God has not given it to the natural man to understand or accept that He is causing or working all things, the good and the evil, in His creation and that He is righteous in all of this (1Co 2:14, Rom 9:19-21). Spiritual blindness is indeed a work of God (Psa 107:8, 1Co 1:27-29, 1Co 2:7, Rom 11:25, Col 1:26):

Isa 29:14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
Isa 29:15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
Isa 29:16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

God is spirit, and God is holy, but He created evil and sinful flesh to fulfill His purposes, even in the physical Adam and Eve (Isa 45:7, Jer 18:4, Rom 8:20). When God created them, they were not given the spirit of the Father, but the breath or spirit of the world (Gen 2:7, Pro 16:4, Heb 12:9). This worldly spirit in their hearts was revealed before they ate of the forbidden fruit:

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [“the lust of the flesh”], and that it was pleasant to the eyes [“the lust of the eyes”], and a tree to be desired to make one wise [“the pride of life”], she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

These lusts and the pride ‘in the world; have intimate links with the shame or the nakedness of the first man Adam:

Pro 11:2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.

Pro 3:35 The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

Adam and Eve were not wise and did not have spiritual glory. Their proud hearts and minds revealed their shame. After Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent to disobey God’s commandment, this very important aspect became clear to them, which was hidden up until this point:

Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Nakedness was not a consequence of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, because they were just as naked as before they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Neither the tree nor the fruit caused their nakedness. They were made naked by God. Nobody undressed them, neither did they ‘fall’ as some believe. No, they simply did not have “the robe of righteousness” as yet. This godly ‘robe’ is only being acquired through Christ, the last Adam, when we will be changed from this corruptible flesh to which the prophet Isaiah also alludes:

Isa 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

“The eyes of them were opened” and Adam and Eve could see their own nakedness in the proper light for the first time. Nakedness or being ‘uncovered’ is an important foundational theme which links directly with the pride and the lusts which were inherent in the hearts of Adam and Eve. Through this revelation we start to see our overwhelming need to obtain proper and adequate ‘clothing’ which God supplies at a later stage. This is also one of the main focuses of the book of Genesis where God wants to show mankind his marred and sinful condition and his need for a Saviour [We will discuss the theme of a ‘covering’ in our next study, #22]. Adam and Eve became aware that they were not appropriately dressed to be in God’s presence. Nakedness is not the way we want to appear before God. There are still many important lessons to be learned before naked flesh gets the full and proper ‘covering’ which God alone supplies. In the Scriptures nakedness is referred to as a shame, and it is indeed a sad spiritual position to be in:

Isa 47:3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man [Hebrew: adam].

Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Jer 49:10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.

God will not spare the first man Adam! Adam’s seed in all his generations is ‘spoiled’ and in darkness from the beginning and cannot be productive in the spiritual kingdom of God (Gen 1:2-3, 1Co 15:50). This spiritual darkness or blindness in the first man Adam in us is the creation and work of God (Isa 45:7).

Joh 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Nakedness in Scripture is referring to our first carnal eon (age) in the first Adam when we do not have spiritual knowledge or insight and when we unashamedly follow our flesh and its inherent pride and lusts. Flesh is sin and shameful (Psa 51:5, Mat 19:17, Rom 7:17-20). This relates very closely to the sin offering which was instituted because of the “sin through ignorance” of which all in the generation of the first Adam are guilty, being made in marred bodies of sin by the hand of the Potter (Jer 18:4). This applies also to Jesus Christ, our high priest, who came in the same naked flesh as the first Adam although He never committed a single trespass while in this “body of sin” (Heb 2:9-18, Rom 6:6, 2Co 5:21, Rom 4:25). Like Adam and Eve, our own trespasses reveal to us our sinful condition and that is how we approach God through the five offerings as typified in the old covenant (Lev 1-7). This also helps our understanding to see the important difference between the sin offering and the trespass offering:

Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Lev 4:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 4:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:
Lev 4:3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering.

Flesh at its best displays and forms is nakedness and shameful to the spiritual eye. God does not want any nakedness to be seen at His altar. No steps were allowed at the altar of God (self-exaltation or high-mindedness). Only heathens have “high places” where they sacrifice, which indicates their own low spiritual ‘valleys’ (Jer 7:31, Num 33:52, Lev 26:30, Isa 16:12),

Exo 20:25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Exo 20:26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.

We are “uncovered” when we are intoxicated with the wine (false doctrines) of our own carnal ‘vineyard’.

Gen 9:20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
Gen 9:21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

God and His true spiritual sons have no desire to see next of kin spiritually ‘uncovered’. God only uses nakedness for His purpose. The prophet Isaiah had to walk ‘uncovered’ for three years for a special purpose – to reveal what flesh (Egypt and Ethiopia) is and the judgment it will have to endure:

Isa 20:2 At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
Isa 20:3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;
Isa 20:4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
Isa 20:5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

We forsake and betray Jesus and His doctrine when we are naked:

Mar 14:50 And they all forsook him, and fled.
Mar 14:51 And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him:
Mar 14:52 And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

Our nakedness is also seen when we walk with unclean spirits among the spiritual dead as we have not the true spiritual house, and we wander in the wilderness when we are bound with chains and fetters – our earthly Eden of fleshly lusts and pride:

Luk 8:26 And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
Luk 8:27 And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
Luk 8:28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
Luk 8:29 (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)

Even when we received our first deadly wound, which is healed very quickly, we look with lust in our heart as we “go and fall backward” into our harlot mother’s womb. There we are more comfortable being naked in the night in our ship on the sea of vomit and sin as we openly display a lack of spiritual understanding and wisdom (Rev 13:3, Joh 3:4, 1Co 5:1-2, Eze 16:7, 22, 39, Mat 5:28, Pro 6:32). Only “when the morning comes” can we see and obey God’s word properly:

Joh 21:1 After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself.
Joh 21:2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
Joh 21:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
Joh 21:4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
Joh 21:5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
Joh 21:6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Joh 21:7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.

While we are in this spiritual stillborn state, we are not ashamed of our nakedness at all and we are “breathing out threatenings and slaughter” against the true elect thinking we do God a service:

Jer 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Pro 30:20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Act 9:1 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest.

Naturally we believe we are blessed when everything is good on the outside – we are like Adam and Eve, unashamed or unaware of our ignorance and darkness:

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Everyone in the first Adam is naturally incapable of doing the right thing. We cannot obey the commandment or law of God, like naked physical Israel who worshipped a golden calf in their impatience and insecurities:

Exo 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies).

Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

A wife is “uncovered” when she cannot see that her relationship with her own husband shows her spiritual knowledge and understanding of “the only true God, and Jesus Christ”, just as a man who cannot see that his Head is Christ (Joh 17:3, Rom 1:20):

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

This also refers to those who will come up in the second resurrection without Christ as their cover as yet (1Co 15:40, Rev 20:11-13):

2Co 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

In our next discussion, God willing, we will look at what is meant with the proper covering and why we should not uncover the nakedness of our near of kin:

Lev 18:6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.

[Detailed studies and emails written by Mike Vinson relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the www. iswasandwillbe. com website, including:]
Dealing with the Feelings of Guilt
What the Spirit says to the Angel of the Church in Laodicea – Part 2
The Trespass Offering
The Sin Offering
Was Adam Created Sin?