Camelot, O Camelot

Genesis 2:25

Camelot, O Camelot

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

In the stage version of the King Arthur story, Camelot, there is a plaintive scene in which the ageing king sings the glories of his once perfect Camelot. It was a paradise, a most convenient spot, he says. However, Camelot was marred by the adultery of Guinevere and Lancelot and by the civil wars which followed to destroy the kingdom. As the sad monarch sings, Camelot exists only as a memory.

As we read the last verse of Genesis 2 we may well let our thoughts drift to such a scene, for Genesis 2:25 is a eulogy to the glory of Adam and Eve in Paradise before the Fall. The text states, The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. We have witnessed the preparation of Adam for Eve and of Eve for Adam in earlier verses. We saw Adam’s reaction as God presented this first glorious bride to Adam and as the Creator Himself performed the first wedding ceremony.

Were this a Hollywood presentation the music would swell to a loud crescendo at this point and the action would end with the two glorious beings gazing into one another’s eyes. Everyone would understand that the virile man and the glamorous woman would now live happily ever after. But this is not Hollywood. This is the Word of God—reality. Therefore the text describes the scene in anticipation of pending loss.

The verse is a bridge to chapter three. Adam and Eve were naked. We are all born naked. Job spoke for each of us when he said, Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart [Job 1:21]. There is a disturbing difference between this verse and our own situation. For us, nakedness involves shame; but for Adam and Eve there was no shame in their nakedness. That shame was acquired through the Fall.

Sin and Nakedness — A little boy opened the big and old family Bible with fascination, looking at the old pages as he turned them. Then something fell out of the Bible and he picked it up and looked at it closely. It was an old leaf from a tree that had been pressed in between the pages. “Momma, look what I found,” the boy called out. “What have you got there, dear?” his mother asked. With astonishment in the young boy’s voice he answered, “It’s Adam’s suit!”

Do not become so spiritual that you miss the practical impact of the Word of God. The man and the woman were naked. Otherwise, why would they later attempt to clothe themselves with fig leaves. You see, that later incident makes no sense unless the man and woman were actually physically naked. However, do not miss the point that their nakedness was more than mere physical nakedness … just as their fear after the Fall was more than mere fear of exposure.

The shame of nakedness is linked in unmistakable terms to sin in chapter three. Satan deceived the woman. The woman presented forbidden fruit to the man and urged him to join her in rebellion. The man, deliberately and with full knowledge of his action, chose to join the woman in rebellion against the command of God. Immediately after this rebellion we read, The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised they were naked [Genesis 3:7].

What is going on? It is not that either Adam or Eve has been blind and suddenly they can see! Their eyes were not opened physically for the first time. After all, Adam had studied the animals and named them according to their evident characteristics. He had seen the woman when she was presented to him and made his pronouncement based upon her nature. Adam didn’t just notice for the first time that Eve was naked. Eve didn’t notice for the first time that Adam was naked. What we are witnessing is the impact arising from the knowledge of their spiritual nakedness. For the first time they are naked before Holy God against whom they sinned. It was their sinful state they were aware of and which their nakedness symbolised.

R. C. Sproul of the Ligonier Valley Study Center has analysed nakedness from the perspective of our culture. He shows how we fear exposure. According to Sproul staring shows our ambiguity in being looked at by other people. On the one hand we want to be noticed by other people. Should someone pass through the room where we are seated and fail to even cast a glance in our direction, we are offended. “You didn’t even take notice of me!” we are tempted to say. However, if that same person enters the room, sits down and stares at us, we are also offended—only more so. Our reaction in this instance is, “Why are you staring? What do you want? Mind your own business!”

Why should we react so in two completely different scenarios? We want to be noticed because we are persons, made in the image of the personal God. It is a most human of characteristics which makes us want to be noticed. On the other hand we are uncomfortable when people stare at us because we associate staring with the invasion of our privacy. We are ashamed to have someone pry into our private lives. We all wear masks, pretending to be what we think other people will respect and admire. We project these false images but we also reveal what we actually are through the choice and use of clothing. That was true for Adam and Eve and it is true for us as well. Our first parents made clothing of fig leaves, and when they heard God coming they hid themselves knowing that their clothes were inadequate to disguise their true selves.[1]

Without Shame before God and Man — Before the Fall our first parents had nothing of which they needed to be ashamed. They were free to interact with God and they were free to interact with one another. They were real and not phoney, unlike the situation which affects each of us. Adam and Eve stood before God exposed and yet shameless. They conversed freely with God. Instead of openness with God and with one another, we tend to wear masks, hoping that people we can fool others into thinking well of us. Even youth, in their rebellion against the conformity which they suspect is demanded by their elders, conform to a bland sameness which they hope will make them acceptable to one another. Few people are open and real.

Solomon, among other writers of Scripture, struggled with this truth. Though the words may make you uncomfortable, listen to his startling assessment of mankind.

I found one upright man among a thousand,

but not one upright woman among them all

[Ecclesiastes 7:28b].

Would it surprise you were I to tell you that of the commentaries in my library, not one chose to comment on this verse at length? Most simply ignore the verse, pretending it doesn’t exist and failing to provide any statement of what is said. I do not think myself wiser than the translators of our Bible nor more astute than the commentators whose tomes grace my library shelves, but I have read the Hebrew and I see something somewhat different from what is presented in this translation.

ytiax;m; al¿ hL,aeAlk;b] hV;aiwÒ ytiax;m; #l,a,me dj;a, !d;a;

But a solitary upright man have I found among a thousand,

and no upright woman did I find among them all.

The emphasis is not upon what the Preacher found, but upon what is lacking. Whether searching among men or searching among women, wisdom is rare. Among the thousands in Solomon’s harem was to be found not one upright woman … not one woman possessing wisdom who would stand without fear or shame before God. Among a thousand men whom Solomon interviewed there was found none who would qualify as upright. The best case anyone can make for mankind is Solomon saying that among men perhaps one-tenth of one percent of all men endeavour to stand upright before God, but he has yet to find a woman though over a thousand were in his harem. More accurately, however, he is stating the obvious—honesty is rare. The reason I am confident that this accurately reflects the thrust of Solomon’s teaching is found in the verse which follows.

This only have I found:

God made mankind upright,

but men have gone in search of many schemes.

[Ecclesiastes 7:29].

We are not upright … and we know it. We are uncomfortable being ourselves before God. Despite knowing that God knows us, we yet think we can fool God. We say prayers, instead of praying. We carefully erect a façade of righteousness instead of being upright. We wear a patina of piety instead of being holy. Someone has said that we have peg-leg religion which we have to strap on every morning. Though it functions to get us around, it is cold and lifeless. When we are brutally honest with ourselves we must confess that too often we have become like the Pharisee whom Jesus employed as an illustration. You remember that Pharisee who stood up and prayed about himself? God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector [Luke 18:11].

Before the Fall, our first parents were used to intimacy with the Creator. God and man had stood together as man named the animals. God had communicated with the man (and through the man to the woman) the conditions for honouring Him, especially as related to their eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had presented the woman He made to the man, presiding over the first marriage ceremony. When we read Genesis 3:8 we have every reason to believe that Adam and Eve were used the presence of the Lord God as He walked about in the Garden. The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the Garden in the cool of the day…

For the most of mankind, there exists great discomfort at the thought of a God who sees beyond our masks. Consequently, because of our embarrassment we are compelled to take some form of action. Some of us will simply deny our sinfulness and thus we think we are coping with the problem of our inability to openly face Holy God. If we say we have no sin we imagine that He has no claim on us. Of course this is silly because every time we read the Bible or see a cross on a church or even hear a preacher we are reminded that Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice for sin. His death is meaningless unless all people are sinful. This is the reason the vast majority of Canadians want nothing to do with the church. The preaching of the Word makes them uncomfortable and they cannot stand to be confronted with the knowledge that God knows their sin.

At the extreme, some people go beyond denying their own sinfulness and deny God. If they are not sinful then there can be no God to make them uncomfortable. Thus they think they have solved the problem. They declare themselves to be atheists. The more perceptive among such fools declare themselves to be agnostics, saying that they can’t know if there is a God and they do not consider the answer to such a question to be of any great significance. These atheists and agnostics think they have thought through the issues and frequently imagine themselves to be deep thinkers and true philosophers. The Word of God more accurately identifies them, however.

The fool says in his heart,

“There is no God.”

They are corrupt, their deeds are vile.

[Psalm 14:1]

Unfortunately, there are few such atheists and agnostics to be found in church on a Sunday evening, but I do address Christians who are often tempted to become practical atheists. It is not so much that we decide that we will cease believing God, but we sin and in the knowledge that He knows us we are uncomfortable coming before Him. First we become sporadic in prayer and reading the Bible becomes such a chore that it is neglected. Then our time with God is not simply sporadic, but it ceases to exist.

Though we know the language, perhaps are even longing internally for fellowship, our refusal to humble ourselves before Him keeps us from openness. We are not restored to intimacy; instead we shrink from intimacy. We no longer wish to be known by God; we want to hide from Him. That is when we apply the camouflage, hoping to be taken as intimate with God though we are living a lie.

I still recall a young woman speaking with me who said that she once was a Christian. However, she had grown beyond that and now she no longer needed such emotional crutches. I asked her when she had ceased intimacy with God and she related a particular date. Prompted by the Spirit of God I asked, “What happened on that date?” Immediately that young woman broke into tears and soon confessed that on that date she began a relationship which she knew to be displeasing to God. Since that time she had discovered that whenever she tried to read the Bible it condemned her. Whenever she tried to pray the knowledge that she was living in rebellion against God condemned her. Condemned by the Word of God and condemned by her own spirit she was miserable and could not stand the accusation of her own heart. Her reaction was to cease walking with the Lord and to begin to say that she had grown beyond that need.

Adam and Eve were without shame before God. They enjoyed an intimacy which leaves us breathless to contemplate. There is another facet of their lack of shame. Their relationship to one another was real and not artificial. There is something beautiful about the relationship of a man and a woman in a Christian marriage. They openly share in a relationship which is closer to what we shall enjoy in heaven than any other relationship on earth can ever know. In such a marriage husband and wife permit themselves to be known as they are, without attempting to be something other than they are. They know one another’s flaws and imperfections, and yet they accept one another. In such a beautiful relationship they can be naked before one another, accepting one another. To be naked before your spouse and to know that you are accepted is beautiful.

However, even in the best of marriages we are nevertheless fearful of being known too well. In honesty, could you trust your spouse to accept you if they knew your every thought? Most of us have areas of our lives which will never be revealed to others, regardless of how close they are. We keep our guard up because we are uncomfortable being exposed for what we are. This can become apparent in a humorous sense by thinking back to the dating rituals in our society.

When a young man and a young woman first begin to date and are just getting to know one another, each is concerned about making a good impression. She invests considerable time in preparation, washing and styling her hair, applying make-up, choosing just the right clothing for the date so she can appear as attractive and sophisticated as possible. That young man is careful to comb his hair just so, adjust his clothing in just the right manner, and he is ever so careful to appear neither too eager nor too distant. They each want the other to think they are so very cool and desirable.

After the date each goes to their respective home and begins to think about the next date. Each begins to struggle with the conflict between image and reality. “What if he discovers I not as charming nor as sophisticated as he thinks I am?” she wonders. “Will she really like me if she discovers that I’m not as confident as I pretended to be,” he questions. Each struggle with the image they wish to present and who they really are.

As time passes and as they spend more time together, they slowly begin to reveal more and more respectively of their true identity. Perhaps he says something like, “You probably think I’m a pretty cool guy, and it’s true … I am. But you know I wasn’t always this way. About six or seven years ago when I was a kid, I was pretty awkward. Can you believe it? I was even uncomfortable around girls!” Then he stops. He won’t confess anything further because he is waiting for a response from the girl. He is hoping to hear something like, “That’s funny. When I was a kid I wasn’t very sophisticated. I wore braces and I was afraid of going out with boys.” You see, that young man is waiting for her response because if she makes a confession to match his he knows that he is accepted at that level. What he has revealed is acceptable and that means he can try for the next stage of openness.

With each succeeding date they may move closer, ever closer, to the present as each reveals something more about what they are like now. Eventually, if the relationship goes well they move toward engagement and they really let their hair down. They reveal their innermost thoughts. This slow waltz toward openness is a beautiful thing to behold and what Christian cannot help but rejoice in the honesty which is cultured as a couple move toward acceptance. However, even in the best of marriages there is much of inner feelings and past deeds which are never revealed to one another.

Isn’t that a shame? Even in the best of relationships we cannot be fully ourselves. Adam and Eve knew nothing of such holding back from one another. They were open and honest with one another. There was no sin. There was nothing to hide from one another. They were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Adam and Eve were without shame before God, and we can only envy them. They were naked and unashamed before one another and we long for such freedom and intimacy with one another. There is yet another area in which Adam and Eve were without shame and in which we can only marvel; they were shameless in their relationship to their own selves. Adam could look at himself without recrimination. Eve could see herself as she was and feel no remorse. We are each prone to look back upon our lives with varying degrees of regret and guilt, just as we see the presence of each day with some degree of knowledge that we cannot seize the day as we ought. In fact, this failure to seize the day is evident in the way in attempt to distract our minds at all times.

We move through this world at a mad pace and we hardly dare permit ourselves to slow down. We enter the room and the first thing we do is turn on the television or the radio. We can’t work without background music to keep us from thinking. We must have something playing on the television in order to fill our minds. Perhaps it is all the news all the time, the continuous canned laughter of some ribald sitcom, or the insistent rhythm of Much Music or CMT to distract us. We fill our heads with drivel because we do not want to think, to reflect, to ponder, to meditate.

We do not want to think because we fear that God may break in on our thoughts and reveal Himself. Should that happen we would discover what type of people we really are, and the pain of discovery of just how far we have fallen from the days in which our first parents walked with God in openness and honesty is more than we can bear. We dare not confront our own selves because it would prove too painful. This is tragic, because if we could but permit Him to work in our lives we would discover and receive the solution to our shame.

Naked and yet Clothed — You and I will never be able to say, “Here we stand before both God and man, without shame.” We do know shame. We cannot return to the days of primal innocence. Though there are individuals who practise nudity, claiming that they are ridding themselves of all inhibitions, they are not fully honest. They are dishonest before God and they still refuse to know themselves. There are others who form the cult of spiritual nudity, saying they just “let it all hang out.” They say whatever they want without regard to the consequences of their speech, thinking that such is honesty. Boorishness is not honesty. Crudeness is not openness.

When we begin to understand what it meant for the man and the woman to both be naked and to feel no shame, we experience a yearning for just such intimacy. We suffer pangs of nostalgia because we realise that this is a bygone day which will never return to earth again. Though we cannot return to that day, however much we may long for its return, we can look forward. It is in this act of looking to the future that we see the solution to our hunger. God is God of the future, just as He is God of the present and God of the past. If we are to experience openness and honesty, it will be because our God has intervened to make it possible to again walk in true innocence. The healing of our shame is witnessed in the continuing story of Genesis and I now encourage you to look forward to what would yet take place.

Adam and Eve did sin against God and brought on themselves the loss of innocence. God provided the means for our first parents to again stand before Him and to stand before one another. God provided, not innocence, which was now gone, but clothing. The clothing covered the guilt of Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:21 says, The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

This is a pattern for us. We cannot deny guilt, for guilt is present with us. The nudists say they are celebrating innocence, but even the nudists have doors, window blinds, shower curtains, and tinted windows … all speaking of our desire to hide ourselves from others. The entire garment industry provides testimony to our fallen condition. Even were these elements of society not with us, our constant attempts to mask our true identities from one another would speak eloquently of our guilt and of our shame. Our shame is effective evidence of the veracity of the Word of God, especially when it speaks of our need for salvation.

This is the glory of the Gospel, of course. God does deal with our guilt. He addressed our guilt, placing our sin on His Son who gave His life as a sacrifice for our sin. The death of the animals whose skins provided the first garments for our first parents points forward to the coming Lamb of God who would give His life as a ransom for many. With the shame of our first parents came the death of innocence, and in short order the death of innocent animals to provide atonement for their sin. Sin is real; but the atonement which God provides is equally real. There has been a payment in full to provide for our redemption and we need no longer pay the debt of sin. Those who have accepted the sacrifice of Christ the Lord are now clothed in His righteousness. We need no longer fear to stand before God, for though we cannot stand naked before Him we can stand clothed in the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ. Though we cannot stand before God in innocence, we can stand before Him without guilt. This is the heritage of those who have received the life which is found in Jesus the Lord.

Our Lord makes a beautiful promise in Revelation 3:4, 5. Those who have not soiled their clothing, those who have maintained their purity in the midst of this wicked world, will walk with Christ, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will … be dressed in white. Those coming our of the Great Tribulation were clothed in white robes, and they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb.”

[Revelation 7:10]

When Christ comes to put down all rebellion and to set up His reign on earth, the armies of heaven, the church of the Living God, will follow Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean [Revelation 19:14].

I have often spoken of the fact that God knows us. It is this divine knowledge which frightens us. We do not wish to be known because we realise that we are unworthy and because we know that we are sinful. However, we must understand that God’s knowledge cuts two ways. Yes, He knows our sin and our guilt, but we are loved and received despite our guilt and despite our shame. God knows us, and yet He loves us and has made provision for us. What marvellous grace!

We sing about this love and acceptance in our hymns.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress,

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly,

Wash me, Saviour, of I die![2] [204]

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress;

‘Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in Thy great day,

For who aught to my charge shall lay?

Fully absolved through these I am,

From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.[3] [193]

When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white?

Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright,

Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?[4] [190]

One day each member of the race shall stand before the judgement bar of God. Either we shall stand in the horror of spiritual and moral nakedness, condemned eternally as rebel sinners, or we shall stand clothed in Christ’s righteousness. Either we shall be forever turned away from the love of God, or we shall forever revel in that same love. The decision of how we shall be found in that awesome day when man must give an accounting to the Judge of all the universe is determined now. If you receive the grace of God extended in Jesus the Son of God you are set at liberty and all your sin is removed forever. If you reject that sacrifice, you must bear your own sin and you are even now condemned. Outside of Christ you are unclothed, and you shall be eternally ashamed.

The message of grace is that God has provided a covering for your guilt. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13]. Our invitation is that you trust Him, receiving His grace that your guilt may be covered permitting you to stand before Him without shame. Amen.

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[2] Rock of Ages, Augustus M. Toplady

[3] Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness, Nicolaus L. von Zinzendorf (translated by John Wesley)

[4] Are You Washed in the Blood?, Elisha A. Hoffman