These are good and important questions. With these numerous and regular presentations of cherubim, what was it that was being communicated to God’s people? When they would see the cherubim, what would come to mind? Likewise for the veil. As we consider the veil of the temple, along with the veil of the tabernacle, what was it that made the veil so important? Quite obviously, it was something that served to keep God’s people from the place where He was to be encountered. It was designed to limit fellowship with God.
We know from the Scriptures that God’s promise was to meet with Moses, and the High Priest of His people, above the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, between what must be considered to be guardian cherubim, and that this took place behind the veil that was adorned with guardian cherubim. This forces us to reflect upon and consider where it is that we are first introduced to the cherubim. Where does this take place? For our answer, we go to the book of Genesis, and in the third chapter, we read “When He drove the man out, He placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life” (3:24). Those angelic sentries, of course, were cherubim.
As part of the curse that came upon Adam, when he failed in his commission to steward God’s perfect creation, to have dominion over the earth, and to bear the divine image as he was created to do, he was banished from the Garden of Eden. When Adam rebelled against his divine purpose, and allowed death and evil to enter into this world, he was banished from the place where he would have fellowship with God. He was removed from the place of access to God. Not only was he removed from this place of fellowship and purity and perfection and the tree of life, but two cherubim were stationed at the east end of the Garden in order to bar his way from returning to that place. Those cherubim stood with whirling swords of fire, figuratively veiling mankind from the place of God’s presence. God had openly walked in the midst of His creation, and freely had fellowship with the creatures that had been made in His image, but this was brought to an end and would happen no more. Adam, as the representative of all of humanity, had accomplished this.
When God took it upon Himself, based on His promise to Abraham, with whom He had entered into a covenant, to redeem a people out of the bondage of Egypt, to separate them for Himself, to appoint them to be the reflectors of His glory, to be a shining light to the nations, and to be the instruments of His service, He once again chose to place Himself in the midst of His creation. He chose to enter into fellowship. This time, however, there would be limitations. It was not open and it was not free. There were boundaries. When the tabernacle was erected, with its Holy Place and its Most Holy Place, God limited Himself to appearing in the Most Holy Place. He limited Himself to fellowship with Moses. Furthermore, it was decreed that only the High Priest would be able to enter into His presence, and that, only once a year, as the representative of God’s people. Where did this take place? It took place behind the veil. It took place behind the veil that was decorated with angelic sentries---cherubim. What was the penalty for a presumptuous entrance behind the veil? The penalty was death. The penalty was being cut down, figuratively, by “the flame of a whirling sword.” This was true of the tabernacle, and of Solomon’s temple, and was held to as a tradition of the second temple, which stood in Jesus’ day. There was no entrance behind the veil. Cherubim guarded the way. There was to be no direct access to or fellowship with God by man. This was mankind’s ongoing curse.
In Jesus’ day, when the people saw the cherubim, read about the cherubim, and contemplated that veil of separation, quite rightly, their thoughts would have to turn to Adam, to Eden, to the fall of man, to God’s curse, to the expulsion from Eden, and to the cherubim that were sent forth as a result of that fall. The veil of the temple was so much more than something that prevented people from seeing what stood behind it. The veil was so much more than a reminder that man was separated from his Creator. The veil of the temple, with its cherubim, would remind the people of God’s narrative story of creation, of fall, of cursing, of a way now barred, of covenant, of promises, of slavery, of exodus, of redemption, of a promised land, of their responsibilities to their God, of exile, and of a promised messiah that would be the physical embodiment of their God, and of His coming to set things right, to end their exile, to empower them to fulfill His intentions for them, to give them their land, to redeem them from oppression, to grant them another exodus, to fulfill His promises, to establish a new covenant, to grant access to His presence, to reverse the curse that man had wrought in the earth, to bring man back into right standing with Him, and to restore creation to the state of perfection in which it had been created.
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