Cherubim and the Flaming Sword

by M.J. Agee

"I knew" Ezekiel said, "that they were the cherubims" (Ezek. 10:20)

After almost constantly reading man's works about the Bible for seven years, I still
had no answers for certain questions. For instance, I wanted to know what the
cherubim and flaming sword stood for in Genesis 3:24 and what the cherubim were
in Ezekiel's visions. No author had explained them to my satisfaction. I laid my
hands on my open Bible and said, "Lord! you'll have to show me..."

Not knowing how he would show me, I started looking up all the pertinent words in
Hebrew in both Genesis 3:24 and Ezekiel 1, hoping something would shed light on
the subject. It did. The light that shone was the sunshine, but that is getting ahead
of my story.

What are Cherubim?

In Scripture, we first hear of Cherubim in Genesis 3:24, but we are not told what they
are. After Adam's sin, we read that the Lord,

drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden
Cherubims, (kerubim) and a flaming sword (chereb, destroying weapon)
which turned every way, to keep the way of (to, as in the NASB) the tree of
life.

Where is "east of the garden?" From Genesis 2:14, we find that the Garden of Eden
was in the vicinity of the Euphrates River. Halley's Bible Handbook quotes an
interesting ancient Babylonian inscription that shows that the garden was near
Eridu, twelve miles south of Ur, where Abraham came from. The inscription said,

Near Eridu was a garden, in which was a mysterious Sacred Tree, a Tree of
Life, planted by the gods, whose roots were deep, while its branches
reached to heaven, protected by guardian spirits, and no man enters.

In Revelation 22:2, we find that the tree of life truly did reach Heaven. It is now in
Heaven. It may come as a surprise, but east of the Garden of Eden can be anywhere
between Earth and Heaven, which rises in our eastern sky.

Are Cherubim Guardian Spirits?

The Babylonian inscription mentioned "guardian spirits." Are Cherubim guardian
spirits? The answer is complex. The Cherubim do guard. That much I can tell you
now. They guard the path to Heaven to make sure nothing enters Heaven that would
defile it. As to whether they are spirits or not must wait until we find the scriptural
clues that show us exactly what they are.

Ezekiel Saw the Cherubim

The very fact that Ezekiel saw the Cherubim in his visions in chapters 1 and 10
suggest that they are something concrete rather than spirit. He saw them. Usually
spirits are not seen for they are like the wind. Webster's definition of concrete is
revealing. He said it is "a mass formed by concretion or coalescence of separate
particles of matter in one body."

Ezekiel's Vision of Four Cherubim

Ezekiel's first vision is where the sunlight gave me my first inkling of what the
Cherubim really are. The "heavens were opened" to Ezekiel in his visions. I should
have paid more attention to that clue before, but I didn't. Ezekiel looked up at the
sky. The Cherubim were in the heavens. He saw a whirlwind that fanned out to form
a great doughnut shape. Within it's boundaries, he saw four flying heavenly bodies.
In the middle was the radiant sun, "a fire infolding itself, and a brightness (nogah,
sunlight) was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber."

This time, it really paid off to look up the word "brightness" in Hebrew. If the fire
infolding itself had sunlight about it, it was our Sun. The passage suddenly took on a
whole new meaning. These things really are in the sky.

The next clue came quickly. Ezekiel 1:15 said that one wheel was "upon the earth."
Wow! now what kind of a wheel does Earth have? The next verse says that the
appearance of the wheels was "as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel." How
does Earth's wheel fit inside other wheels? Oh! I got the picture. Earth's orbit fits into
the concentric orbits of the terrestrial planets. Around those is a cloud of small
pieces of a planet that broke up, our Asteroid Belt. In order of distance from the sun,
we have Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These planets are the Cherubim Ezekiel
saw in his vision of the heavens.

Their four faces are the four cardinal points of the compass. The same pictures were
on the flags placed at the compass points outside the Israelite encampment in the
wilderness. The extremities or outer borders of the Cherubim look like disks, "like the
sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass" (1:7). They
sparkled in the sunlight.

As for the likeness of the living creatures (lively heavenly bodies that can
fly), their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the
appearance of lamps (1:13).

Is there any doubt in your mind? Don't the planets look like disks, burning coals of
fire, lamps lit at dusk in the approaching darkness of night.

The Lord's throne is above these Cherubim, i.e., farther away from the sun. Ezekiel
1:26 says,

And above the firmament (expanse of space) that was over their heads
was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and
upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a
man (Christ) above upon it.
This stone also had "as it were the appearance of fire" (1:27).

When Ezekiel realized what he had seen, he said, "And when I saw it, I fell upon my
face." Don't you feel like that too? Ezekiel had seen Heaven. He had seen the Lord's
throne upon it. What an awesome sight. I certainly was thrilled when I first saw
Heaven floating like a pearl of great price up there in space.

In chapter 10, Ezekiel saw the throne and Cherubim again. He said,

THEN I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of
the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, and
the appearance of the likeness of a throne....And their (the Cherubim's)
whole body (i.e., heavenly body), and their backs, and their hands
(extremeties, i.e., outer edges, borders), and their wings (symbolic of
flight), and the wheels (orbits), were full of eyes (full orbs, i.e., circular)
round about, even the wheels that they four had (10:1,12).

Once you get the picture, you can see beyond the symbolism and the awkward
translation to imagine the real things Ezekiel saw moving around the sun like lamps
in the heavens.

What is the Flaming Sword?

Just as the Cherubim of Genesis 3:24 are in the heavens, the flaming sword is also in
the heavens. Ezekiel saw it. In Ezekiel 1:13, he said that "it went up and down
among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth
lightning." This is a "chereb," a destroying weapon. It is piece of the planet that split
apart. The explosion threw some shards into cometary Earth-crossing orbits--NEA's.
Thus Ezekiel saw the flaming sword, also called the Sword of the Lord, going "up and
down" among the terrestrial planets. In Isaiah 34:1-8, the Lord said,

COME near, ye nations, to hear: and hearken, ye people: let the earth
hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
For the indignation of the lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all
their armies (they will attack Israel that day): he hath utterly destroyed
them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter...the heavens shall be rolled
together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off
from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be
bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon the people of my
curse, to judgment. The Sword of the Lord is filled with blood...the LORD
hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of
Idumea....For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of
recompences for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be
turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof
shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the
smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall
lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

In his second vision, Ezekiel also saw that coals of fire would be taken "from between
the cherubims" and scattered over Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10:2,6,7). This has to do with
the main events on the Day of God's Wrath.

The flaming sword was associated in the first book of the Bible with Eden, near the
Euphrates River. In the last book of the Bible, we see Babylon, also near the
Euphrates, destroyed in that same area of the world. And how is she destroyed?
"there fell a great star (aster) from heaven, burning as it were a lamp" (Rev. 8:10).
This "aster" is the flaming sword of Genesis 3:24. It is the destroying weapon out of
the Lord's armoury.

The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons
(plural) of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in
the land of the Chaldeans...destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be
left....their day is come, the time of their visitation. The voice of them that
flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the
vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple (Jeremiah
50:25-28).

The flaming sword is likely to be a binary asteroid that breaks apart for "a great
mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea" (Rev. 8:8). This rock hits the
Mediterranean Sea. It turns Ashkelon and Gaza into future fields for flocks and spews
those coals of fire that Ezekiel saw taken from between the cherubims over the city
of Jerusalem.

Both these rocks (and many smaller ones in scattered areas) hit Earth at noon on
the Feast of Trumpets in 2007. Scripture says,

BLOW ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm...the day of the LORD
cometh...A day of darkness: (Joel 2:1,2).

I will cause the sun to go down at noon...I will turn your feasts into
mourning (Amos 8:9,10).

Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out
Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up. Woe unto the
inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites! the word of the
LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even
destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. And the sea coast shall be
dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. And the coast
shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah...for the LORD their God
shall visit them, and turn away their captivity (Zephaniah 2:4).

Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath
violently taken away an house which he builded not...When he is about to
fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it
upon him while he is eating....This is the portion of a wicked man (the
False Prophet) from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God (Job
21:19,23,29).

The Foolish Virgin and Laodicean Parallel

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© 1996-2008 Marilyn J. Agee

Updated 4-26-08