Blinded and Clothed by Glory

Scripture often hints that God is clothed in light or glory, like a robe or garment. It makes perfect sense that man, created in the image and likeness of God, would have been similarly clothed with glory when first created. Yes, Adam and Eve were indeed physically naked, but there is a deeper truth: they were clothed in God’s glory which blinded or shielded their eyes from seeing their nakedness. The moment they ate from the forbidden tree the glory left them and their eyes were opened. They knew nakedness as evil and the need to cover it as good. 

At first, man didn’t concern himself with what was good or evil; it was God who determined what was good or evil for him. Knowing good and evil was a manifestation of thinking he (Man) no longer needed God. When God was solely responsible for man. He said it was not GOOD for man to be alone. But after eating from the forbidden tree, man could make that decision for himself. The DECEPTION however is that man's knowledge of good and evil is corrupted, and even if he knows what is good, he doesn’t know how to respond correctly. For example, Adam and Eve knew it was evil to be naked, and it was good to be clothed. Their solution was to cover themselves with leaves, whereas when God was in charge, His solution was to clothe them in glory.

God didn’t want man to know good and evil because man cannot know what is truly good for himself. He will always be guided by his feelings. We clearly see this in Eve, who saw that the tree was GOOD for food. If Adam had known good and evil before God formed the woman, he might have realized it wasn’t good for him to be alone like God did. But what would he have done? He might have married an animal. It was God who knew it wasn’t GOOD for him to be alone and made a woman for him. 

This is why many people today know it’s not good for them to be alone, but they feel the need for extramarital affairs, fornication, bestiality, or homosexual relationships—they feel the need to act without depending on God.

A surprising event in the story was that Eve already had a sense of what was good for her even before eating from the tree. How did she know the forbidden fruit was good for food when she had not eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? To understand this better, let’s compare it to how we are saved: first, we believe in our hearts, and second, we confess with our mouths. In Eve's case, her heart believed Satan's word, and she ate the fruit with her mouth, essentially confessing her decision to rebel. Two things are required for salvation or condemnation: the heart and the mouth. 

All these events led to God saying, "Man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil." While this was true, the deception Satan hid from them was that man wouldn’t know how to act, even though he knew good and evil. In His mercy, God prevented man from eating from the Tree of Life so that he would not remain in a fallen state of damnation forever, forever lost in deciding and choosing what is wrong despite knowing good and evil. Now, Jesus came and because He is God's Son He chose good and did it exactly the way God would have done it (without perversion). He did this when He decided in the Garden of Gethsemane that He would die for mankind. Now, we have Him as our Shepherd, and only Him can guide us for we have been clothed with His works and are no longer naked.