Job mentions how Adam COVERED his sin (Job 31:33). And, although verse 21 in Genesis 3 says, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them,” it does NOT say Adam offered sacrifice. Nothing says an animal’s blood was offered in sacrifice. God killed the animal, not Adam. And it was killed to provide the rebellious pair clothing to cover their nakedness – their outward nakedness, not their inner uncleanness. Abraham is the father of the faithful – not Adam. Adam is never cited as an example of faith, or repentance, or righteousness. Paul reminds us of how we all die because of Adam. (See I Corinthians 15:22). Adam is mentioned seventeen more times after the Genesis account. Never is he placed in a good light. Hebrews 11, the great “hall of faith” chapter, leap frogs over Adam and Eve and begins with their murdered son, Abel. (See Hebrews 11:4).
Oddly enough, the first one mentioned as bringing an offering to the Lord is Cain, the first murderer! (See Genesis 4:3); but his offering was not accepted (verse 5).
You see, when Adam and Eve first stepped out of the Garden of Eden, the human race took its first steps toward Babylon and false religion. They did not move toward the light. They stumbled forth into the darkness. Their posterity’s steps do not steadily climb ever upward. Instead they slide swiftly downward. Mankind quickly loses all true knowledge of God. In less than ten generations “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (See Genesis 6:5). And, following the flood and the wiping out of that godless society, Noah’s great grandson Nimrod begins building the equally godless kingdom of Babylon. (See Genesis 10:8-10). When Abraham appears on the scene a few generations later it is from a home and people who were idolators serving other gods. (See Joshua 24:2). When the Lord scattered abroad mankind from the base of the tower of Babel “upon the face of all the earth,” He did also “confound the language of all the earth” (See Genesis 11:8-9. Surprisingly, perhaps, this would have added to the confusion. Any true knowledge of God that would have remained would have quickly been either corrupted or extinguished completely. And God not only allowed it, He aided and abetted in it. And for a good and wise reason. Remember, “Known unto God are ALL his works from the beginning of the world” (See Acts 5:8). Has the Eternal revealed to YOU just what marvelous plan He is working out here on earth???
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley
* There is but one exception – those redeemed believers who happen to be alive at Christ’s return will never experience death.