Clothing Thru The Ages

Clothing has changed so much that even now we are not dressed as people were twenty years
ago. All you have to do is get out an old photograph to see that quite clearly. Rest assured, we
certainly are not dressed as people were fifty years ago. Styles change and we accept those
changes, therefore we cannot assume that any one style of clothing is natural or inherent or
universal. Evidently then, resisting change of any kind is not what constitutes modesty as such.
Neither can we assume that resisting change in styles makes us right.

We  want  to consider that which was from the beginning

so we go back to the Biblical principles regarding nakedness. The Bible teaches that
nakedness is both a shame and a symbol of shame. In the very beginning, God set standards
of dress and undress, modesty and immodesty. After Adam and Eve had sinned, they knew
they were naked and they hid themselves....which is more than some today know and do!!

The Bible states that Adam and Eve "made themselves aprons." The marginal rendering says
they made girdles; the Hebrew word is "chagorah" indicating a garment around the mid-section.
But they still hid themselves from the presence of God even after they had thusly "clothed"
themselves. They still felt uncomfortable about the situation.

They made garments to gird themselves about the mid section but God was not satisfied. The
Bible says in Genesis 3:21, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of
skins and clothed them." He not only clothed them but He clothed them modestly. It is not
enough to be clothed; we must be modestly clothed. Remember that with just their mid-sections
girt about, they were still naked in the sight of God. I would highly suspect that some of the
things people wear today also make them naked in the sight of Almighty God.

We must realize that when God made them coats of skins and clothed them, it was for
concealing, not for revealing. One would highly suspect that those coats of skins did not do
much for the figure, but it did clothe them and that was God's purpose. You will notice that God
also made Adam a coat of skin. Sometimes men and boys feel they may clad themselves in
swim trunks or cut off jeans and parade themselves in public and feel all is well because they
happen to be male. God made Adam a coat, too, and clothed his nakedness.

In Genesis 9:20-25 we have another principal in regard to nakedness. Noah "was drunken." He
was "uncovered."

He was "naked" the Bible says, and when you get uncovered certainly that word is applicable. If
you remember, his sons, lest they see then father's nakedness, put upon their shoulders a
garment and went backward and covered him. God is saying that any time nakedness exists to
any degree we need a covering-even with a father-son relationship.

This can also be a symbolic matter. Isaiah 47 is prophesying the destruction of Babylon and its
desolation. I want you to notice what he has to say-beginning in verse 1, "Come down, and sit
in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of
the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and
grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy
nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will
not meet thee as a man." God is simply saying to them that He was going to expose them and
their wickedness and uses this particular figure of gathering up the garments to cross over a
river. I would point this out...when the thigh was exposed, God said their "nakedness" was
uncovered. I think that is worthy of note.

In Revelation 3:18 He exhorts, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou
mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness do not appear." It is possible in God's eyes to be clothed and still be naked. One
does not have to be "naked" in the sense the world uses it to be naked in the sense God uses
it. In Job 22:6 God said, "For thou hast taken a pledge from His brother for nought, and
stripped the naked of their clothing." He has reference to the fact that they were so thinly clad,
so barely covered, that God said they were naked. I would suspect that this is the same thing
He has in mind in James 2:15. "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food..." He
is not referring to someone stark naked as we use the term today; he is

simply saying that if they are so thinly and poorly clad that they are hardly able to cover their
nakedness, help them.

In John 21:7 Peter had gone fishing and saw the Lord on the shore. The Bible says "he girt his
fisher's coat unto him (for he was naked)." We just assume that means what we call it today,
but I'll assure you that this is not the case. He had taken off his outer coat but he was still clad
in an under coat, a linen garment which fishermen of that time wore. However, with that only,
the Bible says he was "naked," so he put on his outer coat over his under coat. "Clothing" is
not enough. It must be modest or God-directed clothing.

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