O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. 9 Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness, and remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers.
Jacob is at the temple teaching his people. They have come up to the temple to hear these important words. At the temple we receive a skin symbollic of the skin given to Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve tried to make their own covering. They did great! It was a plant based covering, fig leaves. It may have been an elaborate dress and suit, or it may have been as the renaissance artists depict. It's allegory anyway, so use your imagination. Why did God reject Adam and Eve's fashion statement? He rejected it because it wasn't enough to hide their sins. They needed to be cleansed by the atonement. Their own efforts were not enough. They could not cover their sin with fig leaves. They were still naked before god. and stuck in their sins. You can't fool or mock God. So God asks Christ to make a coat of Skin for Adam and Eve. This was from an animal maybe even a lamb, and it had blood, it was shed for them. The skin was shed from the lamb by the Lamb of God for Adam and Eve, and they wore the coats of skin and they were no longer naked, they had put off their natural covering and natural man, and put on a Christ's atoning covering, that hides their nakedness and covers their sins. Christ's skin and atonement is pure and holy. It is symbolized by a white garment.
What is the significance of him describing their skin at judgment? Are there any other historical references to Judgement and Skin color?
Jacob is comparing the obedience of these two groups. When we go to the throne of God at judgement, we will be judged according to the acceptance of the Atonement of Christ in our individual lives. We are judged by the degree to which we know Christ.
If we are covered in Christ's skin (atonining sacrifice) instead of our fig leaves (natural man), we are able to qualify to enter into his presence. If we are covered with his sacrifice we are pure and holy and our skin is white as it is the skin of Christ.
If we are evil we will have a dark skin and we will be loathsome and filthy. Our natural garment that we made, or were given as a hand me down from cursed generations will be filthy. We will be dark, and our skin that we have made will be dark, as it is not the skin given to us by Christ or his atonment. Or it is the skin we were given, and we did not take care of it and it is filthy like we are.
Is this supported in any other contemporary sources?
Yes! 3 Enoch 4:6 And the faces of the wicked souls were as black as the bottom of a pot, because of the multitude of their wicked deeds.
Also 2 Esdras 7:47-61 especially verse 55
47 For what profit is it for men now in this present time to live in heaviness, and after death to look for punishment?
48 O thou Adam, what hast thou done? for though it was thou that sinned, thou art not fallen alone, but we all that come of thee.
49 For what profit is it unto us, if there be promised us an immortal time, whereas we have done the works that bring death?
50 And that there is promised us an everlasting hope, whereas ourselves being most wicked are made vain?
51 And that there are laid up for us dwellings of health and safety, whereas we have lived wickedly? 52 And that the glory of the most High is kept to defend them which have led a wary life, whereas we have walked in the most wicked ways of all?
53 And that there should be shewed a paradise, whose fruit endureth for ever, wherein is security and medicine, since we shall not enter into it?
54 (For we have walked in unpleasant places.)
55 And that the faces of them which have used abstinence shall shine above the stars, whereas our faces shall be blacker than darkness?
56 For while we lived and committed iniquity, we considered not that we should begin to suffer for it after death.
57 Then answered he me, and said, This is the condition of the battle, which man that is born upon the earth shall fight;
58 That, if he be overcome, he shall suffer as thou hast said: but if he get the victory, he shall receive the thing that I say.
59 For this is the life whereof Moses spake unto the people while he lived, saying, Choose thee life, that thou mayest live.
60 Nevertheless they believed not him, nor yet the prophets after him, no nor me which have spoken unto them,
61 That there should not be such heaviness in their destruction, as shall be joy over them that are persuaded to salvation.
These contemporary ancient texts support the idea of being black or white at judgement. They help us to know that Jacob is referring to a spiritual idea of black and white. He is also talking about a physical skin given to Adam and Eve, and possibly those who have taken on covenants in the temple.
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