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

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 there. We were looking at the last part of verse 7 and we saw how sewing fig leaves together identifies with the covering of sin, especially as it applies to those within the corporate body – Israel of old or the New Testament churches. The people that professed to be the people of God, which the fig tree typifies, attempted to use that identification with God and the Word of God as a cover for their sin. The word “sewed” and the word “fig leaves” point to that, but it is a failure because it was the leaves only. When Jesus came to the fig tree and found leaves only and no fruit, it was an indication that there was no salvation and there was no one being saved. Many people have thought that through their association with the sacrificial system of the Old Testament they were somehow absolved and cleansed of their sins. The high priest would go into the Holy of holies once a year on the Day of Atonement and make an offering for Israel, but this did not cover sin. Or, people believed during the course of the church age that through their membership in their church, they were absolved of sin. Their priest or their pastor told them they had done the necessary things to enter into the kingdom of heaven, whether it was infant baptism or accepting Christ and saying the Sinner’s Prayer. None of that matters.

The entire spectrum of “works” is of no value when it comes to being truly born again and entering into the kingdom of heaven. But through their identification with the churches and a misunderstanding of what that means, they think that their “fig leaves” are their covering. It did not work for Adam and Eve. It was not a proper covering for their nakedness and it has never worked for anyone within the corporate body. The outward identification with God’s kingdom is not salvation, so keeping ceremonial laws of sacrifice or baptism or partaking of the Lord’s Table does not bring salvation. Salvation comes through God’s action and never through the action that men take and there is not getting around that.

So, here, in Genesis 3, verse 7 they sewed fig leaves together and “made themselves aprons.” The word “aprons” is Strong’s #2290 in the Hebrew. It is found six times in the Old Testament and four times it is translated as “girdle” or “gird,” and one time as “armour” and one time as “apron.” It is used in relationship to battle in 1Kings 2:5:

Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

The blood of war was upon his “girdle” and about his loins. It says in 2Kings 3:21:

And when all the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all that were able to put on armour, and upward, and stood in the border.

Here, it is translated as “armour.” There are soldiers about to do battle, so it is properly translated as “armour.”

In 2Samuel, chapter 20 this same word is used. It says in 2Samuel 20:8:

When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them. And Joab's garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out.

The word “girdle” is used and Joab has his sword fastened in the sheath upon his loins, so, again, it is a part of armour. In the New Testament God speaks of the “armour of God” in the Book of Ephesians. It says in Ephesians 6:13-14:

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Every piece of the “armour of God” points to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth that is girt about the loins; He is the shield of faith; He is the sword of the spirit; He is the helmet of salvation. Every bit of spiritual armour points to Jesus and all of the armour equips the child of God. It is the armour of protection that comes with salvation. If someone is just a professed Christian, but they are not saved, do they have the armour of God? Do they have any piece of the armour of God? Are they just lacking one or two pieces of armour? No – they are lacking all the armour of God. However, if someone is saved they possess all the armour. If someone is not saved they lack all the armour. Every part of the armour of God identifies with salvation, so when Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together, we already know from Job 1:33 that they were attempting to cover their transgression. They were trying to cover their nakedness, but God makes reference in a negative way to attempting to cover transgression as Adam. That was what was involved when they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons or “girdles” or “armour.” They tried to make the covering of salvation that would protect them and keep them from being destroyed by death. Of course, they failed.

No one can get themselves saved. No one can protect themselves from the wrath of God. No religion can do that. No philosophy can do that. There is no individual’s power or might that can save them. There is none that has power in the day of death, we read in Ecclesiastes. No one can hide from God when it comes to sin. Further sin is not going to help them overcome. There is no “winning” that war. There is no salvation that man can produce from his own doing or ability, no matter how hard or how often he attempts to do so. And man does a lot of things to try to get himself saved and, yet, he is never successful. It is all futile. It is all vanity and emptiness. All the other religions and all the other gospels that attempt to provide salvation for themselves and others will not work. There is no true salvation by those means.

Let us go on to Genesis 3:8:

And they heard the voice of JEHOVAH God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…

Adam and his wife hid themselves when they heard the voice of JEHOVAH God walking in the garden. The first thing that stands out is that it is the “voice” of JEHOVAH that is said to be walking. Have you ever seen a “voice” walking? If you hear someone speak, do you hear their voice walking along? No, and, yet, that is the language here. They did not hear God walking because God is Spirit, as God had not physically appeared among the human race as yet. At later times God would appear as a theophany, but God is Spirit and it does not say here that there was a “body,” but only the voice was heard and it was heard to be “walking in the garden in the cool of day.” We wonder why God phrased it in this way. Why does He refer to His voice as doing the walking?

Let us look at the idea of “walking.” In the Bible God has some interesting things to say about walking. For instance, we read in Genesis, chapter 5 of Enoch. It says in Genesis 5:22:

And Enoch walked with God…

Then it says in Genesis 5:24:

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

When Enoch was 365 years later, God took him – he was translated or raptured. Enoch did not die physically. For His own purposes in order to paint a spiritual picture, God waited until Enoch had lived 365 years because it identifies with a year. God wanted to illustrate that the end of “a year” there is the rapture. So Enoch walked with God and then God took him. You would not have found him, just as later some of the sons of the prophets wanted to search for Elijah when God translated him. Elisha permitted them to search because they kept insisting upon it, but they were never able to find him.

We read about Noah, in Genesis 6:9:

These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

This means that during Noah’s lifetime he walked with God, just as Enoch did during his lifetime. They were both saved men. Since it says Noah walked with God, it means that God was walking with Noah – Noah was not walking alone. He was walking with God.

So, we see in the Garden of Eden that the voice of God was walking in the garden. What does the Bible have in view with this language of walking? If we go to the New Testament, we will see several verses that will help us in our understanding. It says in Galatians 5:16:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Then it says in Ephesians 2:10:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

We are to “walk” in good works.

It says in Colossians 2:6:

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

We could find many more verses that speak of walking in the Spirit or walking in good works or walking in Christ.

It says in 1John 2:6:

He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

This refers to Jesus. If we say that we abide in Christ, we should walk as He walked. Jesus walked and Jesus is God. References to “walking” in the Bible usually relate to walking in God’s commandments. We read of “walking in truth” in 2John. We walk in the statutes and commandments of God. This is why in the Gospel accounts, there were examples of lame men that could not walk and Jesus would heal them; it is a picture of salvation because man is not able of himself to walk in the commandments of God since the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden unless God provides salvation for them. Then God gives them a new heart and a new spirit and restores that right relationship with God and man can then walk and leap and run in the way of God’s commandments, but only after salvation. Now they are able to keep God’s commandments.

It is the same with God Himself, as it says of Jesus in Colossians 2, verse 6 where it says that we are “to walk, even as he walked.” How did Jesus walk? The Father sent Him into the world to do His will and the Lord Jesus Christ obediently performed the will of His father perfectly. He was obedient even unto death, the death of the cross, a despised and shameful death. He walked in the commandments of God the Father without error. We are called to do the same. It says in Matthew 5:48: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” We cannot do that in the flesh, but in the new heart God has given us there is no sin. Sin is not found there. It is a perfect heart and we walk perfectly in the commandments of God.

So, God in the Person of the Lord Jesus walked in His own commandments. There is a very insightful verse in Psalm, chapter 138 that helps us to understand how important it is that God obeys His own Laws. God does not give us His Law and then say, “But I am above the Law. I am above my own Word and I do not have to keep the Law, but the creatures I created in my own image are required to keep the Law.” God does not do that and we can be very thankful for that because it means that the Law of God that says we cannot divorce is the same Law God is under and He cannot break this Law and divorce us, his bride, at some point in eternity future. He granted us eternal life and He has said He will never leave us or forsake us and since God is under this Law it is a tremendous source of comfort to the people of God. God is under His own Law, as it says in Psalm 138:2:

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

God is not above His Word or His Law, but His Word is above His name. His Law is above His name and, therefore, He submits to it. We see that in actuality with the Lord Jesus as He walked in the commandments of the Father. He walked in the Word and we are to walk as He walked. He is our example and we are to keep the Law of God just as Jesus kept the Law of God. God’s Word is magnified above all His name.

When we come to Adam and Eve in the garden, they were created in the image and likeness of God and they were to walk with God. They were to be as Enoch and as Noah and all those that God would save in later generations because there was no sin to separate them from God and, therefore, in their obedience to God’s command that they should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they walked with God every day in which they obeyed God. They walked in His commandments and they walked along with God.

But then came the point when they disobeyed and they broke the Law of God. They are no longer walking in God’s commandments. Notice that they are no longer walking with God. Once they sinned, they became actively involved in making their own covering for their nakedness and then they heard the voice of God, which would be the Law of God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Did they walk with God? No. It goes on to say in Genesis 3:8:

… and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of JEHOVAH God amongst the trees of the garden.

They are no longer walking with God. Now they cannot walk with God because in order to “walk with God” you need to walk in the spirit. You have to walk in Him. You have to walk in truth, and so forth, but they have brought death upon themselves. They no longer have the spirit and they are alienated from God.

Yet, God is walking and this is something we should really think about. Mankind has broken the relationship with God and is no longer walking in His commandments, but God Himself continues to walk in His own Word. That is really what is being highlighted here when it says, “And they heard the voice of JEHOVAH God walking in the garden.” Where is He walking? Where is the voice of God walking? His voice walks within the commandments of God as God’s Word is magnified above His name, so God continued to be faithful. God continued to be obedient and in submission to all His commandments. Man may fail. Man may sin. Man may break the Law of God, but God never will. God cannot sin in any way. It is impossible for God to sin. God will continue to maintain faithfulness to His Word and continue to walk under His own Law.