The past couple days I've been thinking about the first person (since the creation of man in Gn. 1:26) to shed blood. While most people would say it was Cain, the truth is, it was someone far more unexpected. This is from just after man's fall into sin:
And for Adam and his wife Jehovah God made coats of skins, and clothed them. Gn. 3:21
We can't be sure how long Adam and Eve were in the garden before they sinned for it is only recorded that Adam was 130yrs when he had Seth. We don't know if the 130 years is from creation or from the fall into sin when man first started 'dying'. Up until the fall, the herbs, fruit from trees and plants were food. After the fall, man tried to fix themselves, "...And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made girdles for themselves." (Gn. 3:7)
Imagine what would happen with man's solution to their own problem. Just how long do you think sewn fig leaves would last? Do you think they'd even survive one night let alone a few hours of movement? But man didn't need to follow their own ideas of what to do next; they could have called on the Lord right away- but they didn't. Meanwhile, the Lord already knew what they were up to and came prepared to show them the way of salvation.
Jehovah God (plural here) made Adam and Eve something far more durable, comfortable, warmer, and at the same time, killed an animal to do so. The clue is in the word made (asah- fashioned) as opposes to create (bara- bring into being). In other words, since God didn't create the skin, he had to get it somewhere and that would be an animal which would have to die for the cause.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood... Lv. 17:11,14
...and without shedding of blood is no remission. Hb. 9:22
And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat of it. And Jehovah had respect to Abel and to his offering, Gn. 4:4
...and without shedding of blood is no remission. Hb. 9:22
And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat of it. And Jehovah had respect to Abel and to his offering, Gn. 4:4
God was the first to shed blood in order that man could understand the way of salvation was only through sacrifice and blood. Adam and Eve totally grasped this vivid picture lesson provided by Jehovah. Sacrifice. Blood. Sin covered. Sacrificing to God for remissions of sin (Lv. 5:10) began and Jehovah had provided a way to restore relationship with man once again.
The coats of skins were the first evidence of God's eternal redemption, a shadow of things to come (Hb. 10:1), planned since the beginning through Jesus Christ (1Pt. 1:19,20). Man's own solution to his sin was never going to restore his relationship to God, but God's perfect plan through the sacrifice and blood (1Jh. 1:7b) of his sinless (Hb. 4:15) Son would do it and would result in eternal life for those who choose to follow Him.
It's our choice... life or death.
(John said about Jesus)
...Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Jh. 1:29
...but by His own blood He entered once for all into the Holies,
...but by His own blood He entered once for all into the Holies,
having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Hb. 9:12