Welcome back! It has been crazy over here for the past month and after a four-day weekend over New Year’s I finally feel like I’m catching my breath. I’m glad to get back into the swing of a normal routine, and I’ve enjoyed digging into John in preparation for these weekly posts. Today we’re going to look at John 1:14. Now, as has been mentioned before, this first chapter of John is absolutely packed. Every sentence has the potential to be studied from multiple angles and then taken in a myriad of directions. We aren’t going to go down every rabbit trail that comes into my mind (I promise!) but we are going to spend a few weeks on verses 14-18 alone. Today, we take our first look at verse 14. Here we go.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
My husband has begun closing our days with a bit of family Bible reading and prayer (love!). This evening we peaked into the third chapter of Genesis, which is the adrenaline-surging passage of God finding Adam and Eve in their sin. Having giggled last night at chapter two’s depiction of the man and woman in their innocent nakedness, our kids were quick to pick up the mention of garments, or clothing, in chapter 3. When Adam and Eve realized their nakedness, you remember, they pieced together garments from fig leaves to cover their skin (to hide their shame). But at the end of the chapter, before being expelled from the Garden, they were given covering of another kind.
And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
The word garments means tunics, and is usually translated coats. It is the same word used to describe Joseph’s coat of many colors. It refers to a literal piece of clothing and clothing, as we know, must be made out of material; the material in this case was skin.
“Where did He get the skins?” my husband asked the kids.
“From…animals?” You could see the wheels turing in their minds. “So,” one ventured, “He had to kill the animals?”
“That’s what’s implied,” said my husband. “Which would make for the very first deaths in all of creation. This was the first time anything had ever died.”
There are many things contingent on this thought–the thought of the first deaths coming at the point of The Fall–not the least of which is the old earth/young earth debate about Creation. My husband brushed past these, though, to capture the heart:
“You see,” he said, “sin against God is such that something innocent had to die in order for Adam and Eve to live.”
Something innocent. Something alive. Something with a potential for death.
The Word became flesh.
How could He have become anything else?
So enjoy “Wednesday in the Word!”
Today is the first day I use your Blog as part of my morning devotional. I’m looking forward to Wednesday in the Word!