251
The Tabernacle misery, unredeemed. It was mercy, as well as judgment, t:hat drove man out of Eden; let us not forget that! And at the east of the garden God placed the cherubim, to guard His holiness and majesty and righteousness. The sword of vengeance against sin kept "the wa! _of the tree of life." Every avenue of approach to the ongmal, happy state that Adam had enjoyed was closed. The Word and majesty of God had been trifled with and despised. There- fore, the cherubim took their stand as the avengers of God's unsullied holiness, as the stern proof that man was an outcast, banished by God from the happy place called Eden. Humanly speaking, there was no way to return to the tree of life. This significant place of the cherubim, of itself, man- ifests the hopelessness of any attempt on the part of man to regain life by his own efforts. Unless the glory of Go~ is met· unless the flaming sword of vengeance and holi- ness is, satisfied; it is vain for man to hope for "Paradise Regained." The cherubim of the Holy Place teach us the same solemn lesson. They guarded the way to God while the veil was unrent. The law demanded the death of the offender; but above the law stood the cherubim, no longer barring man's approach to life, but with_ out- stretched wings above the place of mercy. The sprmkl~d blood prefigured the sword of justice which was to do its work as it was to be sheathed in the side of the Son of God! The blood upon the mercy seat satisfied the holiness of God. That is why the cherubim were no longer con- nected with the flaming sword; their faces were now in- tently turned toward the "throne of grace." Their eyes looked down upon the blood which foreshadowed the death of the Substitute who was to come.
The Tabernacle 250 mercy seat to symbolize, we believe, His holiness and maj- esty. Cherubim in the Scriptures, seem to be "angelic beings," who "have to do with the vindication of the holi- ness of God as against the presumptuous pride of sinful man." The golden cherubim upon the mercy seat could not be separated from that "throne of grace"; for as we have seen, they were "beaten out" from it, out of the same piece of gold. They speak to us of the eternal truth that God's mercy can not be separated from His holiness and justice. Reverently speaking He could not save the sinner at the cost of His own righteousness and holiness. That is why, in the Person of His Son, He had to die in the sin- ner's place, as the sinner's Substitute. That is why the Psalmist could say, as he looked forward to Calvary's cross, "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 8 5: 10). The cherubim of gold stood above the holy law of God· the Shekinah Glory stood between the cherubim, above the law, which Israel had broken; but beneath the cheru- bim and the Shekinah Glory was the sprinkled blood- upon the mercy seat! God did not set aside His holiness and His justice in redeeming sinful man; He Himself took the sinner's place. Thus His holiness and His right- eousness were fully satisfied. Our first glimpse of the cherubim, in the Scriptures, is that of their being placed by the Lord "at the east of the garden of Eden" with "a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24). Man had sinned. God, in judgment, had to drive him out of Eden, lest he eat "the tree of life" while yet in his sinful state, and live forever in wretchedness and
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online