IN the third of Genesis the Holy Ghost narrates the fall of man, his banishment from Eden, and that the Lord God placed at the east of the garden cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
In chapter 4 two things are delineated, ―the way of salvation; and the two classes who inhabit the earth, the saved and the lost.
Two men, Cain and Abel, the children of fallen Adam and his wife, bring each an offering to the Lord. Cain the husbandman comes with fruit of the ground, but the offerer and the offering are alike rejected; and the reason of this is learned in the offering of Abel, who brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
From Abel’s offering we learn the necessity and value of atonement, i.e., “a life given and accepted as sacrifice for life forfeited.”
Adam by his sin had insulted the majesty of God, and put himself at a distance from Him, and righteousness demanded satisfaction. Both Cain and Abel were Adam’s offspring, the inheritors of a sinful nature, born outside Eden, and themselves sinners.
Abel by faith apprehended and bowed to the truth of his condition as a sinner, and of God’s righteous claims upon him, and that a life offered up in atonement was the only way and ground of approach to Him, so he slew a lamb of his flock and offered it to God, who immediately accepted the sacrifice and the offerer.
The cherubim and the flaming sword had a voice for Abel which he regarded. He had no right to life; as a sinner, death and judgment were his due. The lamb, as his substitute, endured both; and Abel thus found the way to heavenly and everlasting blessing.
Ages afterward, in fulfillment of this and every other type of Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, for the Father’s glory, and the salvation of lost sinners, went to the Cross, and there, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God. There the mighty work of redemption was accomplished, through the shed blood of that spotless peerless Victim. Jesus, the true tree of life, has been into this world of sin and death, and access to Him is denied to none. Concerning Him it is announced to every poor sinner under heaven, “HE THAT BELIEVETH ON THE SON HATH EVERLASTING LIFE.”
Cain ignored the fact of the insult offered to God’s majesty and holiness by sin, and of his own fallen and sinful condition. He disregarded the presence of the dread guardians of Eden, and, as though nothing had happened, came before God with a gift, the product of his own labor. But it was a bloodless offering, and this from a sinner is an offense to God; and we read that “unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect.”
Cain is wroth; ―the proud sinner is angry, because God is true to His nature and character, and refuses to look over sin without atonement.
But the great principle is established, that “without shedding of blood is no remission,” for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Though man had lost paradise, and incurred the just wrath of God, yet had God appointed a way by which he might escape the wrath, and obtain greater blessings than those forfeited. Thus grace as well as righteousness shine out at the very commencement of the reign of sin and death, THE GRACE OF GOD TO POOR SINNERS.
The despiser of the blood murders his brother, goes out an accursed fugitive and vagabond from the presence of the Lord, and dwells in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. But between him and the garden of delights were the cherubim and flaming sword, and between him and the paradise of God, of which Eden was the type and figure, was his sin unpurged by blood; for he had refused the only thing that would propitiate that sword, and shelter him from the righteous wrath of God.
And yet, in sight of lost paradise, and with the full knowledge that he had departed forever from God’s presence, this doomed man builds a city, calls it after the name of his first-born son, and surrounds himself with a world without God! Cain, the unitarian, was the ancestor of Jubal, the inventor of music, by which man would fain drown the perpetual groan of a sin-burdened creation. But the groan is still heard, and will never be hushed, until He comes, who shall bring with Him deliverance.
Centuries afterward God in grace came down and dwelt among a people separated to Himself from amongst the nations, but His presence and glory were hidden from the gaze of men by the mystic veil on which were wrought cherubim of cunning work.
Once a year only did one man draw aside that veil, and for a moment approach the golden mercy-seat, but only to sprinkle the blood of propitiation beneath the gaze of the watchful cherubim.
At the gate of Eden, those zealous ministers of God guarded the way of the tree of life; afterward, in tabernacle and temple, they guarded the approach to Jehovah’s holy presence.
Where are the cherubim and the flaming sword now? GONE. That sword, at the awful Cross of Calvary, awoke against Him who was Jehovah’s fellow, and sheathed itself in His blessed bosom. The claims of divine justice were there, once and forever, met for all who believe in Jesus; in testimony whereof, God, in righteousness and grace, rent the temple’s cherubic veil from top to bottom.
A new and living way was opened up for the sinner, through the pierced side of Christ, right up to the presence and glory of God.
Cherubim and sword are now alike taken out of the way; the sword has smitten the Good Shepherd, the dear Saviour and Friend of Sinners, and pardon and peace are proclaimed to the guilty. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” W. H. S.