Chapter 2 – The Cherubim in Genesis – by Fay Berry

I know that in the process of writing the story of the Cherubim, I will be writing and re-writing as I do, so you might have to go back to a particular chapter and see if I have changed something or updated something, (if you are interested, of course). I guess that is the way it is going to be. I have already changed some of what I wrote in Chapter 1. I am writing this way as a discipline to make me write, and I never know what I am going to write until I have written it. This is really a case of “as the spirit moves me.” However, I am enjoying myself.

Chapter 2 – The Cherubim by Fay Berry

Banished from the “heavenly places,” from the Paradise of God and outside of Eden (Eph 1:3 ), Adam and Eve faced a new life together. They must have felt as if they were “outside the camp” as it were, aliens from the company of the Elohim, they must have felt that they were “without God in the world,” (Eph 2:12). How miserable and unhappy they must have been, at least to begin with. They would have clung to each other, lonely and missing the company of the Elohim. In the distance they could see the Cherubim standing, with the flaming sword going every which way, darting here and there (Ezekiel 1:13) a constant reminder to them of their “fall from grace.” The Cherubim would have been as a “pillar of smoke” by day and a “pillar of fire” by night (Ex 13:22).

Adam and Eve comforted each other and began a family, Cain was born first and then Abel. Cain became a tiller of the ground and Abel kept flocks of sheep. It came to pass in time that Cain and Abel brought offerings to God and made sacrifices to Him. It is very likely that the Cherubim became the place of worship for Adam and Eve and for Cain and Abel. We are not told what sort of worship, if any was set up in the years after Adam and Eve’s ejection from Eden, but some form of worship must have been set up for Cain and Abel to be making offerings such as we read in Ex 4:3-4 in the first place. What we do know, is that Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s was rejected. The way in which an offering was accepted was most likely by fire emanating from the Cherubim which would come like a bolt of lightning and completely burn up the offering if it was accepted or nothing would happen if it were not. Fire consumed Abel’s offering, but Cain’s offering of “the fruits of the ground,” was not accepted. We are not told why Cain’s offering was not accepted. Was it because he was supposed to offer a lamb and not vegetables? or was it just his heart that was not right before God, and that was why is offering was rejected, but rejected it was?

When Cain’s offering was not accepted he was enraged, and “his face fell,” he went into a big sulk!  In a rage, he strode off into the field with Abel in hot pursuit. Abel loved his brother and wanted only his good. He pleaded with Cain, his brother, and maybe offered him a lamb for him to make an acceptable offering before the Cherubim. But Cain refuses Abel’s approach and consumed with envy and anger against his brother, Cain strikes him down and kills him. Even this may have been forgivable, but Cain hides his brother’s body, maybe buries him in the ground, and then goes about his day’s work pretending he knows nothing of is brother’s disappearance. Now not only has the blood of lambs and goats been shed upon the earth, but now his brother’s blood has mingled with the sacrifices of lambs and goats which were for the covering of man’s sin. Blood, however has a very loud voice, and his brother’s blood “cries out” from the earth (Gen 4:10). “Am I my brother’s keeper?” cries Cain in frustration, fear and anger. ‘Yes, Cain, you are your brother’s keeper!

How sad it all is. How beautiful are the feet of the peacemakers (Rom 10:15) and how ugly is the wrath of the man-slayers. Now Cain is “cursed from the earth” (Gen 4:11) and now the earth which yielded little to Adam, would yield less to Cain.” “My punishment is greater than I can bear,” says Cain, (Gen 4:13). And why was Cain’s punishment greater than he could bear?” His punishment was greater than he could bear because he knew he could no longer live with his family at the gateway to Eden. He could not stay there whilst Abel’s blood cried out to God. He knew he would now be an outcast; outcast from Eden and an outcast from his family and worst of all,  separated from the Cherubim of God. He would no more see the “faces” of the Cherubim, the “faces of God’s presence” would be hidden from him There was no fate worse than this to be separated from God’s “mercy seat,” which dwelled between the Cherubim.  From now on he would be a “fugitive” and “a vagabond.” How would he survive?  But God is merciful, even to the Cains of the world, and he set a mark upon Cain that would protect him in his wanderings, and Cain “went out from the presence (faces) of the Lord) and dwelt on the ‘east of Eden (Gen 4:16).

And so it all began, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent in a fight to the death, and how blessed are we to be at the latter end of it all, so close to seeing and being part of “the faces of the Cherubim.”