The First Tanner –

This article is taken in part from The Mystery of Numbers, called The Sixth Hour. CLICK HERE to be redirected to the full article. 

The First Tanner in the Bible

   Tanner is mentioned three times in the New Testament, but never in the Old Testament. Of course, there were tanners in the early age of humanity. And the first Tanner was God Himself. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21) When the LORD God made coats of skins, the Godhead bodily had purposed it. When the LORD God clothed Adam and his wife, the Godhead bodily clothed them both. All that God has done, is doing, and will do, is always done by the determinate counsels of God. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: (Genesis 3:22) Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (Genesis 3:23)

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26)

   In the Old Testament we have the word ‘skins,’ but not tanner. In the New Testament we have the word ‘tanner,’ but not the word ‘skins.’ (However, the word ‘skin’ — singular — is mentioned only once describing the clothes of John the Baptist in Mark 1:6) The Old Testament is saturated with examples, types, and symbols pointing to and representing the sacrifice to come in the fullness of time. All the offerings and sacrifices were given to Israel to observe and to honor the Anointed One who was to come to fulfill all the offerings and all of the sacrifices. For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11)

And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Matthew 26:28)

   Through the process of tanning, the Holy Spirit of God draws our attention to the suffering element of tanning by using the word ‘skins’ in the Old Testament. Let us now look at the word ‘skins.’ 

   In the Old Testament, the word ‘tanner’ never is recorded, it is ‘skins’ that is mentioned, not the tanner. The key to understand ‘skins’ is in the very first mention of the word. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21) Yes, we have a sacrifice, we have blood, we have a victim or victims (coats) in this first mention, however, we also have a result. A very beneficial result: a covering. Adam and Eve (had by their own making) willingly removed God’s covering of glory and now they saw themselves as naked. Their spiritual lenses had become clouded over by sin (as a cataract), and now they saw their reflection (in the bright light of God’s judgment) revealing who and what they truly were in the blinding light of God’s righteousness. What a shocker! From glory to disgrace in a second in time; from glory to grief — a grief to experience in all of time. From glory and a life being in direct communion with their Creator to a life alienated from fellowship with God. From glory to waiting for an approaching death. Now they understood death, and consequently, they knew fear, for they were clothed with death. And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:15) Mankind from this moment would chase the unattainable: to be as gods and thus, maybe even to be able to obtain eternal life through their own invented means. Unattainable because mankind doesn’t want eternal life through God’s requirement and by His Salvation plan, but they demand eternal life HAS to come and be given to them by their own goodness, and by their own prescribed processes and dictates. Yet, God is good even to His enemies, for Adam and Eve had become enemies of their Creator.  He clothed them — not with His glory, nor with any splendor that they might acquire or desire, but He clothed them with death. God clothed them with the evidence of the result of their rebellion. God removed their glory and left them naked, exposed to death.

This article is taken in part from The Mystery of Numbers, called The Sixth Hour. CLICK HERE to be redirected to the full article.