Today's Favorite Verse: Genesis 3:21

Today's Favorite Verse: Genesis 3:21

"Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them."

As I read this verse I remembered hearing something about the coats of skins that I had been meaning to look up. The theory was that the coats of skins were made from the animals in the Garden of Eden that were also immortal. So the skins never rotted. This same coat of skins was handed down and is what Jacob gave to his son Joseph as the Coat of Many Colors. I went looking for the source of the story. I found things but nothing to my satisfaction. There was one article on http://thetorah.com/primeval-coats/ that was very interesting. It went through Primeval Coats - the fate of the first clothing in the hands of Adam, Nimrod, Esau, Jacob, Joseph and the High Priest. It covered various Jewish traditions in the Torah.

I was struck by the concept that the skins came from the serpent itself. God lopped of the serpents arms and legs, making it to crawl on its belly and eat dust. God then commanded the serpent to shed its coat. That shedded serpent skin was used to make the garments for Adam and Eve. I could see a loving God force the serpent to shed his skin for exposing the nakedness of Adam and Eve, instead of killing innocent animals for their skins. There are animal sacrifices in the Mosaic law but I couldn't see God making a sacrifice to himself, since he was the one making the coats of skins. I had read several things about the Coat of Many Colors and one was that it had the design of fish scales and was multi-colored. Wow, serpent skin could look like fish scales and actually be quite colorful and beautiful. I don't know if any of that is what really happened, but for some reason out of all that I read this tradition clicked. 

This will be one of the very interesting things I would like to know when this life is over. For now what I do know is that if I follow and keep God's commandments I will be covered from my nakedness. The garments of the Lord are a protection from all the darts of the adversary. 

Day 578