Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #7 of Genesis, chapter 3 and we are going to read Genesis 3:6-8:

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of JEHOVAH God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of JEHOVAH God amongst the trees of the garden.

I will stop reading there. We were looking at verse 7 in our last study where Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. We saw how this is the instinctive reaction of fallen mankind as they try to perform some “work” to cover their sins. It has been the instinctive reaction of mankind ever since the fall.

We looked at the word “sewed” and it led us to Ezekiel, chapter 13 and we are going to turn there again. There is an interesting passage in which God speaks of the daughters of His people that prophesy out of their own hearts. By that language, we recognize that God is speaking of those that bring other kinds of gospels. When people prophesy out of their own hearts it is not the true prophesy or the true declaration of the Word of God. It says in Ezekiel 13:18-19:

Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you? And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?

This fits in with what we have understood about those that bring other kinds of gospels in the churches and congregations. The gospels they bring are designed to save souls alive that should not live. The only thing that can mean is that it is a gospel that is providing false security and a false sense of salvation to a people that are not God’s elect. We know this is exactly the kind of gospel that is rampant all over the church world today. Through various good works, like “accepting Christ” or being water baptized or partaking of the Lord’s Table, people are lying to their congregations and saying, “These things are evidence of salvation.” However, that is not how God saves. No works of man can justify anyone, but it is only the work of Christ that provides salvation for His elect people.

Here, these women are sewing pillows to all armholes. The word “sewed” that we see in our verse in Genesis 3 speaks of Adam and Eve doing the work of “sewing” to cover their nakedness. The women are busy and active sewing pillows to all armholes and this would also be a type of covering and in the Bible any kind of “nakedness” points to exposing of sin. When Adam and Eve sinned they were completely “naked” and they had no covering. Also, in the Bible when someone has their shoes off and their feet are exposed, it is also points to the nakedness of sin. In addition, this same picture is illustrated when someone’s head is uncovered and the Bible speaks of hair as a “covering.” Any area of the body that is exposed is a type and picture of spiritual nakedness and, in this case, it is the armhole that these women are trying to cover by sewing pillows to all armholes. It is a picture of trying to do some “work” to cover sin. That is what “accepting Christ” is all about; you accept you are a sinner and you accept Christ and your sins are covered by the blood of Christ. That is the idea and all manmade gospels attempt to cover sin and this is what the women sewing pillows to all armholes are doing.

The word translated as “pillows” is Strong’s #3704 and it is only used here in Ezekiel 13. When we have a word that is used in only one or two places, it can make it difficult to get a good Biblical definition as we compare Scripture with Scripture. But we are helped because this Hebrew word is derived from another Hebrew word, Strong’s #3680 and this word is found in several places. Let us go to Psalm, chapter 32 and we will get a good idea of how this word is used in the Bible. It says in Psalm 32:1:

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

This is the word, Strong’s #3680, and the word “pillows” is derived from this word translated here as “covered.” And this is what the women are trying to do as they sew “pillows” to armholes because they want to “cover” over sin and provide salvation for people that God has not saved and they are willing to lie in order to do so. They promise them liberty. They promise them life.

Now we have a tie-in through this word “pillows” from the word it is derived from that is translated as “covered.” The same word “covered” found in Psalm 32:1 is found in Job 31:33:

If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

The word “covered” is also speaking of covering transgressions here, just as Psalm 32, verse 1 said “whose sin is covered.” In Psalm 32 it speaks of the proper covering for sin, but in Job 31 it speaks of Adam and his attempt to cover his sin. This means we have been correct in our understanding because the only thing this verse in Job can refer to is what happened immediately after Adam and Eve sinned and realized they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together for a covering. God is moving the writer of the Book of Job to declare, “If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom.” We can see that we have correct understanding in viewing “nakedness” as one’s sins being exposed to the penetrating eyes of Almighty God. In response, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together and in sewing these fig leaves they were attempting to cover their transgressions and hide their iniquity from God. The women sewing pillows to all armholes were trying to covered the exposed area under the arm – they were trying to cover over sin.

I think we can see that pretty clearly. It goes on to say in Genesis 3:7:

… and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Now there would have been many different kinds of trees that bore various kinds of fruits and had various types of leaves available that Adam and Eve could have chosen, but God directed them to choose the leaves of the fig tree to begin their “work” of covering over their sins. This was not accidental. God wanted them to sew it from fig leaves to cover their nakedness. The Garden of Eden was that place that God selected within a perfect world and, yet, God selected a piece of land He called the Garden of Eden in which to deal with man because the Garden of Eden was a picture of the outward representation of the kingdom of God on earth, just as Israel would become the location that would represent the kingdom of God or just as the New Testament churches later became the outward representation of God’s kingdom to the world. People today identify the churches with God’s kingdom. In days of old people identified the nation of Israel with God’s people. In the days of Adam and Eve it was the Garden of Eden and by selecting the leaves of a “fig tree” it ties in and the Garden of Eden can be likened to national Israel or the corporate churches. God likens Israel to a fig tree and He also likens the churches to a fig tree. We read in Joel 1:6-7:

For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

This is interesting language. Historically, God is referring to King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians which would come against Judah. On one hand, Judah or Israel are typified by the fig tree and here comes a heathen and fierce people and they destroy Jerusalem and the temple and take captives back to Babylon. God says it is as though they “barked my fig tree.” Have you ever “barked” a tree? The bark is the trees covering that is meant to protect it. If you can find a branch that is a little loose and you start peeling the bark off, it almost looks like skin and, like skin, the bark is a covering. God is illustrating that when He brings an enemy nation against His people because of His people’s unfaithfulness to the Word of God it will make them “bare.” They will have no more covering. It is interesting how God points that out and it ties in with the Holy Spirit that was in the midst of Israel of old and in the midst of the New Testament churches when each entity was the representation of God’s kingdom to the people of the earth.

But, for our purposes, we are looking at the fig tree and we see that it applies to Israel, as the whole assault by the Babylonians against Judah is a figure of Satan coming against the New Testament churches and congregations, so it has a double meaning. The barking of the fig tree applies to Israel of old and to the New Testament churches. It says in Jeremiah 8:11-13:

For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith JEHOVAH. I will surely consume them, saith JEHOVAH: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

Again, God is speaking of His judgment on Judah by the hand of the Babylonians and this relates to the judgment that began at the house of God at the time of the end of the world during the Great Tribulation. God makes a reference to there being no figs on the fig tree. In Jeremiah, chapter 24 God speaks of those that would go into captivity and of those that would refuse to go into captivity and remain behind in Jerusalem at the time God is destroying them and God makes a distinction between the two peoples which He illustrates with “figs.” There are two basket of figs that He sets before the temple. One is a basket with very good figs and one is a basket of evil (naughty) figs. It says in Jeremiah 24:5:

Thus saith JEHOVAH, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

Then it says in Jeremiah 24:8-9:

And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith JEHOVAH, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb…

This is speaking of the people of Jerusalem (Judah) as figs and they are either good figs or evil figs and that means that Judah itself is the fig tree because these people are Jews. Judah is the fig tree and that which comes forth is either good or bad fruit, which represents those that are truly God’s people and unsaved individuals. It is very similar to the wheat and the tares or the sheep and the goats. Yet, all through the Book of Jeremiah these historical events about God destroying Judah by the Babylonians and His command for them to go into captivity are spiritually related to the judgment upon the churches at the time of the end. The distinction between the good and evil figs matches perfectly with our understanding concerning the wheat and the tares. The wheat would depart out of the churches and go into the world and the tares would remain behind. This means there is a “double meaning” to the fig tree. In the first instance, the fig tree represents Israel or Judah and, secondly, it represents the New Testament corporate body comprised of the churches all over the world.

This fits with Jesus coming to the fig tree in the Gospel of Matthew. It says in Matthew 21:18-19:

Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.

Now in Jeremiah, chapter 24 God uses that illustration of good and bad fruit, but here there is no fruit of any kind. This was to demonstrate that there would be no more elect and no more people saved through national Israel’s synagogue system once God had finished with that corporate body, the outward representation of His kingdom on earth. Once the veil of the temple was rent in twain, God divorced Israel and they were no longer His holy people and they no longer represented Him. At that point He made the transition to the New Testament churches and congregations; He gave His vineyard to another and the New Testament churches would take over as the representatives of God for the next 1,955 years, from 33AD to 1988AD. There would be no fruit henceforth forever and never again could someone become saved because the Holy Spirit was no longer in the midst of Israel. Yes, a Jewish person could be saved, but God would bring them out of the synagogue and they would hear the Bible in the churches or outside of the synagogue in order for the Word to be applied to them in salvation.

This is also the point of the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. There was no forgiveness to the corporate body of Israel because they thought Christ was of Satan and that judgment of God matches the judgment of Christ upon the fig tree – there would be no fruit in Israel ever again.

Then it goes on to say in Matthew 21:20:21:

And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this *which is done* to the fig tree…

He is saying that by faith you will do what He has done to the fig tree. He is speaking to His disciples. And it just so happens that at the time of the end God opened up the Scriptures to reveal the end of the church age. The churches also were represented by that fig tree. It is a dual meaning. Christ cursed Israel, but the fig tree also represents the New Testament churches and congregations which the followers of Christ at a later time at the end of the world would, likewise, curse the fig tree. They would pronounce the curse of God against the New Testament churches, as God opened the Scriptures to reveal that the church age was over and the Holy Spirit was no longer in their midst and there would be no more fruit henceforth forever. It was an identical curse that was pronounced by the people of God, just as Jesus said it would happen when He said that they would also do what He had done.

We will have to pick this up in our next study and see how this relates to the next statement in Genesis, where it says, “They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”