the promise of eternal life. It is so easy to see God wanted us to know that He had a plan to cover man with the righteousness that was lost through sin.
Genesis 3:21. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. How closely this is related to the promise of eternal life. It is so easy to see God wanted us to know that He had a plan to cover man with the righteousness that was lost through sin.
The words that really caught my eye was the fact that God made the coats of skin. It is so hard to imagine God taking the life of one of His living creatures. As I thought about it I saw that God was faced with a choice. The life of those innocent animals, or two human beings, created in His own image. Some can argue that Adam actually killed the animals and made the coats. But that is not what the text says. And even if Adam had sacrificed what may have been the first of the lambs born upon this earth, wasn't it ultimately God's decision?
I started to think of that early choice. Would it have been so hard for God to simply with hold the tree of life from the two humans? Couldn't God just have removed the gift of reproduction from them and, so to speak, let nature take it's course. Just let them live put out their lives, separated from God? No, God could not give up on those created in His image.
Was that an easy decision for God to make, taking the lives of innocent animals to cover Adam and Eve? Does this also help to explain the delay in the Lord's second coming? Will the decision for Jesus to return, be any easier for God to make?
For me it sure puts a new light on the subject as I think of God making a choice to end a life. Even if that decision gives life to another.
To often we only look at the choices we have. It shows how limited our understanding really is. When we consider the very hard choices God had to make, it makes our choices seem so much easier. It makes our choice seem so simple. We can not understand everything behind the plan of salvation, but we have a Father in Heaven that really wants us to understand.
I look at all of the mistakes illustrated in the Bible. The mistakes made by David, his son Solomon and all of the others. The doubt Sarah had when given a promise by God. The daring of Joshua. The way Peter thought he could save the kingdom, when he thought he had a legion of angels backing him up. I can see God as a Father. Like a Daddy watching His children. They fall. He is never very far away. He comes over, picks them up, brushes them off. Some times kisses their scraps and bruises. Teaches them where they have gone wrong, and watches them go off again.