CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM
[p. 256] CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM
What I have to say is particularly to call attention to the effect of John’s ministry. As you will recall, he begins his gospel with life and ends it with life, the last chapter being an appendix. He begins, after introducing the Lord as to His deity, with the statement, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men”; and ends with the statement that the signs were written that the saints “might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they might have life in his name”, John 20:31. If life is the light, it is clear that it is to produce life. We can take account of the sun as ruling, which is Matthew’s point of view, but we can also take account of it as a life-giver. Without it I suppose there would be no life, animal or vegetable, on the earth, so that John is astronomical in his remarks in the setting of his gospel; not from the governmental, or, as I might call it, cherubic aspect, but rather from the seraphic. That is, he would bring in living creatures. You will remember that in Revelation there are four “living creatures” whose employ is the celebration of the holiness of Him who sits upon the throne, and they recognise that for His pleasure all things were created. The living creatures recognise that and celebrate it: “For thy pleasure they are and were created”, Revelation 4:11.
Now in speaking of John being, in that way, seraphic, as I venture to do, one cannot refrain from saying a word about Matthew, who may be regarded as cherubic. It has been on my mind that the one word that spells the need of the world today is government. In the ordering of things before sin came in God spoke of government, that Adam was to [p. 257] have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, cattle and all the earth. That was government, not of man by man, but the lower creatures by man; but then the tree of life after sin came in had to be guarded, and one can understand that the principle of government applied to that must of necessity be different from its reference to the lower creatures. In the east of Eden there was cherubim with a flaming sword turning every way, not to restrain men’s passions, but to keep the way of the tree of life; that should be kept. The responsibility of it was not entrusted to man, but to the cherubim. God would retain the idea of government in man and so He set it up again in Noah. You will recall how He not only gave him the commission to govern, but He said, “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth”; Genesis 9: 2. It was a great mercy that God set in the instincts of the lower creatures a dread of man. God has done that, but it was not to be limited to them. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed”, Genesis 9:6. Human life, I suppose, was never so cheap in the history of humanity as it is now and it is because government has failed.
Noah, alas! quickly shows that he is unable to govern himself; but God holds to His thought, so He, “the God of glory”, appears to Abraham. I am not quoting from Genesis, but from Stephen, a man who spoke as full of the Holy Spirit. He says, “The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham”, Acts 7:2 and I connect that just briefly with another beautiful expression in the New Testament; “the cherubim of glory”, Hebrews 9: 5. I venture to say that the glory of God, the maintenance and preservation of it here on earth, and indeed in the whole universe, depends on the cherubim of glory. “The cherubim of glory”, says the writer to the Hebrews, “shadowing the mercy seat”. Those holy eyes were looking down on [p. 258] that which spoke of Christ, the One through whose atoning sacrifice every claim of the divine majesty should be met. Those holy eyes looked down on the mercy seat and those wings overshadowed it. It is a beautiful expression, “the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat”. God dwelt between them, as if His glory was bound up with them. The psalmist said, “thou that dwellest between the cherubim shine forth”, Psalm 80:1. That is to say, the shining forth of God is in relation to His government. It must be so.
Well now, if the world is marked, for the moment, by the want of government, how is it to be with us? You may be sure that the conditions prevailing in the world are the conditions that Satan will endeavour to introduce among God’s people, and so in speaking of government I would cite the beautiful passage in Isaiah, “unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder”, Isaiah 9:6. Now think of that expression, “upon his shoulder”. What shoulder? There have been rulers in this world, good and bad, but think of the government being upon His shoulder! The shoulder is emblematic of strength. The heart is emblematic of affection. The government that Christ is sustaining today is in relation to those whom He loves; He has not taken up the government of the world yet. God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has appointed that day and no power can change it. That day, when it comes, will see the inauguration of a perfect government in this world.
Zechariah speaks of it as the government of a Priest. He shall sit as a Priest upon His throne. The sun sometimes represents Christ as ruling, but it is necessarily an imperfect symbol, for in rainless districts it would be regarded as an enemy. When you have a Priest on the throne you have One not [p. 259] only to rule, but who has sympathy. It will be a benign rule, as by One who can sympathise with men, He shall shepherd the nations. He does it with a rod of iron, for there can be no brooking of man’s will. There will be no place for man’s will, but, nevertheless, it is the hand of a Shepherd that holds the rod. But the government that Christ exercises today has reference to those whom He loves; that is, ourselves. It is a very precious thought to me, that the government of Christ has reference to me. He is not ordering the affairs of the world, but He is governing with regard to His people.
In Acts 9, as you will remember, Saul breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples, not “of Jesus”, but “of the Lord”. The issue was between Saul and the Lord. Was Saul stronger than He? The Lord was defending the assembly. It was a question of the disciples of the Lord. Let anyone touch His disciples and the Lord will have to say to them. The result in that instance was not in the destruction of the adversary. His power for damage was broken, but he was preserved in grace. So the government is upon Christ’s shoulder in respect to the assembly at the present time and it is a matter, to my mind at least, of great importance that while the absence of government largely marks the nations, it should not be so among us. The Lord makes the comparison, saying, “it shall not be so among you”, Matthew 20: 26. Government is preserved, not indeed in the harsh rule of an autocrat, but, as I said, in the rule of a Priest, one who reflects in the moral sway that He exercises among the saints, human yet divine sympathies and sensibilities. Indeed in His rule we see the cherubim of glory; you cannot divorce glory from love. Glory is the outshining of love as it accomplishes its own blessed purposes.
Stephen begins with the God of glory and finishes with the glory of God. He saw the glory of God and [p. 260] Jesus in heaven. The result presently was manifested in the succeeding chapters in the Acts. We see the cherubim of glory, the rule, as you might say, of love; a rule, as I said, that does not brook man’s will, for man’s will must not have sway in the house of God. It is the rule of love, and can anything be greater morally in this respect than the triumph of Christ over Saul of Tarsus? He broke down the adversary in grace and hence won him. There was destruction there indeed, but where the destruction took place there was construction. There was secured a man in keeping with the vision of Stephen. His word to Saul, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest”, Acts 9:5 would leave its impress ever afterwards, and one can understand, as he proceeded in his ministry, in the laying of the foundation and the ordering of the house of God, the ordaining of elders, how he would have in view the cherubim of glory, the shining out of government in a Man, in Jesus. One can understand his directions to Timothy and Titus as to elders, in that regard.
I just have a brief word in regard to John; that is the seraphic side. The governmental or cherubic side secures the latter, and the latter supports the former, as we have them each set down together in the fourth of Revelation: the elders in all their dignity and intelligence, crowned as they were, sitting on thrones around the throne upon which the Ancient of Days sat. And then, on the other hand, the energy of life in the “living creatures”, who cease not day and night celebrating the holiness of Him who sat upon the throne. John brings all this in, and I only want to show you that in this opening chapter you have the evidence of life, and the Lord acts and speaks in relation to that. Firstly, John speaks and there is movement. Two of his disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. The Lord looked round and saw them following; there was [p. 261] movement, and when He saw them following He asks them, What they seek? I just notice this in the briefest way. Then, after they abide with Him that day, Andrew goes and seeks out his brother and brings him to Jesus, and Jesus looks on him. I just want you to notice this, how He looks on Peter. In Matthew He says, “Thou art Peter”, Matthew 16:18 because of what Peter said, but here it is not what Peter says; it is rather his appearance. The Lord looks on him, and He says, “Thou shalt be called Cephas”, not,”thou art”. The Lord as the last Adam is before us here. “Thou shalt be called Cephas”, which, as John carefully tells us, is by interpretation, a stone.
Well then the Lord finds Philip, and Philip finds Nathanael. I want to show how, in the opening of John, we have illustrated what I have pointed out, that it is a question of persons being set in movement, by the great Light that shines. Life was thus in evidence. “The life was the light of men”. I want you to ponder that. If life is the light, then life must be the result. So Philip goes to Nathanael and he says, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write”. Think of finding a Man in that simple way, that was written about hundreds of years before! Philip being an intelligent man, a man instructed in the Scripture, announces to Nathanael this Person. He spoke of one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Philip indicates that he had been taking account of things with a spiritual mind, whereas Nathanael was in a natural state, and apparently the only thing his mind takes in of all Philip says is “Nazareth”. How often that is noticeable as to ministry. People think of the despicable side. ‘See’, they say, ‘how few there are that hear what you have to say. How small things are’. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” and Philip says, “Come and see”. Movement is [p. 262] needed. Philip implied that if Nathanael sat under the fig tree he would not find it out. It was a question of life, and that is the word today I believe. There must be life. And so it says, “Jesus saw Nathanael coming”. I wonder if He sees anyone here coming to Him. When He sees Nathanael coming, He says of him, not to him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! He would not have said that of Nathanael had he not moved.
Well, I am not going further, but I think what I have said will indicate to you the import of this gospel, that a leading feature in it is life. I am not for the moment speaking of eternal life. It is another thought, although allied closely to this. I am speaking of vitality, that kind of life that is energetic, that leads us to move toward Christ. There is much activity, I know, both religious and otherwise, in the world, but is it in regard to Christ? It is what is in regard to Christ that receives a name from Christ. “Behold an Israelite indeed”, He says, “in whom is no guile!”
Pages 263 - 357 — “The Ark of the Covenant”. Belfast, 1922 (Volume 54).