‘And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife clothing made from skins and covered them.'
God now makes clear their new position. They can no longer walk naked before him, for they have made themselves feel vulnerable, inadequate and ashamed. Thus they must be covered to give them a feeling of security and acceptance. The clothes will ever be a reminder of the wonderful relationship with God that they have lost.
Yet with some surprise we learn that the clothes were ‘of skins'. Here we have the first hint of actual deaths. No reader could fail to relate the provision of skins with the deaths of animals. And in this story it stands out dramatically, for death has been totally absent. Thus man receives his first lesson that his disobedience has brought death. Already a substitute is required. Others die that he might be able to face God. Here we have the primitive beginnings of the idea of sacrifice, which will lead on to the final Sacrifice.