The tabernacle is a tangible type of God’s redeeming love in restoring fellowship and communion with man back to Himself. Adam and Eve experienced fellowship and communion with God, their Father and Creator, before they succumbed to the devil’s temptation to partake of the forbidden fruit.
God warned them not to partake when He told them in Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die.” When they ate, they did not die physically, but spiritually.
The life they experienced of unbroken communion with God was immediately severed because God’s holiness could not permit any communion with darkness and sin. Not only did they lose unbroken communion and fellowship with God, but now they could make their own judgment and discern independently of their previous relationship with God as to what was good and evil.
God who made every part of man’s physical body was not embarrassed by Adam and Eve’s nakedness. In their previous relationship they were not even aware they were naked, let alone feel guilty about nakedness. But as soon as they fell, some type of knowledge and discernment entered into them and they became aware that it was a shameful thing to be naked. Nakedness was now to them an evil thing and to be clothed was a good thing. Nakedness now made Adam fear the presence of God (Genesis 3:10).
In Genesis 3:11 God speaks to Adam and Eve: “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”
However, man’s real nakedness was far greater than his physical nakedness. He was spiritually naked. He was out of touch, fellowship, and communion with God. A sense of shame, fear, and unworthiness replaced their innocence in communing with God.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell