Thank goodness, He Kept His Word alright...

Let’s take a trip back down history's exciting road of tales that our sights may be clearer. Sometimes there's more to what our "eye" can see... Yes, understanding of "The" Word needs the Word for interpreting understanding itself: that enables a clear sight and urges decision to stray in "The" right direction in terms of our power of choice. Today something of most interest as ponder upon our context of understanding the Word even much more. Genesis 3:24 reads, "So He drove out the man: and He placed cherubim at the East of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword that turns every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." What does that mean? Literally did God place a flaming sword that turned every way? Was the sword literally spinning or turning from every direction preventing mankind (Adam and Eve) to the tree of life? Did He meant something else metaphorically speaking? Well to better understand this passage, while opening and drawing out a much clearer conclusion, let us consider the terms "cherubim  and sword" very consciously but carefully. 

Well starting from the base of the matter itself, a cherub (singular, also cherubim: plural) is a winged angelic being who is considered to attend on the Abrahamic God in biblical tradition. Or in other words, within the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic literature, a cherub is a celestial winged being with human, animal, or birdlike characteristics who functions as a throne bearer “The” Deity or God’s Deity… To be simple as possible, a cherub is an angle of the second highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy. Here within this scenario of the passage, we see the Bible using “cherubim” which is plural. Or in other words, God placed cherubim (more than one cherub) in the East of the Garden of Eden (to guard the way to the tree of life). Yes as you can see above, there is a difference between ordinary angles and cherubim. Psalm 80:1 reads, “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim.” Here the writer referred to God dwelling between the cherubim in His heavenly century. To better understand this passage, we turn few pages back when God instructed Moses and the children of Israel to build His earthly Sanctuary as found in Exodus 25:18 (And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at two ends of the mercy seat.) To fully understand the story, read Exodus chapter 25-31. Thus testifying that cherubim are in fact different from angels in their own nature.

Cherubim illustrated on a prototype version of The Ark of The Covenant. 

Climbing back out from our first hole of perspective, we now take a closer look at the term “sword”. During creation and after the fall of mankind, swords were not physically created yet. Thus saying Adam and Eve’s understanding of the term “sword” to be very narrow (since sword is a weapon used for slaughter or to pierce or cut). However, within the Holy Bible metaphorically speaking, the word “sword” is described as God’s Word. Hebrews 4:12 reads, “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Also Ephesians 6:17 reads, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God;” Flame or flaming symbolizes how God’s Word is Holy, Just, Righteous, Eternal, Omnipotent, and perfect. Exodus 3:2 reads, “And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.” Here Moses expressed God’s holiness… The flaming sword turning every way symbolize how God’s Word is just, final and righteous. I mean, even if God forgave Adam and Eve if they had owned up (which they did not: Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent) and continue to allow them access to the tree of life, than God would not be love. Simply because love is just, righteous, eternal, the beginning and the end, etc… Simplified to a much simpler stream of sentences, “God would not be fair or love because He would not have kept His own Word as described in Genesis 2:14, that from the moment they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil they will surely die. Thus saying that God is not righteous or love (but thankfully He is).”

Finally out of our second hole of treasure digging within The Holy Bible, I would say our sight toward the direction of our perspective is now clearer compared to the beginning of our adventure. Yes, God placed the cherubim with His Most Holy and righteous Word guarding the way to the tree of life. You see my friends, God is the tree of life: He is love: His Church or community is based and unified by Him which is Love. John 15:5 reads, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Yes from the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they lost their true relationship with God which is the tree of life. Or in other words decoding the metaphorical sight to this road leading toward our conclusion, when Eve first initiated a contact with satan (the serpent in the tree of knowledge of good and evil) and accepted to “KNOW” his sinful ideas, doctrines and principality (eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), and shared all that she knew with Adam (gave a fruit to Adam), their true relationship to God was broken (access to the tree of life which is God. God is life, love and truth). Or in other words, God’s righteous Word (which is God who created them: John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”) with the Cherubim prevented mankind to life: which is God (John 14:6 Jesus said to Him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”) Or in other words, only with an established and strong maintained relationship with God can humanity have eternal life. But then again, God offers eternal life to mankind once again (as illustrated in John 3:16) as a gift simply because He is love. Are you willing to receive this gift? Remember, “JESUS IS COMING SOON, THE POWER OF CHOICE IS YOURS, AND TIME IS SOMETHING WE DON’T HAVE…”

Reference:

Wikipedia.com Cherubim. Retrieved from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherub