3:21 — The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
[T - OL ]
The narrative quickly returns to Yahweh, reporting Him making garments of skins for the couple. This is an amazing act, first, of condescension; He willing turned tailor for their sake, a portent of the Son of Man coming "not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matt 20:28). Secondly, it is an act of expectation. "This means," says Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "that God accepts men as they are, as fallen. He affirms them as fallen. He does not expose them before one another in their nakedness, he himself covers them."1 The First Couple were right in their perception of their own nakedness and shame and had, appropriately made clothes of fig leaves for themselves. Now Yahweh clothes them with something more appropriate, His own clothes. These clothes would serve as a constant reminder to the couple that they are fallen and must now relate to Him as such. They may hide their shame and nakedness but only on His terms, not theirs. They shall not find a place in his presence dressed in their fig leaves. This too portents the day when the human race may, if they would trust Him, be clothed in Christ's righteousness and counted worthy to stand before Him not in shame but in praise, thanksgiving and glory.
Much have been made of the fact that these garments are katenot 'od, "garments of skins," suggesting that blood had been shed in their preparation; these serves as a type or an analogy of the shed blood of Christ which alone would suffice to atone for human sin. Perhaps, but if the author intended his text to be understood this way, he kept the idea way back on the stage of his story.
You may wish to read the following commentaries-expositions:
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2016