Don't Miss This Study – "COVERED IN GRACE"

Podcast: Don't Miss This Study
Hosts: Emily Freeman & David Butler
Episode Date: January 11, 2026
Scriptures Covered: Genesis 3–4, Moses 4–5

Overview

This episode delves into the stories of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and their aftermath, as recounted in Genesis 3–4 and Moses 4–5. Emily and David focus on themes of shame, grace, God’s character, and how the plan of redemption is not God’s fallback, but His original intent. Through storytelling, personal reflection, and practical journaling prompts, they invite listeners to better understand how God’s grace covers human frailty and failure from the very beginning.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Context: Eden, Trees, and Timelines

• Central Symbol: The tree in Eden is presented as a central character, representing both knowledge and choice.
  [04:02] David: “The timeline piece for this week is a tree. It represent the tree found inside the Garden of Eden. That's one of the central characters of today's lesson.”
• The style of the Genesis and Moses accounts is “imagistic”—full of symbolism, not literal historical report.
  [08:14] David: “This is written in a style called imagistic style. All right? So it's written symbolically.”

2. Shame, Hiding, and the Nature of God

• After their disobedience, Adam and Eve feel shame (symbolized by nakedness) and attempt to hide from God.
  [10:36] David: “Naked. In Scripture, symbolism is a symbolism of shame, of being fully exposed.”
• The comparison of feelings toward police with feelings toward God—unreasonable fear that He's "out to get us."
  [05:29] David: “I feel like they're out to get me, that they are looking for everything that I am doing wrong...Unfortunately, I think a lot of people have that same kind of relationship with God.” Memorable moment: Both hosts share funny and touching anecdotes about fearing authority, paralleling those feelings with spiritual shame and fear of God.
• God’s question, "Where are you?" is not about geography but an invitation for self-reflection and honesty.
  [11:29] David: “Where are you? Which obviously is not a location question.”

3. Personal Application: Reflection & Journaling

• The hosts encourage listeners to personalize Adam and Eve’s questions: Where are you? Where are you going?
  [12:09] Grace: “Let's start this year with those same two questions. Honest answers only. Think about who you are as a person. Think about where you're going.”

4. Blame, Hiding, and God’s Real Heart

• The cycle: Temptation → Shame → Hiding → Blame.
• God invites honesty instead of hiding or blaming.
  [13:06] David: “We make mistakes. We do things that we're ashamed of. We fall into traps of temptation, and then we try and cover it up, and we try to run and we try to hide, and we try to blame everybody else for what happened.”
• God’s question, "What did the serpent tell you about me that made you think I was the kind of God you should be afraid of?" is key to the discussion.
  [14:54] David: “What did the serpent tell you about me that made you think I was the kind of God you should be afraid of? Apparently, you have been given the wrong picture of my heart.”

5. The Serpent’s Strategy: Distorting the Character of God

• Satan’s first move is to make us misconstrue God’s motives (He’s restrictive, doesn’t trust us, isn’t generous). [16:35] Grace: "Automatically, the first thing the serpent does is look at Eve and try to get her to start thinking about God differently from one question."
• Satan tries to destroy agency by blurring the reality of who God is and what is at stake.
  [18:46] David: “He destroys the character of God to them, but also reframes what mistakes are. He has made mistakes damning. He's made them irreversible.”

6. God’s Gentle Approach and the Protoevangelium

• After their mistake, God approaches Adam and Eve “in the cool of the day”—with gentleness, not wrath.
  [21:40] David: “He comes walking in in the cool of the day...it's an image of gentleness. That is how he's approaching a mistake he knows they made.”
• Genesis 3:15 is the first mention of the gospel (Protoevangelium)—the prophecy that Christ will ultimately defeat evil, though it will “bruise his heel.” [22:44] David: “Genesis chapter 3, verse 15 is known as the Proto Evangelium. That's a Latin word that means the first mention of the gospel.”

7. Relational Distance: Enmity as Gift

• God creates "enmity" (relational distance) between humanity and evil as a gift, ensuring humans have the opportunity for a better relationship—with Him.
  [23:25] Grace: “He looked and he said, I will make sure that there is distance in that relationship between Satan and humanity. But also his plan all along was a plan that said, and I will create a different relationship for them to have.”

8. Sacrifice and Covering: The Coats of Skins

• God sacrifices an animal to make coats of skins for Adam and Eve, providing physical and symbolic covering—a foreshadowing of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
  [25:48] David: “The Lord God is covering them and protecting them in these coats of skin...an innocent creature is being sacrificed so that Adam and Eve could be protected and covered and claimed...” [28:57] Grace: “After that is when the sacrifice and the covering came as they were aware of all of it...I see all of you. I know you fully. And I will confidently say, you are worth the sacrifice.”

9. Worship, Sacrifice, and the Plan of Rescue

• In Moses 5, the pattern of animal sacrifice is established to point directly to the coming of Christ. *[30:09] David: “...the rest of this book is going to show story after story after story of you. I am not a God you have to hide from...” [33:04] David: “Your question, how do we get back into the Garden of Eden? He says, it will be through the...terrible sacrifice of an innocent creature...This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the only begotten...which is full of grace and truth.”
• Grace is both full truth (knowing us fully) and full mercy.

10. Joy, Redemption, and the Gladness of Eve

• Adam and Eve come to understand the redemptive plan and find joy and gladness, not just in spite of, but because of, their mortality and mistakes. [34:13] Grace: “That as thou hast fallen, you might be redeemed. That is the whole story. It is a story of redemption, it is a story of rescue.” [36:12] Grace: “Eve in verse 11, his wife heard all of these things and was glad. Of course she was...That is the gospel. This is the plan. And of course we're glad.”

11. Kintsugi: Becoming Beautiful Through Brokenness

• The hosts compare the process to Kintsugi art—broken pottery repaired with gold, more beautiful for having been broken. [37:01] David: “It is more beautiful having been broken and then fixed than if it had never been broken at all.”
• Mortality and redemption (symbolized by the two trees) work together to create growth and beauty.

12. Practical Application: Journaling Experiences with the Two Trees

• Listeners are invited to write under two trees: one for mortality's experiences and lessons; the other for experiences of grace and Christ’s redemption. [41:12] David: “...write down the experiences in your life that you have felt eating its fruit...the tree of knowledge...and on the right...the hope, the strength, the healing and the closeness through Jesus Christ.”
• Both mortality and Christ’s redemption are essential to “becoming.”

13. Mortality’s Highs, Lows, and Christ’s Steadfast Presence

• Personal example: Grace recounts the stark contrast between a euphoric week at the beach and the next week when her dad was diagnosed with cancer—yet Christ’s companionship was constant. [42:12] Grace: “So quickly I heard the spirit say, I am just as close today as I was last week...what I love about human experience is that we get Jesus in the highest highs and the lowest lows...”

14. Cain, Abel, and the Consequences of Hiding

• Discusses the aftermath—Cain and Abel—and how clinging to shame and hiding (rather than seeking grace) leads to greater destruction. [43:54] David: “Now Moses 5 ends in...a really sad story...if we keep hiding behind the tree and...listening to the lies of the adversary.”
• God’s first question from humanity (“Am I my brother's keeper?”) is answered: Yes, we are to watch out and remind each other of God’s true nature and promises.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [05:29] David: “I feel like they're out to get me, that they are looking for everything that I am doing wrong...Unfortunately, I think a lot of people have that same kind of relationship with God.”
• [10:36] David: “Naked. In Scripture, symbolism is a symbolism of shame, of being fully exposed.”
• [14:54] David: “What did the serpent tell you about me that made you think I was the kind of God you should be afraid of?”
• [16:35] Grace: “Automatically, the first thing the serpent does is look at Eve and try to get her to start thinking about God differently from one question.”
• [21:40] David: “He comes walking in in the cool of the day...it's an image of gentleness. That is how he's approaching a mistake he knows they made.”
• [28:57] Grace: “I see all of you. I know you fully. And I will confidently say, you are worth the sacrifice.”
• [42:25] Grace: “What I love about human experience is that we get Jesus in the highest highs and the lowest lows and that he will show up every single day of mortality. That is the plan, is that Jesus will experience mortality with us.”
• [46:22] David: “Part of being your brother's keeper is reminding people what God is actually like and reminding them of his promises and reminding them of his covering grace...”

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:04 – Introduction and overview of study resources, timeline, and structure for Old Testament study.
• 05:17 – Personal experiences with law enforcement and how they reflect our perceptions of God.
• 08:14 – Discussion of the symbolic/imagistic nature of the Eden narrative.
• 10:36 – Shame and hiding: Adam and Eve’s reaction after sin.
• 12:09 – Journaling prompt: “Where are you and where are you going?” as a new year exercise.
• 13:06 – The pattern: hiding, blaming, and God’s invitation to honesty.
• 16:35 – The serpent’s strategy: casting God as restrictive.
• 21:40 – God’s gentle approach after the fall.
• 22:44 – The Protoevangelium: first gospel promise.
• 23:25 – The meaning of enmity and the relational distance between humanity and evil.
• 25:48 – God's provision of coats of skins—a symbol of gracious covering.
• 28:57 – Grace: God fully knows and fully sacrifices for us.
• 30:09 – Moses 5: Sacrifice and pointing to Christ.
• 33:54 – Adam, Eve, and the realization of redemption.
• 37:01 – Kintsugi art and the idea of brokenness as a source of beauty.
• 41:12 – Journaling prompt: the two trees and life’s experiences.
• 42:25 – Grace’s personal story on Jesus’ constancy in both joy and sorrow.
• 43:54 – The story of Cain and Abel: the dangers and sadness of remaining in hiding.

Conclusion

The overarching message is that God’s grace, not shame or hiding or blame, is the true heart of the gospel story. The sacrificial love foreshadowed in Eden runs throughout scripture, inviting us to come out of hiding, be covered by grace, and become whole—even through life’s hardest, most humbling experiences. Both hosts encourage listeners to see themselves in the Eden story and to actively engage with God’s invitation to healing, self-honesty, and community.

Next Steps:

• Reflect and journal on “Where are you?” and “Where are you going?”
• List and consider life’s “two trees”—the experiences of mortality and of Christ’s grace
• Be your “brother’s keeper” by reminding others of God’s redeeming nature
• Remember: “You are worth the sacrifice.” (28:57, Grace Freeman)

Find resources, worksheets, and more at dontmissthistudy.com