We often forget that the Bible is one cohesive story. But from Genesis to Revelation, Scripture tells the story of redemption with a central focus on God’s work in saving sinners.
The story begins with God’s perfect creation in Genesis 1–2, when he creates the heavens and the earth. His creation is beautiful and wonderful. In short, it was very good.
But very quickly after the perfection of creation, the story turns when Adam and Eve rebel against God and break the fellowship between God and man. They sin. And with their sin, they bring a darkness upon humanity. Instead of harmony between God and man, there is now enmity. Instead of God’s fellowship, man is now subjected to God’s wrath.
Following the fall of man, the message of the gospel—the story of the good news of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ as the new and better Adam—becomes the focal point in the unfolding drama of Scripture. Although Jesus does not appear in the story for quite some time, this message of redemption can still be seen even in the earliest stages of Genesis immediately following the fall of man.
Of course, the gospel in embryonic form can be seen in Genesis 3:15, when God promises that someone is coming from the line of the woman who is going to crush the head of the serpent.
A few verses later, we again get a preview of the gospel. Adam had been told that should they rebel and eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in that day they would surely die. When they ate, “the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” But those fig leaves were not satisfactory to cover them because there was no shedding of blood. Something had to die because of their sin. So when Moses writes in Genesis 3:21, “And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them,” the implication here is that in his mercy, God the penalty of physical for their sin was covered by some animal. In other words, something died so that Adam and Eve could live. Again, the gospel is hinted at.
But one important thread of the message of the gospel also begins in Genesis 3 and runs all throughout the pages of Scripture. It’s the gospel according to the cherubim.
In Genesis 3:22–24, Moses records the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
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.
Because of their sin, Adam and Eve are now exiled. They are no longer allowed back into the Garden. They are prohibited from remaining in the presence of God. Guarding the way back to the Garden were cherubim. Cherubim were a class of angels who are always associated with the holiness of God. In Genesis 3, they guard the way to the tree of life as a way of preserving God’s standard for holiness.
The cherubim are here given a flaming sword—an instrument of execution. The implication is that if they attempt to come back into the Garden—if they attempt to return into God’s presence—they will face the wrath of this sword. They will be executed.
But contextually, God has just provided animal skins to cover the man and woman. Perhaps someone can intervene and bear the sword for them. Perhaps someone can help restore the broken fellowship for them and grant them access back to the presence of God.
That question is not answered in Genesis 3. Rather, it will take the rest of the story of Scripture before the answer is revealed.
Our attention is drawn back to the cherubim in Exodus 25 with the construction of the Ark of the Covenant. Moses writes in Exodus 25:17–22:
You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. 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.
The Mercy Seat was the lid or the covering (same root as the word for atonement) for the Ark of the Covenant. At each end of the Mercy Seat were two hammered gold cherubim facing one another. Their outstretched wings overshadowed the gold lid and their faces constantly looked down upon it. They were symbols of the presence and holiness of the Lord and are His chosen instruments of judgment toward any sinful approach toward the presence of the Lord. Their position indicates that God’s judgment upon Israel was averted because of the blood-sprinkled mercy seat.
The cherubim are also stitched into the curtains within the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies. As Moses writes in Exodus 26:1, “Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.” So as the priests ministered in the Holy Place, all around them at all times they were surrounded by the cherubim which served as constant visual reminders of the holiness of God.
Likewise, the veil had cherubim woven into it. Exodus 26:31 gives the instructions for the veil. “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 veil served to symbolize separation between man from God. The word “veil” means to separate. The veil could never be touched except by the high priest, and then only once a year to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat on the day of atonement (See Leviticus 16:2).
For generations throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel were reminded of the separation between God and man. The cherubim upon the ark of the covenant and upon the fabric within the tabernacle were visual reminders that God and man are separated by man’s sin. Man does not have access to fellowship with God.
But the story of this cherubim imagery ultimately culminates with the intercessory work of Jesus dying on the cross. Upon his death, we see in Matthew 27:51, “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” So the curtain within the holy of holies which has the cherubim woven into it is torn in two.
Of course this is significant in that there is no longer any need for a high priest to intercede for the people any longer since Jesus has accomplished this once and for all. But more importantly, we need to recognize that the flaming sword of the cherubim—the dreadful imagery of Genesis 3:24 signifying the hopelessness of man for regaining access to God—has now fallen into Jesus. Jesus has received the execution and the punishment for the sin of man (just like the animals from Genesis 3:20). He provides the payment so that fellowship with God is now possible. That’s the good news of the gospel.
That good news is magnified when we get the visual of the tree of life in the New Eden at the end of Scripture. John writes in Revelation 22:1–5:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
In the new Eden, the tree of life which symbolizes the presence of God and fellowship between God and man is there. But unlike the scene in Genesis 3, there is no longer any cherubim guarding its access. Because Jesus took the flaming sword in our place.
Believers have access to eternal fellowship with God—not because of our own works, but because of the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus took the penalty for us so that we might live.
That’s the message of redemption. It’s the message told in the story that spans from Genesis to Revelation.
It’s the gospel according to the cherubim.
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