FORESHADOWING GOD'S GRACE, ACCESS, AND IDENTITY

FORESHADOWING

A literary device deployed by the Author that provides a hint or prediction to the reader of future developments. There are great examples of foreshadowing in the Bible. In fact, the reader misses a great deal of the continuity between the First Testament and the Second Testament if they are unable to pick up on the literary device of foreshadowing. Early in the First Testament we see intentional uses of foreshadowing designed to point to a future event or concept. Here are just a few examples:

Once Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit and realize their nakedness or shame in the presence of God they hide. God asks Adam, “Where are you?” God asks this question not because he is unaware of Adam's location or that Adam is a master hide-and-seek player. Instead, God is asking the question to suggest that Adam’s proximity has now changed. What was once a close proximal relationship, God walked with Adam in the Garden, is now a fragmented relationship distanced by sin. As a result, we are told in the text that God provided animal skins as a covering for Adam and Eve to cloth their shame and bring them back into proximity. This is important because this narrative is full of foreshadowing and type scenes that point to other narratives in scripture. 

First, the idea that God would be the initiator of bridging the gap of the relational distance between the hiding Adam hints to a future time when God would put on human flesh to reconcile us to Himself by bringing us back into close proximity. (Side note, the term “proximity” is intended to be a metaphor for community, closeness to the point of attachment, or not aloneness. Theologically, the first reconciliation that occurred in the Garden, God giving Adam and Eve covering should not be identified with reconciliation made possible in salvation that we will see in the work of Jesus on the cross and in the waters of baptism. Instead, God bringing Adam and Eve back into proximity is God’s way of retaining a connection that fosters relationship. There is hope in God’s desire not to leave us “hiding” in our sin and shame. The first prevenient act of grace ("Prevenient" the grace that goes before) is God keeping man in close proximal distance for our sake not his. By being in close proximity, we are able to experience God’s subsequent acts of grace.) 

A quick example of proximal distance that leads to salvation is the type scene of Rahab. We all know the story of Rahab as the prostitute that worked in collusion with the Israelite terrorists in the overthrow of Jericho. But the rest of Rahab’s story that puts her in the lineage of Jesus is her story of salvation. After the fall of Jericho, Rahab was invited to live in close “proximity” with Israel. She was not given full access to domicile as a proselytized Israelite, but instead, she was invited to live all the years of her life in close proximity or outside the camp of

Israel. She would later take an Israelite husband and would ultimately find her place in the family tree of Jesus. The metaphor of “proximity” speaks of God’s desire for closeness even when our condition is one of shame and unrighteousness. This should should help us to re-calibrate "those" types of people that we think God has little use to show mercy and grace. Isn't interesting that Rahab is a foreshadowing of God's grace act to take those outside of Israel and offer salvation so as to graft them into the family. Rahab's proximity is a theological type scence pointing to the promise God would make to Abraham concerning his many descendants. The rest of the story is Rahab would marry the Israelite Salmon one of the spies. Rahab would be the mother of Boaz. The same Boaz who was the kinsmen redeemer who married the Moabites Ruth. Notice the narrative connections between Rahab's proximal distance to Israel and now her Israelite son would extend the same proximal grace to Ruth a non-Israelite. From this vantage point, God has always been interested in taking those who are "far off" and brining them close. You feel free to scan your own network and determine who you think are "far off" from God's standards. Guess what? God came to rescue them. So shouldn't we be equally interested in preserving proximity? Just a thought. 

Second, the skins provided to cloth Adam and Eve are less about physical covering as it is about identity covering. There are two actions of foreshadowing in this scene. There is intimation that God made a blood sacrifice in order to prepare the skin covering. There are two occurrences of death that took place in the Garden. Adam and Eve experienced a type of death by disobeying God. In fact, physical death is introduced to humanity through this act to treason. There is also a sacrificial death of the animal to provide the covering that would restore close proximal distance. This is significant because it points to another element in the narrative of scripture of blood sacrifice to atone or cover for spiritual death and bring back into closeness or community. Theologically it would be appropriate to identify God’s provisions of animal skins as a type scene to the bloodletting that would occur for humanity in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. 

The idea that we experience identity covering is a central theme in the Bible. Our original image was marred or damaged because of sin. God in his infinite love and divine pursuit always imagined a time that He would re-image us back to our original state when His declarative statement at creation can be confirmed again, "It is Good!" Adam and Eve's covering of their shame is less for God's purpose as it is for ours. This simple act illustrates a character trait of our creator that should not go unnoticed. God takes extra provision to protect our self image. Love never belittles or humiliates. Rather, love requires that those who are hurt are protected and their dignity preserved. There are lessons for us from God's

character. If, in our desire to issue punitive measures on those who we believe deserve our judgmental gaze, we do not first retain their dignity and self worth we are not acting in alignment with what love requires. I fear there are more churches that fail to first provide "covering" because of their haste to inflict shame and punishment. It is no coincidence that Adam and Eve's shame was their physical nakedness. 

This passage reeks of sexual immorality. No that Adam and Eve demonstrated sexual acts of sin, but exposure of our most vulnerable parts require extra acts of grace to restore in dignity and love. While this tangent is not intended to be a primary text for how faith communities should deal with sexual sins within their community, it is intended to be a reminder that if we are not overreaching in our acts of grace to first provide dignified covering, then we may be missing God's model of restoration. In contemporary culture, the people groups that chose same sex attraction and relationships should not be treated as "naked" individuals. Instead, churches should first find ways to "cloth" them so as to restore proximity. Without proximal distance, there will never be restoration. At this point, I leave this up to your faith community on what that looks like and how that functions.