God and Nakedness
The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. [Gen. 2:25] It may seem strange that Adam and Eve were not ashamed of their nakedness before they fell into sin. Yet afterward their first thought seems to have been the shame of their uncovering. This needs to be understood in the context of Genesis 3, where, after they sinned against God, “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked” (3:7). This verse does not say they realized they had sinned. Rather, the first change in their psychology was the overwhelming realization of their nakedness, and their first impulse was to cover themselves. When God asked Adam why he was hiding Adam said it was because he was naked (v. 10). He had been naked when God spoke with him before. What was different now? Adam was no longer comfortable being naked in God’s presence. A deep psychological connection exists between nakedness and shame. Two things stand out in this passage. The first is that each of u