January 2 - Adam's Underwear

January 2, 2011

Scripture Readings:
Genesis 3-4:26; Matthew 2:13-3:6;
Psalm 2; Proverbs 1:7-9

A little boy opened the big family bible.  He was fascinated as he turned the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible.  He picked up the object and looked at it.  What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. "Mama, look what I found", the boy called out.  "What have you got there, dear?" With astonishment in the young boy's voice he answered, "I think it's Adam's underwear!

Genesis 3

Today I'm going to talk about underwear.  Please don't get the wrong idea.  I'm not a pervert.  I promise.  It's just that underwear is and always has been important to the human race.

Underwear became a public topic when Bill Clinton was running for president of the United States. He was asked on MTV whether he wore boxers or tighty whitey's.  That the voting public cared about underwear became a dinner table discussion at our house. We learned that apparently, you CAN judge a person by their underwear!  LOL!

Well, in today's reading, underwear plays a major role in helping us to judge the condition of man's heart and his relationship to God. 

Yesterday when we ended our reading in Genesis, we were told that Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed. Adam and Eve were free from shame because they had never sinned. Today that changes!

God warned Eve that she and Adam would die if they ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Why didn't Eve listen? Why was she deceived by the Serpent?

My guess is that Eve did not really understand what death was.  She had never seen it.  Because she did not have knowledge, Eve needed to have faith in God. She needed to trust and obey what God had commanded. Eve lacked faith.  She didn't want to OBEY God, she wanted to BE God. God was testing Eve's faith and Adam's faith in Him and they failed this test of their character.

Can you relate to Adam and Eve?  Is it sometimes hard to trust God?

So Eve ate the fruit.  Adam soon follows Eve's lead.  Adam also shows a lack of faith here and a lack of leadership.

Have you ever seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding?  Here is a quote from the movie that perfectly describes this situation,  "The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants." 

Well, folks, Eve turned Adam's head, and women are still turning their husband's heads today.   Women wield incredible influence within their families and especially with their husbands.


Sin causes shame.  Adam and Eve disobeyed God and immediately their relationship with God and with each other changed.  Rather than being comfortable with each other in their natural state, they felt embarrassed about their bodies.  They felt the need to cover up and hide themselves.

Their first inclination was to use the work of their own hands to fix the consequences of their sin.  The closest thing around were fig leaves, so using their own ingenuity and creativity, they sew fig leaves together and cover their private parts. We have the first designer clothing on the planet... UNDERWEAR. Yes, fig leaf underwear. According to the Bible, the first piece of clothing ever made was underwear.  Problem solved!  Well, not exactly...

You see, God was not interested in having the problem of sin solved by man's work.

Are you tempted to have your good works make you pleasing to the Lord?

The point of this story and the message in this love letter to the world is that God is the one, through His mercy and grace, who solves the problem of sin.  He is also the One who receives the glory for doing so.

As the story unfolds, God confronts Adam in the garden. Adam plays the blame game and says that it was Eve's fault.  Eve plays the blame game and says that it was the Serpent's fault because he deceived her.  God then pronounces a curse on the serpent and tells us a VERY IMPORTANT theme of His story.  That theme (vs. 15) is that Satan (the Serpent) will be the arch enemy of mankind.  He will give a blow to the heel of one of Eve's offspring, but the offspring will crush Satan's head.  And that child will solve the problem of sin forever and restore the earth to it's original innocence.

It is important to note that Eve probably believes that this prophecy will come about in her lifetime and that the problem of sin will be solved quickly.  This Redeemer Child becomes the focus of world history and ancient religions from here on out.  My thought is that Eve, as the mother of all people everywhere, never anticipated that history would unfold for century upon century until this child would be born. This child, of course, is Jesus Christ.

God loves symbols. The next thing that happens in the story proves this. In order to picture what would be required to fix the problem of sin, God makes ANIMAL SKIN UNDERWEAR. 

God kills the first living creatures (vs. 21) and uses those animal skins to cover Adam and Eve.  He replaces their handmade leaf underwear with animal skin underwear made from the blood sacrifice of a living creature. An innocent animal had to die in order to cover the shame of Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve learn a very important lesson that day:  Their works will never be good enough to cover their sin.  Only God can cover their sin. And death is required to cover sin.

Can you imagine their shock as they see death for the first time?  Can you consider the humility they must have felt in wearing the skin of their fellow creature?  Remember that Adam had named all of the creatures and was responsible for them.  He must have loved them.  Therefore, this sacrifice must have been a strong lesson to them of the seriousness of sin.  It was also a picture that one day, the Redeemer Child that would come from Eve would have to die to save the world from its sins.  It was a lesson that the consequences of sin is death and that the shed blood and death of a sinless perfect person would save mankind and restore paradise to earth and reconcile the relationship between God and humans.

And so we have the story of how underwear reflects the condition of mankind. 


At first, Adam and Eve didn't even need underwear.  They were in perfect harmony with God and had never disobeyed Him.  Next, they sinned and tried to make their own underwear to cover their sin.  That was not sufficient.

Finally, God shows them that death is real.  He shows them that a blood sacrifice is required to cover sin. He reveals that only the work of HIS HANDS can cover sin. God paints a picture of how one day Paradise will be restored through a Redeemer Child.  In the meantime, Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden and prevented from eating from The Tree Of Life, which would have caused them to live eternally in a state of sin.

What did you notice in today's reading of Chapter 3?

Genesis 4

I cannot let this portion of Scripture pass without making some comment on it.  I call Genesis chapter 4- The Chapter of Firsts.

Let me briefly list the first things in this chapter:

• The first man to sleep with a woman. -Vs. 1
• The first woman to become pregnant -Vs. 1
• The first male child to be born -Vs. 1
• The first sibling to be born -Vs. 2
• The first careers established- shepherding livestock and farming - Vs. 2
• The first attempt to bring a sacrifice to God to seek forgiveness for sin -Vs. 3
• The first sibling rivalry -Vs. 4-7
• The first murder -Vs. 8
• The first outright lie (vs. 9)
• The first city founded and named after a person -Vs. 17
• The first prideful polygamist brags -Vs. 19, 23, 24
• The first nomadic herdsman -Vs. 20
• The first musician and inventor of musical instruments -Vs. 21
• The first instruments created- the harp and the flute -Vs. 22
• The first metal worker in bronze and iron -Vs. 22
• The first true worship of the Lord on earth -Vs. 26

I must also mention a few key things in the chapter.  First of all, Eve seems to cry out with joy in vs. 1 when with the help of the Lord (note her faith) she has brought forth a male child.  I can't help but think that Eve believes this is the promised child who will defeat the Serpent.  Imagine her sorrow when this first boy kills her second righteous son and then is cursed by God.

It is also important to realize that God establishes the importance of blood sacrifice when he rejects Cain's grain offering to Him and accepts Abel's animal sacrifice.  Remember, God had given them the principle of blood sacrifice as a covering for sin when He provided the animal skins to Adam and Eve.  God expects obedience to His established spiritual principles. Cain wanted to give the work of his hands for the sacrifice.  Abel, in his obedience, followed God's example and gave the blood sacrifice of an innocent animal.

The last thing I will say about this Old Testament passage is that God provides Adam and Eve with another righteous son to replace Abel.  It is through the offspring of the righteous son, Seth, that men begin to truly worship the Lord in the ancient world.  Seth's birth shows Adam and Eve that God is serious about His promise of redeeming the world through one of their offspring.

What did you notice in this chapter?

Matthew 2:13-3:6; Psalm 2; Proverbs 1:7-9

We are going to see that Matthew is intent on us understanding that Jesus is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.  In our reading today, Matthew proves prophecy is being fulfilled in the following facts about Jesus' early life. 

• Jesus is taken to Egypt by Joseph and Mary to avoid Herod's wrath (Vs. 13-15) This fulfills Hosea 11:1
• Herod committs genocide by killing all male children under the age of two (Vs. 16-18). This fulfills Jeremiah 31:15
• Joseph ends up taking Jesus to live in Nazareth (Vs. 19-23) This is fulfills Psalm 22:6 and Isaiah 53:3, where it says he will be despised.  Nazareth was despicable to the Jews.
• John the Baptist begins to preach a message of repentance in preparation for Christ's coming (3:1-3). This fulfills Isaiah 40:3

Psalm 2

While Psalm 1 showed us Jesus the Royal Son and Perfect Man, Psalm 2 shows us the attitude of mankind towards God. We see that Jesus, the Royal Son, will prevail against rebellious man and be victorious.  We are admonished to submit to the Royal Son and choose to be protected by him, rather than crushed by him.

Proverbs 1:7-9

Here is one of the key verses of the Bible- The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  If you never memorized another passage of Scripture, you would do well to have put this one in your noggin.

What more can I say?  This is a fear that produces awe and acknowledges God's Power, Holiness, Perfection, Sovereignty, Lovingkindness, Brilliance, and Grace.  I could continue this list ad infinitum, but you get the point.  He's God, you're not!

Food for Thought: 

1. Are you trying to please God by your own works like Adam and Eve?  If so, how?
2. Have you accepted the sacrifice of Christ to save you from sin and get you right with God?
3. Are you hanging on to false shame?  Sin causes shame, but if you are a Christian, Christ has covered your sin and alleviated your shame.
4. What did YOU learn today?
5. Please share your thoughts.

Thanks for reading today.  Let me know what you think!

Blessings,

Jubilee Gal
Kathy Fullerton