Awaken Day 1: Introducing the First Covers

Welcome! I am so glad you decided to join me today in this series “Awaken: a heart to heart with God.” We are going to prepare ourselves to awaken to God’s cover, His voice, and His presence. None of these are small things but we often make them small and take these things for granted.

Spend time in prayer asking God to awaken your spirit to a newness with Him, that He would give you excitement for Himself and what He’s done for you. If you’ve been a believer for a while, we are hoping to dig deep in fundamental areas and revive ourselves in the knowledge of these truths. If you are a new believer, this is a great place to begin.

Awaken Day 1: Introducing the First Covers

Do you remember the time Noah got drunk? Well this week we are going to be looking at that story in Genesis, but before we start there, we need some background, so we are going to look in Genesis 3 and read about the first covers.

To get some context, read Genesis 2:15 through the end of chapter 3.

For today, we are going to focus on Genesis 3:7-10, 21:

Then 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 the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.  A serpent came along and enticed Eve to eat off of the tree of knowledge, even though God had already forbidden them from eating of it.  Once Eve ate, Adam ate, and they had committed the first sin.  Here’s what happened after they sinned:

1. Their eyes were opened.
2. They realized they were naked.
3. They sewed together fig leaves to cover themselves.
4. They became afraid and hid from God.
5. God brought them out of hiding and darkness to talk with Him.
6. God gave consequences to their sin.
7. Adam named his wife Eve.
8. God made garments of skin for them and clothed them.
9. God decided it was not good for man to both know good and evil and live forever.
10. Man was banished from the Garden of Eden to work the ground.

What I want you to think about and to notice was that after they sinned, their eyes were opened to right and wrong, to good and evil, that men and women even though they did not have a written moral code had a sense of what was good and what was evil. There was a sense of morality. They knew they were guilty and wanted to hide. They didn’t want to get caught doing something wrong, something evil, and yet their sin could not be hidden under any fig leaves, and they could not remain hidden in the trees.

For whatever reason, after sinning, Adam and Eve knew they needed a cover.  Suddenly they felt exposed, and they did not like it.  Despite sewing together fig leaves, their covering was not adequate, so God came along and graciously made a covering using animal skins.  Some-one or rather some-thing, an animal, had to die so that they could be covered. This is a foreshadowing of Jesus one day dying to cover us. Amazing, isn’t it?

Do you think God really didn’t know where they were? No, He knew exactly were they were! And yet, He gently calls them to Himself and gives them their consequences.

Spend some time praying and thanking God for how gentle He is to us in our sin – that He does not let us stay in our guilt and shame, but that He lovingly clothes and covers it with His own provision and sacrifice.