Chapter 1 – The Cherubim in Genesis – by Fay Berry

Chapter 1 – The Cherubim

I have always had a great interest in “The Cherubim,” as described in Ezekiel Ch 1, and so I have decided to go through the Bible and find out what I can and describe my findings here on my web-site.  So here goes, my first epistle.

 Chapter 1 – The Cherubim in Genesis – by Fay Berry.

The Lord God planted a garden “eastward in Eden,” (Gen 2:8), and Adam was formed to care for this garden (Gen 2:15). The garden grew trees that were “pleasant to the sight, and good for food,” (Gen 2:9). In the midst of the garden, God planted “the tree of Life” and the “tree of knowledge of good and evil,” (Gen 2:9). A river went it of Eden to water the garden, and from thence, it parted and became into four heads, Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates, (Gen 2:11-14). God told Adam that he was free to eat of every tree of the garden except, one, the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (Gen 2:17) and of this tree alone, of all the trees in the garden, he was not to eat.

Adam was alone in the garden, and he was lonely. He searched to find a companion from amongst the animals in the garden, but “there was not found an help meet for him,” (Gen 2:20). God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone,” (Gen 2:18), and God made a woman and brought her to Adam (Gen 2:22). Adam was delighted with her and called her name Eve and he said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,” (Gen 2:23) and Adam and Eve walked in the Garden and were naked, but we’re not ashamed, (Gen 2:25). There was also resident in the garden, a serpent (Gen 3:1) and he began to communicate with the woman. He was very observant and he had watched the Elohim and Adam and Eve as they walked in the garden. He felt that he was very wise, and he told the woman that God was deceiving her, that if she ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she “would not surely die,” (Gen 3:4), because the Elohim knew “good and evil,”and they did not die. The woman listened to the enticing words of the serpent, and observed the tree more closely. She saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and very desirable because there was nothing she wanted more than to be “like unto the Angels,” and if the serpent was correct, then all she had to do was eat of the fruit of that forbidden tree, she would be made “wise, like the Elohim or Angels,” Gen 3:6).

Eve was persuaded by the words of the serpent and so she ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree. She shared some of the fruit with her husband, (Gen 3:6). As the serpent had told her would happen, the eyes of them both were “opened,” and they now knew “good and evil,” at first hand. Unfortunately, there was very little good, and a lot of evil that was consequent upon their “sin,” for sin it was that they found they had committed against God. They began to experience a whole new set of emotions after they had sinned, emotions of “shame” and “guilt,” and “anxiety,” feelings they had never experienced before. This was not the outcome Eve had hoped for, and they felt so bad, so uncomfortable, that they both began to seek a way to cover their nakedness, a way to make these uncomfortable feelings go away. They covered their nakedness with fig leaves (Gen 3:7), but this proved completely ineffective and achieved nothing.

In the cool of the day Adam and Eve had been in the habit of walking in the garden and sharing “sweet counsel” (Psa 55:14) with the Elohim, who made up the Cherubim, but their easy relationship with the Elohim was over and their sin being discovered, their excuses soon followed. The man blamed the woman, the woman blamed the serpent (Gen 3:13), and at that moment the serpent became embittered against “the seed of the woman,” and would remain at “enmity,” with her and her seed  (Gen 3:15) from that time forward. Punishment was pronounced by the Elohim on all three, the man to work “in the sweat of his brow,” (Gen 3:19) the woman’s childbearing to be numerous (Gen 3:16) and the serpent to grovel in the dust (Gen 3:14) and be at “enmity” (Rev 12:17) to all future generations of the “heavens and the earth” (Isa 65:17) until the “seed should come,” (Gal 3:10).

Since Adam and Eve could not cover their own bodies, let alone their sin, the Elohim killed a young animal, maybe a lamb or a kid, and made coats of the skins to cover their nakedness (Gen 3:21). The Elohim knew that it would now be impossible for Adam and Eve to resume their easy and comfortable relationship with the Elohim, their sin was too great. They drove Adam and his wife out of the garden lest they should also eat of tree of life and live for ever as sinners in the earth (Gen 3:23). The two fallen beings would now need to till the earth as before, but this time it would be “east of Eden” (Gen 3:24) where the earth would not yield its bounty as before. The ground would be hard and stony and full of weeds. Life would not be so easy for Adam and Eve as it had been in those halcyon days before their “fall.”

Having driven the man and the woman out of the garden of Eden, God placed at the entrance to the garden of Eden (Gen 3:24), Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, “to keep the way of the tree of life,” (Gen 3:24). Here is our introduction to the Cherubim. The description here is very largely incomplete because there are later descriptions of the Cherubim in which are added much detail as to what this “Cherubim” looked like that was placed at the entrance to the garden of Eden to prevent Adam and Eve reentering the “Paradise of God (Ezekiel 1).”

The Cherubim, here in the book of Genesis, is described from Adam and Eve’s viewpoint, and their understanding was very limited, so all they saw and recognised was that there was a being, anAngel, blocking the entrance to Eden. They also saw a great flashing like lightning, or maybe it was a flaming sword that turned every which way “to keep the way of the tree of life,” (Gen 3:24).

As the story of the Cherubim of God unfolds through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, a much more complete picture of the Cherubim will be built up, but one step at a time!