Glory through Blood: the Investiture of the King of Kings
“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Gen 3:21)
Investiture: the action of formally investing a person with honours or rank; such as kingship.
Introduction
Sometimes a simple Scripture can hold a wealth of meaning that generally escapes us until through divine providence it is unveiled. Such is the case with Gen 3:21 (above), a text rarely given its total significance. Given that the ultimate reference point of this text is Jesus, rather than Adam and Eve, it is well worth investigating with a view to our ultimate glory “in Christ” (1 Pet5:10).
Investiture In Eden
In the religious world of the Ancient Near East, “investiture” was understood as being brought into a “more complete likeness to God” and final elevation to a position of rule. Old Testament scholars argue that “the reason for mentioning Adam and Eve’s nakedness at the end of Gen 2 is to arouse in the reader an expectation of royal investiture in keeping with man’s Genesis 1 status as the ruling ‘image of God’ on earth.” (Wilder) Under divine judgement however (Gen 3), what they receive for rebellion is NOT glorious elevation but a sad satire/mockery of royal investiture. Immediately after they ate of the tree of knowledge they clothe themselves in leaves. With opened eyes they are now clothed in garments which, instead of resembling divine royalty, resemble the vegetation they have pathetically placed on themselves: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” (Gen 3:7) Having idolized themselves, they now resemble the wood from which idols will be carved. ““the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets,27 who say to a tree, ‘You are my father’, and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me …” Jer 2:26-27; cf. Rom 1:23) God however doesn’t relegate the Fallen pair to self-induced shaming. He graciously elevates them by giving animal skins in place of plant garments, and sends them from the garden (Gen 3:22) with a proper sign of their true inheritance. As an eschatological/end-times symbol, Genesis puns on the Hebrew word for “light” ( ‘or ) and the word for “skin” ( ‘or ): this pun evokes “the alternative image of light,” by pointing to an eventual glorification of redeemed humanity in robes of light. As Jesus prophesied, at the resurrection “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matt 13:43). The road to such glory however requires suffering.
Blood for Glory
It is difficult for us as Fallen people, accustomed to shaming (n.b. 1 Cor 6:5; 15:34), to comprehend the sheer trauma of the scandalous investiture in Eden. The animal skins came through what ancient people would have assumed to be a bloody rite of sacrifice. Few however have noted the significance of this for both sides of the divine-human relationship. Totally unfamiliar with the suffering of creatures capable of feeling pain, this bloodletting must have been extremely traumatic for the now guilty couple. To find oneself suddenly covered in skins dripping with blood surely induced immense post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) from which our race has yet to recover! This was an appalling encounter testifying infallibly of the reality of God’s universal holy wrath (Cf. Rom 1:18-32. Anxiety and depression are not natural experiences.). Mercifully, God’s rage was directed, as it would be for millennia to come, vicariously to a brute beast (Lev 16; Heb 9:14; Jude 1:20).
Looking to the impact on God, the act of blood sacrifice must have shocked the empathetic omnipresence of the Almighty Creator, “his heart was filled with pain” (Gen 6:6 cf. Lam 3:33). Our unthinkingly acceptance of the butchering of creatures for food (Gen 9:1-3) was not the peaceful nature of Paradise: “And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.” (Gen 1:29-30). This primal peace was a sign of the world to come when, “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.” (Isa 65:25 cf. 11:6). The age when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab 2:14). In “the age to come” (Heb 6:5) such horrors will not even be thinkable (Jer 31:31-34). The original investiture ultimately points to the drama of the cross when the divine-human scandal of suffering finds fulness in Christ’s sacrifice.
Incarnation as Blood for Glory
“Blood” in Scripture is profoundly symbolic, signifying life taken violently [before God]. A foundational reference is the murder of Abel. God challenges Cain, ““What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” (Gen 4:10 cf. 9:5-6; Lev 17:11). By the inverting power of grace, appointed blood sacrifices become a “pleasing aroma” to the Lord (Gen 8:21 etc. etc.) Why? There has always been an eternal cross in the heart of God. “you were ransomed…with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot…chosen before the foundation of the world…names…written in the Lamb’s book of life…slain from the creation of the world.” (1 Pet 1:18-20; Rev 13:8). The atoning power of the willingly sacrificed life of “God in Christ” (2 Cor 5:19 cf. Acts 20:28) at the hands of lawless men is more than adequate to reconcile “all things, whether on earth or in heaven” (Col 1:20). For “all things were created” within this all-encompassing plan of salvation (John 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:3)! About this power to reclaim, John is insistent, “This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.” (1 John 5:6 cf. John 1:19; Rev 5:6), Likewise Paul “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” (Gal 3:1), similarly Peter (1 Pet 1:18-20) and the author of Hebrews, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (9:22) All these things were in the everlasting mind of God when he prophetically hyper-graced (Rom 5:15) our Fallen ancestors with bloodied skins.
Taken up in glory
The Father made provision from the beginning for a salvation whereby we would all, in Christ, be “taken up in glory” (1 Tim 3:16;cf. Eph 1:3; 2:6 etc.) The redeemed, with robes washed in the blood of Christ (Rev 7:14; 12:11) shall be attired in the fine linen fit for priests and kings (Rev 1:6; 5:10) in their ministry of exacting eternal judgement and glory on fallen angels and humans (Matt 19:28’ 1 Cor 6:2). The writer to the Hebrews speaks in understatement when he outlines the glory of our future, “You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (12:23-24). Hallelujah, what a Saviour.
Conclusion
Let me close with a quote from a famous saint, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C. S Lewis) . May the Lord Jesus expand our vision of his all-surpassing sacrifice.