The Discovery of Genesis (50 page)

Happily, the character for
grave
also carries a promise of future
glory
to all who return to dust believing in the saving blood of Jesus Christ. Paul states: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust [Adam], we shall also bear the image of the man of Heaven [Christ]” (I Corinthians 15:49). That image is His glory–His perfect character, as explained in Romans 8:29,30: “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of His Son
, … And those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called He also justified; and those whom He justified He also
glorified.
”

God did not mete out justice without mercy, for He looked upon the man and woman whom He had created and, with great love and concern, provided for them new garments, symbolizing the hope of salvation from their fallen state. “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). This meant the taking of animals’ lives for the first time as God made garments of the skins, symbolic of the future death of His own Son, the Lamb of God, as the world’s Savior. Their improvised aprons of fig leaves were replaced, and they had a new
appearance or form
. The
offenders
(doubled)
were covered by woolly (
hairy
)
garments. An ancient sheep radical also demonstrates this “woolly” appearance
.

The radical for
clothing
likewise shows that God provided a
covering
for the guilty pair
(recall the discussion of
garden
on page 60, which portrays a
man
with a second
person
issuing from his side). This is seen even more clearly in the older calligraphy as
, or
. The
two persons
are depicted as
,
or
.