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It does not seem possible to see, unmoved, the simple testimony of the concordance,
namely, that the first reference to the sword in the O.T. is that of Gen. 3: 24, and the
last that of Zech. 13: 7:--
"Awake, O sword, against my shepherd."
This flaming sword was placed at the east of the garden of Eden with the express
purpose:--
"To keep the way of the tree of life."
To Adam the Lord gave the commission when he was placed in the garden of Eden:--
"To dress it and to KEEP it" (Gen. 2: 15).
The word means much more than to keep in order as a gardener does a garden, as may
be seen from the usage of the word shamar:--
"Except the Lord keep (shamar) the city, the watchman (shamar) waketh but in vain"
(Psa. 127: 1).
"He put them in ward" (shamar) (Gen. 40: 3).
"I will stand upon my watch" (shamar) (Hab. 2: 1).
Adam failed in his charge. He did not watch, guard and keep the garden. No second
opportunity is given to man, the keeping of the way of the tree of life is committed to the
cherubim and the flaming sword, and they fail not, for they speak not of Adam but of
Christ.
The basis of paradise restored.
The next reference to the cherubim is found in Exod. 25: 18; this time not in a
tabernacle in the garden of Eden, but in a tabernacle in the wilderness. Much has
transpired since Gen. 3: Satan so corrupted the way of God that nothing less than a
deluge was necessary to destroy his handiwork, and after the flood the unclean usurpation
of Messianic promises that is summed up in the system of Babel led to the setting aside
of the nations (Rom. 1: 18-32), and the choice of Abraham of one nation (Gen. 12:),
whose peculiar prerogative was to be the tabernacle and the cherubim with all their
associated privileges:--
"And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in
the two ends of the mercy seat . . . . . and the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on
high, covering the mercy seat . . . . . thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark, and
in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee, and there will I meet with
thee, and I will commune with thee" (Exod. 25: 18-22).
The great feature of this second reference to the cherubim is the strongly expressed
association with the mercy seat. The mercy seat in its turn demanded the ark, and not
until the ark was beneath and the mercy seat above with covering cherub over all, could