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other abominations associated with spiritism and intercourse with evil spirits
(Deut. 18: 10-12).
The one purpose which Satan had in thus appearing to Eve in the garden was to
deceive, to destroy and to gain a hold upon the newly created world that had come into
being, supplant Adam the type, and Christ the anti-type, and become "The prince of this
world" and "the god of this age" (John 16: 11; II Cor. 4: 4). To us today, the
appearance of such a sight, the speaking of such an animal, would not only startle us, but
raise suspicion in our minds, but we must remember, Adam and Eve were a pair of
innocents, suddenly awake in a world of wonders, where experience was no criterion as
to what could or could not be expected.
As we have said, this nachash, this shining one, is balanced at the close of Gen. 3:,
by the cherubim. We must devote a complete article to the reason why the cherubim
were thus placed at the East of the garden, and what these strange beings signify.
We close this article with a quotation from the prophet Ezekiel, whose prophecy opens
(Ezek. 1:-10:), closes (Ezek. 43:), and deals in the middle (Ezek. 28:) with cherubim.
The passage we quote is Ezek. 28: 12-19, to which we must return in a later article.
We commend it to the meditation of our readers in preparation for future examination.
"Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the
sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and thy pipes was
prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Thou are the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon
the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of
fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was
found in thee.
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence,
and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God:
and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by
reason of thy brightness: and I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings,
that they may behold thee.
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of
thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, and it shall devour
thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a
terror, and never shalt thou be any more" (Ezek. 28: 12-19).