The Serpent, The Sacrifice, The cherub
The brightness and harmony of the earthly paradise is speedily changed into harmony and discord. Not far from the shadow of the tree of life is hidden the fruit of death. The agency of temptation is insidious: the sin is proffered in innocent, and attractive guise. Mankind, allured by lust of eye, lust of flesh, and pride of life, grasps at the tendered bait and obtains a knowledge of good (by denying good) and evil (by gaining evil). All is instantly changed: henceforth the tree of life is reserved for another paradise, and its aspect is different, it is now-like the Scandinavian tree (Igdrasil), whose roots are in Hela or death, and whose branches, bearing perennial leaves and fruits, stretch into the Empyrean abodes—to be a tree of life in resurrection only.
We are told in Rev. 12:99And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9) and xx. 2 very definitely that the serpent represents our great adversary the devil. The figure is apt in these points, deceit and death. The two most characteristic features of all sin I believe to be craft and cruelty. “Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations; O my soul, come not thou into their secret." All the attributes of the father of sin are comprehended in these two terms, “A liar and a murderer." In the serpent this is graphically expressed: it is “more subtle than any beast of the field;” and under the hooded glory of the cobra lurks the malignant virus of death. If we could forget this, we should see that it is not without semblance of outward innocence and beauty, which, however, only makes it the more to be dreaded. As Montague the statesman said of Wharton two centuries since, “He is like a fire-ship: dangerous at best, most so as a consort, least so when showing hostile colors.”
It is for this reason that the worship of the serpent—ophiolatry, which has extended, in one form or another, all over the world—is peculiarly heinous: it is the supplanting of God, not merely by a stock or stone, but by the symbol of Satan. For this reason also the character of its worship was distinct from general idolatry, in that it was the avowed worship of a dreaded and hated object, being somewhat similar in this respect to the worship of Ahriman the evil deity by the Persians, in contrast with the more intelligible worship of Ormuzd, the beneficent one. But it was reserved for professing Christians to develop this abyssmal wickedness to its utmost depth. The oriental sect of Gnostics, called the Ophites, even went so far as to connect their adoration of the serpent with the observance of the eucharist; and that in a repulsive manner which I forbear describing. For this reason too God puts a perpetual curse on the serpent so that even in the millennium when all other creatures are in happiness, “dust shall be the serpent's meat.”
There is another figure used of Satan in the lion seeking whom he may devour. Here the prominent feature is violent destructiveness, as in the foregoing figure it is the crafty destructiveness. These two features always alternate and, so far as I can see, the violent hostility comes first, and, when this fails, the crafty one generally succeeds. Thus, in the beginning, he seems to have assailed the power of the Omnipotent, but was defeated: he was “hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, In hideous ruin and combustion down To bottomless perdition!” Then the tactics are changed and the specious deception of Eden succeeds—for a time at least. In like manner (not to mention other dispensations) he assailed the church, first, as Peter describes, imprisoning, burning, crucifying; but when three hundred years of that left the church still triumphant, the methods are again altered. Now it is as “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses;” that is to say, by imitation and deception. The important thing to see is that it is the same opponent and hostility though under different forms.
It is noteworthy that scripture applies the two figures—the lion and serpent—in certain limited aspects as types of Christ. I am aware that so popular an authority as the laborious compiler T. H. Horne restricts the typical application of the brazen serpent to the circumstances only; but I think there can be no doubt that the serpent itself is meant in John 3:1414And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (John 3:14) to be typical, expressing that Christ is to be, looked to as uplifted in the “likeness of sinful flesh.” But the “likeness” is brass—that which is capable of bearing fire (judgment). He is capable of sustaining infinite judgment, as being of an infinite nature and capable of infinite suffering; but the reference there is more especially to His having been “made sin” though we know in Him was “no sin.”
Amid the dark threatenings of the judgments, which must follow the first human offense, some words spoken concerning the “woman's Seed,” and the action of clothing the first sinners in the skins of beasts, i.e. the covering belonging to a slain and innocent victim, are the first gleamings of heavenly light. But they are dim and nebulous, like the faint streaks of the milky way in the black dome of night—the blending “of gentle lights without a name.” It is only when we view these dim nebulars through the telescope of the sacred word that we can see they are composed of the confluent rays from far-off and unnamed worlds of truth and hope.
It is difficult to understand why the meaning of the cherub should be generally so misapprehended: the popular idea is expressed by the figure of a baby's face, which represents very correctly the exact reverse of the scriptural idea. The cherubim are described in much detail by Ezekiel (ch. 1). It is frequently said that the cherubim meant in Genesis and Exodus are different from those; but on what ground this is said I could never discover. The onus probandi of the matter is on the person who makes the assertion, and not on one who—in the absence of any qualifying terms—takes a word to mean substantially the same thing in different parts of the same book. In Ezekiel (ch. 1-10). it is very apparent that they are majestic and awful descriptions of the faculty and progress of judgment; as from Isa. 6 we can see that the seraph expresses the faculty and progress of Mercy.. The cherub has four wings; the seraph six: so Mercy is swifter than Judgment. In Rev. 4 we see in the “beasts" round the throne the characteristics of both united—the numerous eyes and four faces of the cherub, and the six wings of the seraph—Mercy and Judgment met; ceasing not day or night in ascribing praise to the Holy Lord God Almighty.
It is sometimes said that the cherub signifies the executive function. Yes, very true, but executive of what? It is without doubt executive of judgment in Ezekiel, and here in Gen. 3 too its glittering sword reveals the same function (though for a merciful end no doubt). Then it may be thought that the fact of the cherubim being on the ends of the mercy seat yields a difficulty; but I think there is singular beauty in the expression of Judgment and Mercy being combined as the basis of God's dealing with sinners; and especially is it to be remarked that the faces of the cherubim were to be turned downwards towards the mercy seat—not towards the, sinful being—so that they ever saw the blood which the mercy seat provided as the sinner's atonement; Judgment looks upon what Mercy provides and maintains.
The cherubim then (perhaps some readers may need to be told that cherubim and seraphim are merely the plural forms of cherub and seraph; they are untranslated words though somewhat distorted in being Anglicized, as most untranslated words are) come forth from the north (the place of judgment, Lev. 1:11And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, (Leviticus 1:1).1) in resplendent glory of cloud and fire. They are four in number—universal operation: they have four faces—universality of aspect: they have four wings—slower than mercy: straight feet, like a calf's, and like burnished brass—progress ever stable and judicial; wings joined—every judicial operation interlocks with all other judicial operations, turning not as they went. Their faces were like a man's—intelligence and authority: a lion's-majesty and vengeance: an eagle's-omniscience and ubiquity: a calf's (or a cherub's, these were the faces no doubt which were to be downward toward the mercy seat)—patience and stability; and they have hands—the executive faculty. “Whither the Spirit was to go, they went” —Ezek. 1:1212And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. (Ezekiel 1:12) the blood is sprinkled before the oil.
They are further characterized by the color of amber or fire, but “the appearance of the wheels and their work” a more hopeful color, beryl, connecting itself with the rainbow that ever in Rev. 4 rises in divine promise above the fearful prospects of judgment. “Their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel” —indirect and collateral results, besides the leading characteristic of straightforwardness. They are full of eyes—see everything before and behind, judging not only results but causes.
Ezekiel says twice that the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels—not in the amber fire; the spirit of judgment is not in its direct work of destruction, but in the revolutions proceeding from its indirect work—the beryl, the rainbow (Ezek. 1:2828As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. (Ezekiel 1:28)) the beneficent results. And here also may our spirits well repose, not in the horror of its yellow consuming flames, but there where the heavenly blue mingles with the yellow—a verdant hope, like springing grass, of a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
J. C. B.