used his cunning deliverance of God’s words towards Eve and allowed her to make the choice to violate the truth, which she readily did.

I am going back a bit and refresh our memory about a certain command that God gave to Adam and Eve and that was that God gave Adam dominion over the animals, plants and the earth.  This command was given to Adam in Genesis 1:26 stating the following: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”  This basically covers all things that God had made other than mankind.  This means that we as humans have authority over the trees and animals.  The definition of dominion is as follows: sovereignty or control.

This is a huge issue since this command places mankind over these other created things and therefore we should not be subject to these things in any manner.  This is where the evidence comes to light in that the relationship between Adam, Eve and Satan had strengthened enough that once the truth had been revealed to Adam and Eve that they continued to follow the world instead of God.  It must have been incredibly tragic when their eyes were opened and they knew immediately that that they had messed up permanently.  It also brings into motion of how humans react when they know that they have been found out, they avoid the parents as long as possible.

This means one of two situations can occur.  The first one and more common at that moment when God issued this law is that mankind has full dominion over everything else, dominating in a perfect and unique place for eternity.  There would be no worry or concern about the present or future conditions for they would already be provided by the Gardener.  The second setting would be one of complete humility by being dominated by the very object that you were given dominion over in the beginning. In this state, mankind would be in total bondage to the environment for coverage and would have to continuously worry about living in such manner.

In this case, Adam and Eve realized that they were naked and that they needed to cover themselves before God.  This was never an issue before even though they had the same choices as before, but now their lives had been changed forever.  The Bible then states that Adam and Eve covered themselves with leaves to hide their nakedness and for the first time had a reason to hide from God.  It was not like they did not know God was going to arrive, for He had been consistent for as long as they could remember.  Now, this ends the prelude to the article and the reasoning behind the leaf can be presented.

Didn’t you know that Adam and Eve looked ridiculous when they came from behind the trees with those leaves around their bodies.  Even though God knew exactly what had transpired He made them explain their actions and rightly so.  The blame game began and excuses flew, but no one admitted their mistakes to their Creator but continued to hide behind the leaves. With this logic in place the question becomes this: how could they see anything else but subjection to the world?  Instead of obeying God’s words in the first place and allowing God to be their covering, they totally believed the “friend’s” beliefs and explanations instead.  Thus, they had to follow suit and find the next best covering which was leaves for their covering.

The word dominion is a Kingdom word because it gives authority to whomever or whatever for it is used.  Therefore, whoever dominion is given that means that they should never be subject to the things they have dominion over.  Yet, Adam and Eve covered themselves with an object that they had dominion over which placed them in complete subjection to the leaves and of the world.  As God stood there and looked at them He must have shook His head and wondered why they had forgotten all of the topics that they all had discussed previously.  In this one act mankind had taken their rightful place in dominion and placed their trust and honor into a dominated object, totally ignoring their Creator’s laws.  Can you hear the laughing going on from the “friends” section in the Garden?

Why would anyone become subject to anything that they have been placed in dominion over?  It makes no sense!  Adam and Eve knew who their Creator was and what His words meant to their existence.  Why turn to a leaf?  It says a lot about the influence on and the relationship with Adam and Eve had with Satan for they were ready to abandon it all for a loser.  One can even argue that the birth of extreme environmentalism began here when the human was challenged with the truth.

When God placed mankind into the Garden it was His idea to protect them in every way possible from all sin.  God, the Creator of everything was the covering that was around Adam and Eve.  One law was in place, daily conversations with the Divine Gardener and an eternal and painless state of living all encompassed this covering.  And it was through this moment of covering that mankind made their choice to live being dominated instead of dominion.

However, as God had already put into place a restoration plan, He began to turn the hearts of Adam and Eve back towards Him but instead of them being in the perfect state, they had to follow further rules outside the Garden.  The tables turned and life was different, a new type of covering had to be established and this time the life blood would have to be shed.

Today, many people still turn to the leaf instead of the Creator of that leaf.  Each day more and more people run for this worldly covering voluntarily.  By doing so we are blinding ourselves to the truth of our existence and following the covering of a defeated being.  We cannot afford to hide behind the leaf any longer; we must walk back into covering with God.  We have become comfortable with being dominated by objects that we should have dominion over, this makes no sense at all.  God makes all the sense in the world and of the world and He alone shall open our eyes to the truth if we only repent and recognize His authority and covering.  We do not need to live defeated lives, there is victory for us if we choose it.

There is nothing good from this world and even though many people shall choose to ignore God and His covering all of us will one day have to face the music and take off our leaves, stand before God in our original created state and account for everything we have done.  If we repent and turn back to God, He is faithful to forgive us for the wrongdoings that we have committed, but if we do not repent there is nothing He can do for us and we will have to face the same banishment as Adam and Eve faced when they were thrown from the Garden.  Take this passage to heart and study it further for it has the basis of life written in it.  I have been writing for over three years now and have not been able to leave the book of Genesis, there is so much more that God wants to share with us.

The choices are clear and the question is simple: which covering will you choose to be under?

DLB