God does not leave man alone in his need but gives him a divine clothing to cover his transgressions.
For this purpose, God takes a skin (Genesis 3:21). The death of an innocent animal, the first death in the Bible, reveals the catastrophe, the terrible reality of sin, of rebellion against God’s order of creation.
For the first time, man sees and experiences death. He sees the consequences of his actions.
In recognising the death sentence and accepting God’s solution, man lives.
It is an image of the divine Lamb who lays down his life to enable man to live a new life with God.
Isaiah writes: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; … for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness“ (Isaiah 61:10).
In Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus tells a parable in which it becomes clear that you cannot come to the royal banquet in your own clothes.
Paul says in Galatians 3:27: “You have put on Christ.”
Trusting in God’s solution gives us new courage to face life.
Messiah images in the Torah
- God seeks us – Adam where are you?
- The possibility of a choice – Two trees in the Garden of Eden
- Neediness instead divinity – A new view
- God’s master plan – Salvation through a human being
- A divine clothing – God acts
- A world upside down – Kai and Abel
- Living in the presence of God – Enoch
- God is calling – Noah
- A king-priest like Melchizedek
- God visits Abraham
- Life through a sacrifice – Isaac
- The ladder to heaven – Jacob
- New identity from Jacob to Israel
- Messiah Ben Joseph – Joseph the son of Jacob
- Shiloh, whom all nations will serve – Blessing on Judah
- Moses, the prototype of the Saviour
- References to Jesus in Moses
- The Passover Lamb
- The pillar of cloud and fire
- God wants to be with us – The tabernacle / The temple
- The snake on a pole – An image of a new beginning
- The rock in the desert – Faith is not a method
- A prophet greater than Moses
- A star from Jacob – Bileam