God told Adam, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” (Genesis 1:29)
God gives Adam and Eve a simple fact about the trees: they were there for food.
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)
And, He made the trees so that they were pleasing to the eye, making the fruit desirable to be eaten.
And the serpent said unto the woman, You will not die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:4-6)
But, here, the Tempter played with God’s instructions, twisted a lie into the truth, and played off the attribute of that tree, that the other trees did not possess.
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. (Genesis 3:7)
Fig leaves were used for medicinal purposes in biblical times. Its use this way could have very well started with Adam and Eve, and their sewing them together to cover up, i.e., heal, themselves. That attempt to cover up their sin is how we still react today. Instead of admitting to God that we totally messed up, we try our own method, hoping God won’t take notice. And to further our own guilt, we hide, hoping God will just casually walk on by, instead of seeking us out to ask us why we have hidden.
The word fig in Hebrew means lamentation, heaviness, or mourning. The root word from which it comes means to groan. Could that be because Adam and Eve groaned, mourned and lamented when they realized they had been tricked by the serpent?
In this act of trying to cover themselves up, after obviously losing their God-given covering, they symbolically bound themselves by their own actions. The Hebrew word for ‘apron’ means belt (for the waist). That comes from a root word that means to tie, to bind, to gird on, to be afraid, to restrain (on every side.)
When we live in fear, doubt, and blame, we are bound by Satan’s ties. He wants us to be bound to him, not liberated in God.
And he said, I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. (Genesis 3:10)
This is why the outer covering was to be loose and woven in one piece.* It was meant to signify the God-given covering that Adam and Eve once had, and that He restored in a temporary fashion by the sacrifice of animals to clothe them.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: *now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. (John 19:23)
So, the Tempter accomplished exactly what he wanted-to cause us to be afraid of the very One who loves us, and brought us into existence.
It is interesting that the fig that Jesus cursed (Matt. 21, Mark 11) had only leaves, but no fruit. While we know it was the season for fruit, but it having none, we understand why Jesus cursed it. We also understand that it is symbolic for a hypocrite; seeming to have something, but did not upon closer inspection.
But, could Jesus have been showing us more that just the symbolic hypocrite? Could He have been metaphorically destroying the source of what we Christians use as our cover-up for our disobedience?
Could He have been showing us that, since He was on the scene, any fig trees that produce no fruit but only ‘apron material’, would be cursed so it could no longer help us ‘cover up’ our disobedience.
When Jesus told Nathaniel that He saw him under the fig tree, it is evident that His primary message was that He knew who he was before Philip called him. But, given the medicinal use of fig leaves in the culture, and their symbolic use in the garden, could Jesus have been telling him that He saw past his ‘cover-up’ to the real Nathaniel? Is that why He told him that he would see angels ascending and descending, indicating that he would no longer have a cover-up, but a covering, that would allow him to see into the spiritual world?
We should check our spiritual wardrobe, and make sure we have no ‘home-made cover-ups’ that we hope will go unnoticed by God. If we have anything that we have hastily thrown together, to keep God from finding out our disobedience, then look for God to show up asking questions. And, if we try to be something we’re not, look for Jesus to curse our hypocritical root. And, if we happen to be a Nathaniel, expect for Him to point out that He knew us already, but make it known that He will open our spiritual eyes.