Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
In the gentles of breezes, the prophet Elias recognized the voice of the Lord God on God’s holy mountain where he had fled to protect his life. In the breezy time of day, God took a stroll in the garden God owned. Evidently the human used to join God in this daily walk, but this day the human did not show up.
Alack and alas, something sinister was underfoot. The human had broken covenant with God. The two humans had once enjoyed being naked, but now they had felt exposed and felt ashamed. What would God do with these two humans? Tomorrow’s reading will be verses 9-24, the continuation of the story. The sidewinding snake would lose its legs and crawl on the ground. The woman would find pain in childbearing, and the human would find the earth hard to manage.
The human and his wife, however, were not condemned or cursed. It is the ground that was cursed. Rather than cursing the two humans, God gave them clothes to wear. With clothing, the humans entered a new phase of existence, culture.
Clothing enables culture. Clothing can be decorated with symbols of rank and honor; without clothing everyone is equal. With clothing we can separate the officers from the enlisted warriors, the mayor from the janitorial staff, the college professor from the student.
Something sinister was once afoot. Now, however, good is not only astir and afoot, but good is above ground and beautiful. God still walks in the garden in the cool of the day. God still wants relationship with us. God still wants to walk with us every day. God’s name is relationship, and God made us for relationship, and God insists on this relationship. This is the thesis of the Bible, that God wants us to be with God always.