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The Cherubim - Guardians Of God’s Holiness
Why did the cherubim guard the garden of Eden?
Biblword
When
the first humans, Adam and Eve, were sent out from the garden of Eden, God
placed cherubim at the east of the garden. What is their role and meaning?
Cherubim as guardians
Probably,
the cherubim are a special group of angels.
In the
story of man being sent out from the garden of Eden, the
most important task of the cherubim becomes clear: they are guardians (see Genesis 3:24).
They
should prevent the fallen humans from coming back into the garden of Eden.
By
eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve had crossed a border. Man now had
knowledge of good and evil. He was not allowed to eat from the tree of life
anymore (which was in the garden of Eden).
Otherwise,
man who had rebelled against God would have eternal life without a connection
to his Creator – which would be an endless horror.
New boundaries
But God
wanted to restore the relationship. Therefore, He created new boundaries.
First
by sending Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden.
You can read about this in Genesis 3, especially in verses
22-23: “Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in
knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the
tree of life and eat, and live forever – therefore the Lord God sent him out
from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out
the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a
flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”
The
cherubim are guardians. Adam and Eve were
expelled from the garden of Eden, which was like an earthly paradise, so that
they might find the way towards God’s eternal paradise.
Cherubim and the ark of the covenant
It is
striking that Exodus 25:22 and 26:31 also speak about
cherubim.
God
tells the Israelites how they should make a holy tent that would function as
God’s dwelling place among the people. They should make an ark with a mercy
seat on top.
At the two ends of this mercy seat, there should be two cherubim
of gold. “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak
with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of
Israel […] And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and
scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully
worked into it.”
The
cherubim are a recurring theme here. There were two images of cherubim on the
mercy seat. The ark with the mercy seat was very important for approaching God.
Moreover,
cherubim were worked into the veil that prevented people to enter the room
where the ark was.
The
cherubim thus were guardians of God’s holiness.
See also Hebrews 9:5: “Above
it [the ark] were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy
seat.”
The way to God is reopened
The
Lord Jesus has opened the way to the Father for whoever believes in Him. He did
this by dying on the cross.
Jesus
thus opened a new and living way (Hebrews 10:20)
towards God’s holy presence.
If we
believe in Jesus as our Savior, there are no more cherubim between God and us.
On the contrary, we are encouraged to “draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22).
Biblword
is a ministry of GlobalRize. Marten Visser is the founding director of
GlobalRize. Marten is a pastor from The Netherlands with long years of
experience as a missionary in Thailand. We now have around 200 people from all
over the world involved in GlobalRize’s ministry. Besides the English page,
Biblword also exists in 13 other languages on Facebook.
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