I suppose I should note that this trilogy of sermons was not, in fact, designed for a church service. They’re a bit heavy for regular church services. These three sermons were composed for our chapel services at the Bible college, for an audience of students.
In the last sermon we thought about the Garden of Eden and Man’s expulsion from it. Now we’ll go on and look at key moments in the history of redemption that recall that scene and, at the same time, point to the future.
As we continue to read the story of God’s acts in human history, it should not surprise us it, here and there, we catch brief glimpses of that Garden, reminders of the last images Adam and Eve saw when they left the Garden in grief. Why shouldn’t it surprise us? Because the grand movements and tides of God’s history take their very sense and meaning from that original place where God and Man enjoyed holy fellowship. The end of the story, where everything is heading, must in some way be similar to the beginning. Why? Because that’s the very meaning of redemption! Redemption means bringing back, restoring what was lost. And if so, then we can expect to see a similarity between the beginning of all things as God made it and the end of all things as God will make it.
No, I’m not saying that the future will simply be an exact copy of the past. I believe that God never does exactly the same thing twice. In the future, a completely redeemed creation will be something more and greater than the original creation was. In what ways? No one knows all the ways, of course, but here’s at least one way: in God’s eternal kingdom, Man will forever be Man redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; this is a reality that would never have been if man hadn’t sinned. That doesn’t make it good that man sinned; it just proves God’s power to conquer the worst evil and darkness and to accomplish an even more glorious purpose than anyone could have imagined.
But – ! Even if the future creation will contain a greater glory than the original, all the same the future creation cannot negate the original. God’s design for the first creation was holy and good, and His fellowship with Man in the Garden was wonderful. God’s design for a new, redeemed creation will not negate that but only raise it to greater heights of fulfillment – just as Jesus did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it.
Whether we recognize it or not, the whole meaning of the Garden is still a present, determinative meaning in the affairs of God and Man; the Garden is still essential to who we are, and to Who God reveals Himself to us as. The holiness and intimacy, the fruitfulness and fertility, the Lordship and glory – all these living realities of the Garden are intrinsic to the spirit of redemption, both in its present operations and its final consummation. It is therefore inevitable that these realities would be glimpsed again and again in the history of redemption.
Let’s look at two passages that offer us such glimpses. The first is Exodus 24:8-11 (read)
Suddenly the elders find themselves in the very presence of the living God. They “saw the God of Israel”. They didn’t fully understand what they saw. Under his feet was “something like” a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky. What it was exactly, they didn’t know – or else they would have told us! They saw something that was beyond their understanding, but they knew that this was God. It is a shocking, unexpected moment. They knew that, by all rights, they should have been struck dead instantly but, astonishingly, they live. Not only lived, but ate and drank before God! And “He did not stretch out His hand against them.” Man had not experienced anything like this since... the Garden! The Garden also was a place where God came and fellowshipped with Man, and where Man ate and drank and enjoyed the bounty of God’s creation. And in the Garden, too, God did not stretch out his hand against Man. This astonishing, frightening event on the mountaintop is like a veil being momentarily lifted, allowing a glimpse into realities that have always been there, behind the visible world. For a moment, the elders of Israel are allowed to be where no one should be, and to see what no one should see. Why? After the nation’s long exile in Egypt, they need a vision – a vision that speaks of both the beginning that Man lost and the future that God will restore. They needed this vision, or God would not have given it to them. Only God has the prerogative to depart from the norm like this, at the time and place of His choosing and for His inscrutable purposes.
Even so, notice that they received this vision only after going through the blood. Before there was glory on the mountaintop, there was the spilling of blood and the words, “This is the blood of the covenant.” Later in history a different meeting between God and His chosen people takes place, but the glory is hidden in human flesh. And there is again eating and drinking, but a different voice, one greater than Moses, says, “This is the blood of the covenant.” And even though this scene would appear less dramatic to any observer, in a real sense the disciples in the upper room were seeing God even more truly than the elders of Israel did on the mountaintop. As Jesus said to Philip, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” And they ate and drank in his presence and he did not stretch out his hand against them, but called them his friends, and, after they had sung a psalm together, he led them out into the night, and to a garden and a cross....
But let’s return for now to the book of Exodus. Immediately after that incredible vision on the mountaintop, in the very next chapter, we find God’s instructions for the building of the Tabernacle. And we read these words (read Exodus 25:17-22).
When the elders of Israel were on the mountaintop it was as if the veil had been lifted for a moment, the veil separating Man and God. But then the veil falls again on the scene, the departure from the norm is concluded. It is not yet time for Man to remain freely in sight of the vision of God and live. The veil comes down again on this departure from the norm and now, instead, the ark and the Holy Place will be the witness to this past and future reality. Once again the cherubs appear, just as they did when Man was banished from the Garden. Just as they guarded the Tree of Life, now they guard, once again, God’s holy place. Specifically they guard the “atonement cover”, the most holy place on earth. The atonement cover is the testimony of the blood which will pay the price for the sins of the world. Just as the real cherubs stood in front of the Tree of Life together with a supernaturally blazing sword that swept and slashed in every direction, so these golden cherubs stand over the place where the blood must be spilled. The only way back to the Tree of Life is through a sword, and through blood. The cherubs will allow nothing but pure holiness to enter there. The cherubs face each other, but they do not look at each other. They gaze forever at the atonement cover. The holiness of God is their sole occupation - you might say their obsession, their only reason for existing.
The cherubs appear not only on the ark of the covenant but also in the veil that hides the ark in the Holy of Holies. (Read Exodus 26:31-33) How can we help but notice that, first, God explicitly pointed out that the golden cherubs must be made of one piece with the atonement cover and then He says that the cherubs must be worked into the veil. That is, they must be part of the veil, part of the barrier separating Man from God’s holy presence, just as they are part of the atonement cover that demands the sacrificial blood for restoration and return. The curtain and the ark both speak about the integrity, the wholeness, of God’s purposes. There are no shortcuts to the ultimate accomplishment of His plan. You can’t leave any part out. It will all have to be thoroughly, absolutely, perfectly carried out. There is no way back to the Garden except through the cherubs and the sword. There is no way into the Holy of Holies except through the cherubs and the blood. There is no way “back to the future” except to cross, somehow, through the terrible curtain of holiness, the divine holiness which the cherubs worship and protect.
The vision on the mountaintop has been taken away, and Moses has gone on alone to receive the Law from God’s hand, the law that convicts of sin and makes manifest to everyone why Man suffers his present exile from the holy place. And the heavenly glory has hidden itself behind the curtain, separated from Man, guarded by cherubs, waiting for the day when one Man will reunite the past and future at the cost of his own body. Through the tearing of his own heart he will tear the veil, too, the holy curtain that divides the Father from the children made in His image. And the cherubs will then cry out, more gloriously than ever, “Holy, holy, holy! Worthy is the Lamb!”
“Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood people from every tribe and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”
From the very beginning God’s intent and design was one holy people for Himself. He will achieve His purpose and nothing will stop him.
God gave the elders of Israel a vision because they needed it.
So do we.
