This is Part II.  To see Part I first go here: http://kfc.joeuser.com/article/344743/The_Very_First_Couple

The first thing that happened when Adam and Eve sinned was the recognition of their nakedness.  They had not noticed that before.  We read earlier: "The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame."

What changed?  First they were naked and unashamed and now they are naked and ashamed.  How could a man and woman be naked and not be aware they're naked? 

Easy.  Their focus was somewhere else.  They were consumed with something else. The first thing they noticed, when sin entered their lives,  was self-awareness in a negative way they had not experienced before.  Sin caused them to look within themselves as their focus was now on themselves.  Therefore,  the first thing they noticed was their own nakedness.

So not knowing what else to do they sewed vegetation onto themselves by using leaves.  They had to somehow cover their nakedness as they were not presentable before God or each other.   There had been no killing of animals up until this time so animal skins had not entered their thoughts.  It would have been quite natural for them to look toward vegetation to cover themselves. 

Something motivated this thinking.  Could they have been covered by some sort of glory covering before?  Were they clothed with the glory of God before all this happened and when they sinned, that glory was taken away?  That's what I'm thinking.  Now they knew they couldn't stand before God with no covering. 

God had said earlier "the day you eat of that tree you will surely die."  When they didn't die physically, were they thinking perhaps God changed his mind?  Did God back off?  Maybe that's what they thought at first. 

There's more than one kind of death.  We tend to think physical at first but the bible speaks of another death.  A spiritual death.  Every indication seems to show us that God did indeed keep his word that very day.  We can see this by the way they looked at themselves immediately after and by the way they attempted to cover themselves.  They experienced a spiritual death that day.  They found themselves separated from God.  Death separates.

It doesn't take long to see how ineffective they were in their covering of themselves.  They hid amongst the trees when God came looking for them.  When it all came down to it, they didn't trust their own attempts at covering themselves.   

So they start running for the trees because there just isn't enough foilage to cover themselves no matter how hard they try.  God calls out to Adam asking the question "where are you?" 

Since when does God have to ask a question to gain information?  He already knows the answer.  Jesus did the same thing.  He asked lots of questions in his reasoning to men.  He wanted them to think through their choices and give an account for their own behavior.   Here God wants Adam to think through what he has done and to own up for what he's responsible for in order to receive redemption. 

Now comes the point when Adam had to stand before God with an inadequate covering and account for his rebellion against his creator.  Will he seek redemption?  It's judgment day for Adam. 

He blames Eve.  By doing so he's really blaming God for his imperfection.  If God hadn't given him this wife this never would have happened.  He's trying to justify his action.  It's God's fault.  God gave him this woman.   So here we see the another first.  The first marital dispute.   This is exactly what happens in many broken Christian marriages today.  First they suffer a broken relationship with God and then each other.  A wise marriage counselor would ask the question "how is your relationship with God?" as the very first question and then go from there in his attempt to help a couple in marital crisis. 

I wonder after God leaves if Eve doesn't turn around and say to Adam, "why did you blame me in front of God? How could you? If you were the man of this house, this never would have happened in the first place." 

Of course here Eve, in turn, blames the serpent.   We see lots of excuses here with no owning up to their responsibility.  My how things might have changed had they got on their knees before God and truly repented. 

Have you ever noticed how the seprent keeps his mouth shut now?  Pretty wise thing to do. 

Don't we do this?  Don't we blame God when things go bad for us?  If God hadn't.....I wouldn't be in this mess. 

But what does God do?  He reconciles us to himself.  Here we see he provided that first sacrifice by the killing of that first animal and he covered them not only with physical skins but his forgiveness and mercy. 

He promises them a future deliverer who will make things right between them and Him.  This deliverer will come from the seed of woman (unusual).  Some say this woman was Eve herself.  Some say it was Mary in her delivery of the infant Jesus in his incarnation. 

May I suggest another?  Israel.  She is responsible for giving the world the deliverer.  Jesus came out of Zion. We see Israel depicted as a woman who bore the man child in Revelation 12. 

Before her adultery Israel was called God's beloved.  But even after her adulterous ways God will draw her to him in the end. That's what the book of Hosea is all about.  God will take this adulterous wife back and she will know and understand the truth about his agape love like never before. The same conflict in detail that we see here in Genesis between the woman and Satan we see between Satan and Israel in the end.    This battle has always been about the two of them from the first day until the last.  The battle is and always has been for men's souls. 

Eve was called the mother of all living.  She is the mother of life.  She is the key to redemption.  From her, her Savior will come.    There is no life outside the church.  Belonging to the body of Christ is the key to redemption.  Bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. 

Later when Cain and Abel were to give a memorial of this day Cain's offering was not right before God.   His offering was woefully inadequate.  Cain's vegetation memorial was a memorial for what his parents attempted to do for themselves.  Using the vegetation of the land, they were rejected as was he.   Abel's memorial was one that involved blood and was accepted.  His sacrifice was a bloody offering back to God in memory of what God had done for them. 

There are two groups of people in God's eyes.  One group says "I find God's acceptance by the fruits of my own hands.  My own personal "vegetation" attempts  to cover myself will be good enough." 

The other group says, "No.  If I am going to be acceptable to God, he has to do it.  His blood sacrifice is what covers my sin.  I can't cover myself adequately enough."

Every animal, blood sacrifice in the OT was only an illustration pointing to the day when Christ would come to be the perfect one time sacrifice for all mankind.  There is nothing else.   No more sacrifices to be done.  No mere human attempt is ever good enough and can withstand the heat in that day of future judgment as Cain found out. 

So it's either the works of your hands or his death, burial and resurrection.  I have to ask myself......when I stand before God will I be afraid and run to the trees and hide?  Or am I adequately covered by the blood of the lamb?   John wrote in Revelation on the day of God's wrath that men will shout to the rocks to fall on them so they can be hidden from the face and from the wrath of God. 

Only God can cover our nakedness.  He does so freely to all those who go to him in repentance.