Religion & Spirituality
Genesis 3:21 – The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. The only way to get skin from an animal is to kill it… so we know this was the first animal sacrifice. Adam and Eve had never seen an animal die. But, naked and ashamed, they needed the animal’s skin to cover their humiliation. To make His point, God may have made them watch the slaughter of this innocent victim: throat slit, body trembling, it was a bloody object lesson to portray the terrible cost of sin. The Old Testament is filled with the blood of sacrificial animals — sheep, goats, bulls, and more. But all the blood of all the animals ever sacrificed could never take away sins, says the book of Hebrews. That required nothing less than the shed blood of Jesus Christ — God in human flesh. Sin is man taking the place of God. Our salvation came through God taking the place of man. Adam and Eve were clothed with the skin of a beast, but all who believe are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Just like clothes cover our physical shame, the blood of Christ covers the shame of our hearts… and presents them white as snow to God. The first animal sacrifice pointed ahead to the sacrifice of Christ.