Jerusalem, once a busy commercial city, is now empty. She is like a woman who has lost her husband, like a princess who has become a slave. The nations (her ‘lovers’) who she thought would help her have proved useless, some even treacherous (1:1-3).
When Jerusalem’s hour of crisis came, all her leaders fled, leaving the people to be attacked, plundered and taken captive. Now that all the usual activities of daily life have ceased, there remain only the memories of the pleasant way of life she once enjoyed - and the memory of how her enemies laughed at her downfall (4-7).
The reason for Jerusalem’s desolation is her sin. In her idolatry and wickedness she had acted like an immoral woman; now she has been treated like one (8-9). Babylonian soldiers not only entered the temple (something that was forbidden to foreigners) but also plundered its precious metals and took its sacred treasures. The starving people in the crushed city try to trade their personal possessions with the enemy soldiers in a desperate effort to obtain bread (10-11).
In anguish the personified city asks those who pass by if they feel any pity for her because of the suffering God has sent her. She has been attacked, burnt, and left in a condition of hopeless ruin (12-13). Her sins have weighed her down as a heavy yoke weighs down on the neck of a working animal. Consequently, when God sent the enemy armies against her, she was so weak and helpless that she was unable to withstand them (14-16).
Although she does not receive the sympathy for which she cries out, she is not bitter against God. She knows God has justly punished her for her sins. She warns others to learn from her experience (17-18). When she called for help, none came. Some of the people starved to death in the siege, others were killed or taken captive when the city finally fell (19-20).
Jerusalem’s grief is made worse by the mockery of her neighbours. They rejoice over the fall of Jerusalem, yet they themselves are wicked. She prays that God will carry out justice against them as he has carried it out against Judah (21-22).
Lam 1:1. How doth the city sit, &c.- Houbigant renders the first part of this verse thus, How doth the city sit solitary! How is she become a widow, that was full of people! Cities are commonly described as the mothers of their inhabitants, and the kings and princes as their husbands and children. When therefore they are bereaved of these, they are said to be widows and childless. Under these affecting circumstances Jerusalem is described as sitting alone, and in a pensive condition, the multitude of her inhabitants being dispersed and destroyed. It is remarkable, that in times similar to this, that is to say, in the reign of the emperor Vespasian, a coin was struck, on which Judaea is represented under the image of a woman sitting in tears beneath a palm-tree. Jerusalem is said to have been great among the nations, as, in the time of her prosperity, she made conquests of various countries, and held them in subjection to her. See Isa 47:1. Calmet and Lowth.
Princess among the provinces- She that was sovereign over provinces. See what is said of David's conquests and sovereignty over the neighbouring states, 2Sa 8:1-14; 2Sa 10:6-19 of the extent of his son Solomon's dominions, 1Ki 21:24 of the power of Judah in the reign of Jehoshaphat, 2Ch 17:10-11 and also in that of Uzziah, 2Ch 26:6-8.
Lam 1:2. Among all her lovers, &c.- "All her allies, whose friendship she courted by sinful compliances, have forsaken her in the night of her afflictions, and even joined with her enemies in insulting over her."
Lam 1:3. Because of affliction, and-servitude- She sitteth in affliction and in great service among the heathen, and findeth no rest. Houbigant.
Lam 1:4. The ways of Zion do mourn- This verse seems evidently and beyond dispute to fix the subject of this poem to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple; the prophet lamenting in it the total desolation of the holy city, and the cessation of all religious services and ceremonies there.
Lam 1:5. Her adversaries are the chief- Literally, are at, or for the head. They rule over, or are superior to her. See Isa 9:15. Deu 28:13.
Lam 1:6. Like harts- Like rams,-And they go without strength before him who driveth them.
Lam 1:7. Jerusalem remembered, &c.- Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction, and of her exile, all the pleasant things which she had in the days of old. Her people fall into the hand of the enemy, and no one helpeth her; her enemies behold this, and rejoice in her wound, or distress. Houbigant; who observes, that the word משׁבתה mishbatteha, rendered sabbaths, is never so used, and that there does not appear any reason why the Chaldeans should particularly mock the sabbaths; nor is there any thing in what goes before that may lead to such an interpretation. Instead of sabbaths, the Vatican copy of the LXX reads dwelling; the Alexandrian, captivity; the Chaldee, good things; and the Syriac, contrition. It may be proper, however, to remark, that the observation of the sabbath was a common reproach thrown out by the Heathens against the Jews. Even the wise Seneca looked upon the seventh day as lost, on account of the cessation, which is enjoined, from all labour; and many other authors have taken upon them to censure this holy and important practice.
Lam 1:8. Because they have seen her nakedness- That is to say, her disgrace. For, according to the idea of those times, nothing could be inflicted more ignominious or disgraceful than to strip them of their garments. There are others who give the passage a different turn.
Lam 1:9. She remembereth not her last end- She hath not remembered her latter end. Houbigant. The apostrophe at the close of the verse, wherein the city is represented as addressing herself to God, is very nervous and animated.
Lam 1:10. Upon all her pleasant things- The latter part of the verse explains what is meant by this phrase; namely, the offerings and presents made to the sanctuary.
Lam 1:12. Is it nothing to you- Come unto me all ye that pass by. Houbigant. Michaelis would render it, Not unto you that pass by, [namely, do I call]. The preceding verse ended thus, See, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile; and then immediately follows, "Not unto you who pass by do I cry, Behold, and see," &c. that is, "I do not make this address to you who pass by; I do not call you who have heard this my complaint, as spectators and witnesses of my grief; ye are unable to condole with me; for what sorrow can be equal unto my sorrow, &c.?" The sense given in our version appears to me the most expressive and emphatical. The last words are read by Schultens, Sorrow, whereby the Lord hath exhausted me, or, hath altogether tortured me, in the day, &c.
Lam 1:15. The Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a wine-press- As in a wine-vat. This metaphor is easily to be understood of causing such an effusion of blood in Jerusalem, as to resemble the treading of the juice out of the ripe grapes in vintage-time. See Isa 63:2-3. Rev 14:20; Rev 19:15.
Lam 1:17. Zion spreadeth forth her hands- She extendeth her hands as a suppliant, praying for relief, and consolation: so Virgil says of Turnus:
Ille, humilis supplexque, oculos dextramque precantem Protendens. AEN. xii. l. 930.
Now low on earth the lofty chief is laid, With eyes cast upwards, and with arms display'd. DRYDEN.
See Psa 88:9; Psa 143:6.
Lam 1:19. I called for my lovers- That is, "My allies, the Egyptians, and others, who had promised me assistance, but in the day of necessity cast me off." See on Lam 1:2.
While they sought their meat to relieve their souls- The LXX and the Syriac add, "and found none." But no such words appear in the Hebrew copies, although the thing is implied; for had they found what they sought, they would not have died.
Lam 1:20. Abroad the sword, &c.- Without, the sword bereaveth; within, the mortality. Virgil has an expression remarkably similar to this:
Crudelis ubique Luctus, ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago. AEN. ii. l. 368.
Death in a thousand forms destructive frown'd, And woe, despair, and horror rag'd around. PITT.
Or, as our great poet describes the lazar-house,
---------------Despair Tended the sick busiest from couch to couch; And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook. PARADISE LOST, b. xi. 489, &c.
Death acting as it were in propria persona; and not by the instrumentality of another, as when a person is slain by the sword.
Lam 1:21. There is none to comfort me- Grief is timorous and suspicious, fertile in inventing torments for itself, scarcely brooking the least neglect, but entirely impatient of the least mockery or contempt. The prophet has beautifully expressed this circumstance in the passage before us. See Lam 1:7. The day, spoken of in the latter part of this verse, means that appointed for the execution of God's judgments upon the Babylonians and other enemies of the Jews, according to the predictions of Jeremiah in the 46th and following chapters of his prophesy. The next verse might be rendered, All their wickedness shall come before thee, and thou wilt do unto them as, &c. See Bishop Lowth's 23rd Prelection, and Calmet. Instead of, Do unto them, &c. Schultens reads, Exhaust thou them, as thou hast exhausted me.
REFLECTIONS.-1st, With plaintive notes of woe the prophet's mournful muse begins, and bids each reader drop the sympathetic tear.
1. He bewails the desolations of Jerusalem: how changed from all her former glory, into what an abyss of wretchedness fallen: he is amazed at what he beheld, and, commiserating her afflicted case, breaks forth, How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! Silence reigns in the once thronged streets; and brooding over the ruins, with anguish too big for utterance, in melancholy solitude, Jerusalem, as a disconsolate widow, sits on the ground, deserted of God, her king a captive, her inhabitants dead with famine, pestilence, or the sword, or kept under the yoke of servitude in a strange land: a princess once among the nations, courted, respected, and obeyed; now bound with captive bands, an ignominious tributary to a heathen lord. No marvel that tears incessant furrow her cheeks; and as if too short the day for sorrow such as her's, all night they flow, without a comforter, without a friend to pity her, and, by partaking, to alleviate her anguish. Her lovers, who in the days of her prosperity with warm professions testified their regard, desert her in the day of her calamity; and her treacherous friends throw off the mask, and act as open enemies. Her children groan in servitude; subject to the caprice and tyranny of heathen masters, and finding no rest, no end of toil, no peace of mind, no settled abode. Hemmed in like a beast in the toils, her persecutors have seized her, without the possibility of escape. Her adversaries are the chief; her enemies prosper: and no wonder, since the Lord hath afflicted her, whose wrath, on account of her manifold iniquities, is the cause of all her sufferings. Like harts famished for want of pasture, and weak as those timorous animals, her princes are unable to fight or fly, and fall an easy prey, despised now by those who honoured her; stripped of all her wealth and ornaments, her nakedness appears; and, confounded, she sighs and turns backward, as if to hide her shame. Pining with famine, and sunk in despondence, her people seek bread, and gladly part with all their jewels and pleasant things to procure the smallest refreshment; so low are they reduced, from that plenty wherein they once rioted, and which they so grievously abused. Note; (1.) They who wilfully depart from God, the soul's true rest, may not hope to find rest in any thing beside. (2.) All afflictions are doubly heavy when we see them as coming from God, not in mercy, but in wrath. (3.) Men's sins will surely bring them into straits, when too late they will bewail their folly. (4.) Affluence abused is the ready way to pining want.
2. Great were these miseries under which the state groaned; yet greater anguish to the gracious soul it was, to behold the sacred service of the temple interrupted. Unfrequented now, the ways of Zion mourn: her gates, no longer thronged by those who hasted to her solemn feasts, are deserted, desolate. Her priest sigh; no sacrifice bleeds, no incense smokes upon the altar; destitute of their portion, famishing through want: her virgins are afflicted; their songs of joy sunk into mourning and woe; and she is in bitterness, overwhelmed with anguish and distress. Her beauty is departed; not only her king and nobles captives, and her country wasted, but, above all, the beautiful house of her sanctuary in ruins. With sacrilegious hands her enemies have seized all her pleasant things, her ark, her altars; and those, who might not even enter the congregation, now riot in the very sanctuary, plunder and spoil its sacred treasures, and, adding insult to their ravages, mocked at their sabbaths; or, as some think, in derision laid upon them on that day heavier burdens. And, what aggravated all, was, the remembrance of the happy days of old, fled, to appearance for ever fled, and nothing now remaining but affliction and misery. Note; (1.) Nothing affects a good man's heart so deeply as the decay of vital godliness. (2.) To hear God dishonoured, his worship and ordinances despised and ridiculed, is bitter to the pious soul. (3.) The remembrance of the communion that we have enjoyed with God, and the comforts that we have tasted, serve but to aggravate our griefs, when by our unfaithfulness we have provoked God to withdraw, and leave us to our misery.
3. He laments over their sins, the cause of these desolations; for God is righteous in these his judgments. Her transgressions are multiplied, and very grievous, numberless, and aggravated. Her filthiness is in her skirts, open and avowed: careless and secure, she remembereth not her last end, nor considers in what misery her iniquities will issue: and having been most oppressive herself, the rich afflicting their poor brethren, and making their servitude heavy, justly therefore she is devoted to the yoke, and her fall wonderful, as her provocations were excessive. Note; (1.) Sin and ruin are inseparable. (2.) No sins are so aggravated as those of God's professing people.
4. Zion is introduced, breaking forth into an earnest cry to God under her sufferings. O Lord, behold my affliction, with an eye of pity and compassion, since every other comforter is no more: see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile, reduced to the most abject misery, and ready to sink into despair, if thou dost not interpose. Note; (1.) The only relief for the miserable is earnest application to the merciful God. When all other compassions fail, his fail not. (2.) If God afflicts his believing people, it is in order to excite their more fervent applications to him, and make them know more of the wonders of his grace.
2nd, The same complaints are continued.
1. She demands some compassion from the spectators of her misery, in the view of the heavy hand of God upon her, whom she acknowledges to be the author of her troubles. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? can you unconcerned behold these desolations, and not drop a tear over these ruins? see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow; so bitter and overwhelming. How ready are we all in distress to think our own burden peculiarly heavy, when in fact we only share the calamities common to men: yet it must be owned, that her case was deplorable indeed. In anger, in fierce anger, the Lord had afflicted her; a sense of this added bitterness to every burden; his fire is kindled in her palaces, or burns with fiercer flames within her guilty conscience. Entangled in his net, she could not flee away, but falls backward, faint, and unable to oppose the desolations of her Chaldean foe. Under complicated judgments, her yoke was made heavy, and her foul transgressions the cause of all; she was delivered into her enemies' hands, without the possibility of escaping. Her warriors, her valiant youth, and all her inhabitants, like grapes in the wine-press, are trodden under foot by the Babylonish army, and their blood shed on every side. Note; Whatever judgments weigh us down, we may be assured that our transgressions have wreathed the yoke, and bound on the burden.
2. She bewails with floods of tears her bitter anguish; and surely there is a cause for them. For these things I weep; both for her sin and her suffering; and particularly, [1.] Because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. When God departs, our misery must needs be great: all other afflictions are made light by the sense of his presence and love; but when the comforter, the only comforter of the sinful soul, is far from us, and nothing appears but wrath and despair, then is our wretchedness as complete as it can be out of hell. [2.] Because her children are desolate, in captivity, or destroyed by the sword of the merciless enemy; unable to comfort her; yea, their sad fate is the cause of her torment. [3.] Because she could not find a friend. In vain she spread forth her hands, entreating help, and pleading for compassion: her lovers, who promised once so fair, deceived her, yea, shunned her, as if her touch communicated defilement, and none either cared or dared to interpose, when the destruction was by the divine decree, and her adversaries acted under his commission. Note; (1.) When God is our friend, we shall never want a comforter; if he be our enemy, none can comfort us. (2.) Creature-confidences are sure to fail us in the day of calamity. (3.) Because of the terrible famine. My priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls; and if these were perishing for want, how much more the people in general? (4.) Because of the desolations that she beheld. Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death, inevitable from the famine and the pestilence. (5.) Because of her insulting enemies. They heard of her trouble, and with malicious pleasure rejoiced in it, and for these things her tears run down without intermission.
3. She justifies God in these his judgments. The Lord is righteous; however faithless her friends, or inhuman her foes, her sufferings were no more than she deserved: for I have rebelled, grievously rebelled, against his commandment. Note; True penitents ever acknowledge the justice of God in punishing them; and never desire to excuse themselves, but speak of their sins with every aggravation.
4. She presents her miserable case to the God of all mercy. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress; deeply afflicted, not only with her sufferings, but from a sense of her sins: my bowels are troubled, mine heart is turned within me; distracted and torn, uneasy and restless; and when the soul thus broken and contrite approaches God, he will not despise our prayer.
5. She expects and intreats that God would visit her enemies. Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called; the time fixed in God's counsels for their punishment; and they shall be like unto me, in suffering; and as she believes this will come, she prays that it may. Let all their wickedness come before thee; be remembered and avenged: and do unto them as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions; as equally guilty, let them meet the same scourge, and heavy indeed that had been, as her anguish testified; for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. Note; (1.) They who are alike guilty, may expect to be alike miserable. (2.) Though all private resentment is forbidden, we may pray to see God glorified in the ruin of his own and his people's enemies, that are obstinately, incorrigibly impenitent.
The touching significance of this book lies in the fact that it is the disclosure of the love and sorrow of Jehovah for the very people He is chastening a sorrow wrought by the Spirit in the heart of Jeremiah. Compare Jer 13:7; Mat 23:36-38; and Rom 9:1-5. - Scofield Reference Bible As regards its external structure, the composition of the book, both as a whole and in its several parts, is so artistic, that anything like it can hardly be found in any other book of Holy Scriptures. Lange’s Commentary
In the first place it contains just five songs, each limited to a single chapter. In the second place, there is a marked climax in the third song, with an ascent and a descent, a crescendo and decrescendo movement before and after it. About the middle of this song at verse eighteen, the prophet seems to have reached the deepest night of his misery, but where the exigency is greatest, help is nearest. The night is succeeded by the morning (Lam 1:19-21), and with Lam 1:22 breaks the full day.
Each of the songs contains twenty-two verses according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; in other words, it is an acrostic a favorite form of Hebrew poetry. But in the third song each verse is divided into three members making in our English setting sixty-six verses. Other of its poetical features we cannot dwell upon.
LAMENTATIONS ANALYSIS OF THE CHAPTERS
In chapter 1 the lament is over the ruin of Jerusalem and Judah, and is divided into two parts of equal length. The first is a description of the city, and the second the lamentation strictly considered. In both the speaker is the prophet himself (or an ideal person like the daughter of Zion, for example).
In chapter 2, the lament is over the destruction of the city, which is described and attributed to Jehovah. This also is in two nearly even sections. Lam 2:1-10 describe the judgment; Lam 2:12-22 are the lamentation proper.
In chapter 3 is the climax where Israel’s brighter day is contrasted with the gloomy night of sorrow experienced by the prophet himself. There are three parts in this chapter, divided as follows: Lam 3:1-66.
In chapter 4, Zion’s guilt and punishment are described, the whole consisting of four parts which will be readily distinguished as Lam 4:1-6; Lam 4:7-11; Lam 4:12-16; Lam 4:17-22.
In chapter 5, the distress and hope of the prisoners and fugitives are expressed in the form of a prayer. Here the author lets the people speak, not as an ideal person but in the first person plural as a concrete multitude. There is an introduction (v. 1), two principal parts, Lam 5:2-7 and Lam 5:8-16, and a conclusion, Lam 5:17-22.
GOLDEN TEXTS
There are some richly laden verses in this beautiful book, full of comfort and instruction for the saint and of homiletic value to the preacher. We indicate a few: Lam 1:12; Lam 1:16; Lam 2:13; Lam 2:14; Lam 3:21-26; Lam 3:31-33; Lam 3:37; Lam 3:39-41; Lam 5:7; Lam 5:16-17; Lam 5:21.
QUESTIONS
1. What fact gives this book peculiar significance?
2. Have you read Rom 11:1-5?
3. How does the literary structure of this book compare with other Scriptures?
4. Describe the third song.
5. What is an acrostic?
6. Have you memorized any of the Golden Texts?
HIS CALL AND PREPARATION
Ezekiel was carried to Babylon with King Jehoiachin, as we gather by comparing Eze 1:1; Eze 33:21; Eze 40:1 with 2Ki 24:11-16; and lived with the exiles on the river Chebar probably at Tel-abib (Eze 1:1; Eze 1:3; Eze 3:15). Unlike Jeremiah, he was married and had a stated residence (Eze 8:1; Eze 24:1; Eze 24:18). His ministry began in the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity, and seven before the capture of Jerusalem (Eze 1:1-2), when he himself was thirty years old (Eze 1:1). His prophetic activity extended over a period of at least twenty-two years (Eze 1:2; Eze 29:17), during which time he was often consulted by the leaders in exile (Eze 8:1; Eze 14:1; Eze 20:1), though his advice was not always followed. The time and manner of his death are unknown.
Like Daniel and the Apostle John who, like himself, prophesied outside of Palestine, he follows the method of symbol and vision, or as we prefer to put it, God followed that method through him. And like them, his ministry was directed to “the whole house of Israel,” the twelve tribes, rather than to either Judah or Israel distinctively, after the manner of the pre-exilic prophets. His purpose was twofold: (1) to keep before the exiles the national sins which had brought Israel so low; and (2) to sustain their faith by predictions of national restoration, the punishment of their enemies, and ultimate earthly glory.
Scofield divides the book into seven great prophetic strains indicated by the expression, “The hand of the Lord was upon me” (Eze 1:3; Eze 3:14; Eze 3:22; Eze 8:1; Eze 33:22; Eze 37:1; Eze 40:1), and seven minor divisions indicated by the formula, “And the word of the Lord came unto me.” But although this is interesting and instructive, yet for our present purpose, we emphasize three main divisions only, as follows:
1. Prophecies delivered before the siege of Jerusalem, foretelling its overthrow (chaps. 1-24). These correspond to the general character of Jeremiah’s messages with whom for a while Ezekiel was contemporary.
2. Prophecies delivered during the period of the siege (chaps. 25-32). These are chiefly about the Gentile nations.
3. Prophecies after the downfall of the city (chaps. 33-48). These deal with the restoration entirely.
THE PROPHET CALLED
Give the time, place and circumstances as indicated in verses one and two. Look at the map and identify the Chebar. Give the details of Ezekiel biography in verse three.
Note the vision he beheld the whirlwind, cloud, fire, brightness, color (Eze 1:4); the four living creatures (Eze 1:5-14); the wheels (Eze 1:15-21); the firmament (Eze 1:22-23); the voice (Eze 1:24-25); the throne and the man above it (Eze 1:26-27); and finally, the definition of it all (Eze 1:28). Note in the last verse that out of this glory the voice spake that directed the prophet. Freshen your recollection by comparing Exodus J, 33 and 34; 1 Kings 19; Isaiah 6; Daniel 10; Acts 9; and Revelation 1.
The “living creatures” are doubtless identical with the cherubim of the garden of Eden, to which further reference will be made in the next lesson.
EQUIPPED AND COMMISSIONED
Note the address “Son of Man” (Eze 1:1). It is used by Jesus Christ seventy- nine times in referring to Himself, and by Jehovah ninety-one times in speaking to Ezekiel, which suggests that the prophet is considered in a priestly and mediatorial capacity. Or, we may take the thought of Scofield that in the case of our Lord it is His racial name as the representative man in the sense of 1Co 15:45-47. If so, applying the idea here, it means that Jehovah, while not forsaking Israel even in her disobedience and hour of punishment, would yet remind that people that they are but a small part of the race for which He also cares.
Note the relation in which the Holy Spirit comes to the prophet, and examine your concordance to see that “entering into him” is more of a New Testament than an Old Testament way of speaking of that relation.
Note finally, that like other recipients of God’s revelation the prophet heard the voice that spake to him and recognized the speaker.
Now follow a description of the moral condition of the people to whom he is sent (Eze 1:3-5), and a warning to himself, corresponding to Jeremiah’s (Eze 1:6-8). The demand for absolute obedience in the transmission of his message are set forth symbolically in the figure of the book (2’9; 3:3), although the transaction itself is difficult to explain. Perhaps it took place in a vision. How does it show that he was to preach only what God imparted to him? How that he was to make it his own? How that in a spiritual sense he was to live on it? Whatever its message, the Word of God is sweet to faith because it is the Word of God (compare Jet. 1:9; 15:16; Rev 10:9-10).
QUESTIONS
1. When was Ezekiel made a captive?
2. What do we learn of his domestic history?
3. What method of teaching does he exemplify?
4. What was its purpose?
5. State the three main divisions of the book, with chapters.
6. What other men had corresponding visions of glory?
7. What, possibly, is the significance of the phrase “Son of Man”?
8. How is the inspiration of Ezekiel’s message symbolized?
THE CHERUBIM
In our last lesson we had the first description of the cherubim met with in Scripture, although the beings themselves were brought before us in Eden (Genesis 3), and their images, or figures, in the tabernacle. In the latter case two were in the Holy of Holies over the Ark of the Covenant and others wrought in needlework upon the curtains of the sanctuary and the veil (Exodus 25-27).
Imperfect and erroneous conceptions of the cherubim have prevailed, as instanced in that they are almost always pictured as angels, which they are not, but rather the living embodiment of some important truth.
FAMILY TO ISRAEL
That they were familiar Israel is seen in that Moses gives no description of them either in Genesis or Exodus. Is this accounted for by the circumstance that they continued to exist in Eden guarding the approach to the tree of life, and visible to man, say, down to the time of the flood? If so, Shem, who was contemporaneous with Abraham for 150 years, might easily have transmitted to him, and through him to his descendants, a knowledge of their appearance and of that which their presence was intended to teach.
But their appearance is not revealed to us until we reach Ezekiel, when they are presented as having in general, a human form, but each with four faces and four wings one face of a man, another of a lion, a third of an ox, and a fourth of an eagle. Their motions were as swift as lightning, and the sound of their wings in flight as of great waters of a mighty host. A throne was in the firmament above them, and on the throne the divine glory in the likeness of a man. “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord,” said the prophet, which shows the connection between it and our humanity in the person of Immanuel.
Subsequently, at chapter 10, the prophet speaks of seeing these beings again in the temple at Jerusalem, and identifies them as “the cherubim.”
They are seen once more by John on Patmos (Revelation 4-5) where “they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” and with the four and twenty elders they fall down before the Lamb and sing a new song a song of praise for the redemption of man. This is very significant.
TYPE OF REDEEMED HUMANITY
That they are beings designed to set forth some great truth of redemption is evident, since they are introduced at its opening scene in Genesis, and in its closing scene in Revelation, and associated with it throughout.
The symbolism of the faces of the cherubim considered together, gives us the highest possible conception of life, with the noblest characteristics belonging to created intelligence.
The face of the man sets forth the highest ideal of wisdom and knowledge; that of the lion adds majesty and power; that of the ox, creative or productive industry; and the eagle, dominion and irresistible might, for the range of his vision and the power of his flight, as well as his boldness and courage, are unequaled.
The other features, however, were equally striking. Eyes before and behind, show ceaseless vigilance and exalted capacities for knowledge; wings, denote a higher and wider sphere of service than simply the earth; going straight forward, never turning their bodies, as we must necessarily do, but with four faces always moving in the direct line of vision, points to a superior spiritual nature and undeviating integrity in God’s service; their glorious appearance, also, like burning coals of fire, sparkling as burnished brass, has its significance.
If now, according to the ordinary principles of symbolic interpretation, we ask for the realization of all this, we may find it in our redeemed humanity when delivered from the curse, and restored, and glorified through Jesus Christ. The cherubim would seem to be the embodiment of that glory to which our humanity is destined in the resurrection state that combination of powers and excellencies which shall be ours when our salvation is consummated in the life to come.
THE EMBODIMENT OF THE GLORIFIED LIFE
This is further corroborated by the fact that originally they stood within the prohibited bounds of paradise, and kept “the way of the tree of life”; i.e., they not only guarded it, but preserved the approach to it, as if until, in the fullness of time, redeemed humanity might have access to it again.
The divine presence since the entrance of sin, had withdrawn himself from all familiar intercourse with men, no longer walking with them as in their innocence in paradise. But He had not withdrawn Himself from earth or from men altogether, since He might still be approached, and His favor secured at the gateway to the tree of life. Here the cherubim dwelt with the flaming sword of the divine presence between them. So also in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, their privileged place lies over the mercy seat, while here in Ezekiel’s vision above their heads in the crystal firmament, the glory of the God of Israel in human form was seated on the throne.
Thomas Wicke, D.D., from whose “The Economy of the Ages” the above is an abridgment, regards the fact that the cherubim are always found in immediate connection with the surroundings of the divine presence, as declaring that those they represent have a right within the paradise of God - the blessed promise held out to our redeemed humanity. Compare Rev 5:9, where the cherubim unite with the four and twenty elders in the song of redemption itself the song of the Lamb.
