Adam
and Eve were in the garden, able to walk and talk with God, enjoying a close
relationship with their Creator. They
chose to disobey Him, and sin was introduced into the world. They became aware that they were naked, and
hid from God when He came looking for them because they were ashamed. God provided a covering for their shame by
killing an innocent animal and using its skin to make a garment for them. The
first recorded shedding of blood and death of a living thing in the Bible was
due to sin. This foreshadowed the death of Jesus, innocent
and without sin, as a covering for our sins.
Genesis 3
God told Noah to build an ark in order to deliver him
and his family, along with each kind of animal on the earth from the
destruction of the coming flood. God is
preparing to destroy everything in the world due to sin. Noah’s family, two of each kind of unclean
animal and bird, and seven of each kind of clean animal and bird are saved from
the flood by their entering into, and remaining in, the ark. After the flood waters subside, Noah builds
an altar and sacrifices one of each of the clean animals and birds to God as a
sign of thanksgiving for delivering the chosen from death. The sacrifice of the birds and animals
satisfy God because they are a precious sacrifice, one of only seven of their
kind left alive on the Earth. Jesus was
a precious sacrifice too, the only Son of God.
The ark is symbolic of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, which
saves us from destruction due to sin, if we enter into it and remain. Genesis
6-8
Abraham was instructed by God to take his only son
with his wife Sarah, Isaac, and go to mountains of Moriah. There he was to sacrifice his son on an
altar. Abraham obeyed, and just as he
was about to plunge the knife down, God intervened and stopped him. He provided a ram as a substitution for
Isaac, which Abraham took and sacrificed on the altar. Isaac symbolizes the only son of God offered
up as a sacrifice. The innocent ram
provided as a substitute for another is also symbolic of Christ’ death on the
cross for us. The mountains of Moriah
are where Jerusalem would
later be established. It is very likely
that this altar where
