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Naked, but Not Ashamed
It’s very hard for us—whose concepts of the world, of reality, of everything, actually, are filtered and tainted and distorted by sin—to imagine fully the moral condition of Adam and Eve in Eden. These were people who knew no pain, no suffering, no deception, no betrayal, no death, no loss, and no shame, especially sexual shame (which is perhaps the most prevalent kind in a world so steeped in the consequences of sin today).
Read Genesis 2:20–25. What kind of close relationship and intimacy between Adam and Eve is revealed in these texts?
As “one flesh” (see Gen. 2:24), Adam and Eve were close, then, not only to God but to each other. The text is very clear, very unambiguous: they were naked and not ashamed (vs. 25). Talk about purity and innocence!
“The sinless pair wore no artificial garments; they were clothed with a covering of light and glory, such as the angels wear. So long as they lived in obedience to God, this robe of light continued to enshroud them.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 45.
Exactly what this light looked like, how it functioned, what its purpose was, we aren’t told. Only that, even with it, they still were deemed “naked.” The fact that they weren’t ashamed must have meant that this covering of light didn’t completely hide their nakedness, but in that sinless environment it didn’t matter, for no shame existed.
In a sense, the emphasis on nakedness seems to reveal the kind of physical closeness the sinless couple enjoyed. There was an openness, a transparency, an innocence about them and all that they did that allowed for this state of affairs. They lived in complete honesty, openness, and freedom before each other and before God. It was, after all, how the Lord had ordained it. How nice it must have been.
How much openness and transparency exist in your own life? Or are you constantly hiding things, cutting moral corners, cloaking yourself in coverings that don’t reveal what’s really going on? (See Matt. 10:26.) If the latter, what aspects of your life must you start to change?
| MONDAY | April 11 |
It’s very hard for us—whose concepts of the world, of reality, of everything, actually, are filtered and tainted and distorted by sin—to imagine fully the moral condition of Adam and Eve in Eden. These were people who knew no pain, no suffering, no deception, no betrayal, no death, no loss, and no shame, especially sexual shame (which is perhaps the most prevalent kind in a world so steeped in the consequences of sin today).
Read Genesis 2:20–25. What kind of close relationship and intimacy between Adam and Eve is revealed in these texts?
As “one flesh” (see Gen. 2:24), Adam and Eve were close, then, not only to God but to each other. The text is very clear, very unambiguous: they were naked and not ashamed (vs. 25). Talk about purity and innocence!
“The sinless pair wore no artificial garments; they were clothed with a covering of light and glory, such as the angels wear. So long as they lived in obedience to God, this robe of light continued to enshroud them.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 45.
Exactly what this light looked like, how it functioned, what its purpose was, we aren’t told. Only that, even with it, they still were deemed “naked.” The fact that they weren’t ashamed must have meant that this covering of light didn’t completely hide their nakedness, but in that sinless environment it didn’t matter, for no shame existed.
In a sense, the emphasis on nakedness seems to reveal the kind of physical closeness the sinless couple enjoyed. There was an openness, a transparency, an innocence about them and all that they did that allowed for this state of affairs. They lived in complete honesty, openness, and freedom before each other and before God. It was, after all, how the Lord had ordained it. How nice it must have been.
How much openness and transparency exist in your own life? Or are you constantly hiding things, cutting moral corners, cloaking yourself in coverings that don’t reveal what’s really going on? (See Matt. 10:26.) If the latter, what aspects of your life must you start to change?
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