Garments started when Adam sinned by learning about evil. There is no evil in heaven; and God intended that man would choose to have no evil in the garden, the home, the school, the workplace, or the government. In fact, when He returns to establish His earthly reign as King of kings in Jerusalem, He will begin to weed out all sinners from the earth. The New Earth will be filled with His Glory, and no evil will be found, for all will be clothed with His Righteousness.
Adam made garments out of leaves, but God made garments out of hides of innocent animals. Sin and disobedience cost greatly to the individual sinning, and to all of those associated with him or her. Blood of innocence is the only atonement that satisfies the justice and holiness of God. Christ became the innocent sacrificial Lamb that takes away the sin of the whole world, if we will believe in Him.
Before Adam sinned, he and Eve were naked and unashamed. They were unashamed because they were unaware of their nakedness.
Children are put forth as our examples, by the Lord, for attaining purity and innocence to be able to enter into the Kingdom of God. (Matthew 18:3) A little child is totally unaware of his/her nakedness, and therefore totally unashamed. Only when they reach a certain age do they become aware of being naked, and begin to observe their parent’s behavior in regards to nakedness.
We are many thousands of years removed from when Adam and Eve were clothed by the Lord God Almighty in the Garden of Eden. All we have to do is take a look at the lack of innocence of little children around us today.
Parents dress them sexy to be like movie stars. They are kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery for pornography and prostitution. They are abused by parents with addictions and anger issues. They are taught by their schools about sex and perversions of sex, in grade school. They are pushed to behave and think like adults, before they are ready emotionally.
The innocence of childhood has vanished; and if we take the Lord’s directive ‘to become as one of them’, we are left without a paradigm to follow. The devil has used man to corrupt the innocence of children, so that they are growing up without a reverence for God, and without a desire for all things pure. Children are being taught to be proud of their rebellion. Christ desires all to be humbly aware of their shortcomings.
Heaven is pure. The New Earth will be pure. The original plan for this earth was to be full of pureness. Adam messed it up; and Christ is fixing it up, one individual at a time.
When Adam and Eve stayed away from the knowledge of evil, they walked in fellowship with their Heavenly Father. When children stay away from that which displeases their parents, they come freely into the arms of their mom and dad. There is praise toward the children for being obedient and behaving well. There is joy in the home, replacing friction between kids and parents.
Garments of praise cover the shortcomings of each member of the family because of obedience with humility to what the parents directed as best for the household. God will cover the New Earth with garments of praise because all will be obedient to His desires for righteousness and justice.
Before praise and commendation, comes obedience and compliance. We obey and comply to the directives of our teachers, our bosses, and our law enforcers, but we choose to disobey and remain non-compliant to our parents and our Lord.
Obedience to God’s teachings, and to our parents, is the foundation of all other obedience in society. Can you look at your coworker, knowing a little of their personal or professional life, and say ,‘I commend you’? Can you offer them praise for a life well lived?
Only when Jesus has our full obedience, and we perpetuate that obedience into all areas of our lives, including honoring our parents, will we change from pursuing evil and hiding our nakedness in despair, to clothing all around us, including ourselves, with praise and commendation, as we reverence the beauty of God in all of His Creation.
Isaiah 61:3, “the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;”
