Bookends

I saw an editorial cartoon this week which gave me a chuckle, more because it seems to indicate that even a few folks who generally seem clueless to what is happening in the world may be starting to at least have a few questions.  In the living room of a glass house sat a man and wife, obviously concerned about all of the satellites, surveillance vans, men with binoculars and wiretaps, and other police state paraphernalia which was trained on them.  The caption read, “I thought transparency was supposed to apply to the GOVERNMENT.”

The cartoonist missed the a trick, however, because the man and woman were clothed:  he forgot about the backscatter millimeter wave naked body scanners, which have now migrated from airports to mobile tax-supported vans.

All of which is an introduction to the topic which was already on my mind anyway, right from Bereshiet/Genesis 2:25, “And they were both naked, the man [adam] and his wife [isha], and were not ashamed.”
As it turns out, however, they might be considered to have been ‘covered’ by YHVH, while they were in obedience to Him and under His care.  It wasn’t until a bit later (v 3:7), after eating of the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that ” the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked…

Note the sequence of events carefully here; we’ll get back to the comic in a minute.  While the original man and his wife were under obedience to their Creator, they were naked before Him, but not not ashamed.  But when they went into rebellion against Him, and broke the single commandment they had been given, they were exiled from that Garden.

I often note the beautiful symmetry of many teachings in Scripture.  Some prophecies are cyclical, and foreshadow events which repeat, often on multiple levels and multiple times.  Some events are foreshadowed.  Some aspects of that concept have even been described with the summary “as with the fathers, so the sons”.  Both Abraham and his son, for example, committed almost identical acts of putting their wives at risk by denying (or at least “fudging”) their relationship.  And the generation which sees the ‘Greater Exodus’ may well recognize the prophetic parallels of the one our ancient fathers saw.

But there is a ‘bookend’ to that story of the original garden, which this concept of ‘nakedness’ before a master seems to help expose, it you will pardon the multiple puns.

The ‘prince of this world’ is not very original.  He copies the true Creator.  He, too, has commandments, demands tribute, and offers his own “blessings and curses” for obedience and resistance.

Modern slaves of Caesar, or “Big Brother” if you prefer, are also required to stand naked before their chosen master.  They submit to his searches, his wiretaps, his economic surveillance, his ‘naked body scans’.  And most of them don’t even know they are naked (see Rev. 3:17, for example.)

What struck me when I thought about that editorial cartoon of the ‘man and his wife’ sitting in a glass house, who didn’t know that they were ALSO naked before their false ‘mighty ones’, was that this, too, was a “bookend” in Scripture:

The first adam (literally Hebrew for ‘man’) was naked, but not ashamed, arguably because he was covered by his Creator.  But when they rebelled, and ate of the forbidden fruit of knowledge, they were put out of the garden. (1)

Modern adam is also naked, and clothed instead only in ignorance.  His ‘covering’ by the prince of this world has more in common with the “Emperor’s New Clothes” than the white garments described in Biblical prophecy.  And the new “garden” is a fake as well…from the ‘knowledge’ infused at the Government Indoctrination Centers and media Ministries of Propaganda, to promises of earthly salvation via tree-hugging rather than fruit consumption.

Everything about the original story has now been turned upside-down…except those two Original Lies.  (2)

Adam was put out of the Garden of Eden.  We must choose to COME OUT of the imitation.

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1)  The Hebrew word used in Gen. 3:23 is shalach, meaning send out, or put away.  It is the very same word later used as part of the process for divorce.

2)  “You shall not surely die”, and “you can be like Elohim…” (Bereshiet/Genesis 3:4-5)

About mark

Semi-retired electronic engineer, turned author and lecturer; occasional radio talk show host, and motivated Torah/Bible teacher. Also an avid private pilot (Private, ASEL, Inst), radio amateur, scuba diver, and aspiring sailor.
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2 Responses to Bookends

  1. Zane Jester says:

    You write Hot articles,keep up good work.

  2. Daniel says:

    great post, thanks for sharing

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