God Does Not Change
Mal 3:6 For I am Jehovah, I change not. Because of this you sons of Jacob are not destroyed.
Psa 89:34 I will not break My covenant, nor change the thing that has gone out of My lips.
Heb 6:17 In this way desiring to declare more fully to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, God interposed by an oath,
Heb 6:18 so that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,
1Jn 1:5 And this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
Given the facts that God does not change, does not break a covenant, does not lie and does not sin, how do we explain the following changes? In the beginning, we are led to believe that God regularly walked with Adam & Eve in the garden.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God in the middle of the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 And Jehovah God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you?
Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself. Yet, later, it was necessary that Moses not see God directly and that priests could only go into the Holy of Holies in God’s temple or they would die. Why could man no longer walk with God?
Exo 19:22 And let the priests also, who come near to Jehovah, sanctify themselves, lest Jehovah break forth upon them.
Exo 33:17 And Jehovah said to Moses, I will do this thing also that you have spoken. For you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.
Exo 33:18 And he said, I beseech You, let me see Your glory.
Exo 33:19 And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah before you. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
Exo 33:20 And He said, You cannot see My face. For there no man can see Me and live.
Exo 33:21 And Jehovah said, Behold! There is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon a rock.
Exo 33:22 And it will be, while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
Exo 33:23 And I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back parts. But My face shall not be seen.
The answer: Man had changed. Sin had entered man and since sin cannot even be in the presence of God, neither could man without God’s protection. Eventually, in heaven, this barrier will be no more and once again man and God may walk together. Likewise, in the beginning, it was perfectly acceptable for man to be naked, but after sin had entered the picture, God covered them.
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife; and they were not ashamed.
Gen 3:21 And for Adam and his wife Jehovah God made coats of skins, and clothed them. Now, because Adam and Eve saw nakedness as sin, God provided a means that they would not consider they had to be in sin.
The fig leaves that Adam and Eve had made were not a good covering. In another sense, God also provided a covering since they no longer had God’s spiritual covering to protect them against sin. The spilt blood necessary for the animal covering also became their sin covering offered during old testament sacrifices.