“… o covering cherub …” (Ezek. 28:16, NKJV)
The previous teaching was a massive jump into before time, or into the new reality. Selah. An enormous revelation around the word word in Greek unfolded. In addition to logos and rhema we discovered a third possibility, namely the word epos. This word is interestingly enough only found once in the New Testament, in Heb. 7:9, and this Scripture will thus be key to our understanding thereof. (We will later do an exegesis of the Scripture.) We quoted from primary sources that explained that this is a hidden word that functions as an intermediary between logos and rhema. It is defined as “a word to speak through”. Epos activates the Godly imagination to bring into being an image of things or events that eventually form a narrative, your personal His Story. This word word emphasises absolute individuality and identity, despite the fact that it is woven from a collective concern.
In his article ‘Epos as authoritative speech in Herodotus’ Histories,’ Alexander Holman refers to each epos as “a coded utterance” (in Greek Literature in the Classical Period: The Prose of Historiography and Oratory, ed., Gregory Nagy, facsimile edition, unpaginated). With this formulation we reached a mysterious gate back to Eden, which is simultaneously also the gate through the veil of the temple. This gate is clearly a “coded utterance”.
When the veil tore with the death of Jesus (Matt. 27:51), and He thus made it possible for us to enter “by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh” (Heb. 10:20), it means that humanity must gain the actual right to entry to paradise (or the third dimension). If someone whom Paul knew, specified as “a man in Christ” – as 2Cor. 12:4 notes – “caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible [rhema] words”, then it means that the gate to Eden can possibly be breached, especially since Jesus said to the man crucified next to Him: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43).
It is of great importance that the reader of these teachings realises that what holds the key to the locked gate of Eden/before time/another reality from which we have fallen, is nestled in the manifestation of the cherubim. The cherubim are the ones blocking entry to paradise with their flaming swords (Gen. 3:24). In addition to this, cherubim were also woven into the veil (Ex. 26:31). But if one sees the tabernacle or temple as a typology of saved man (do you not know that you are a temple – 1Cor. 3:16), the cherubim as template is seen everywhere:
• “Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine woven linen and blue, purple, and scarlet thread; with artistic designs of cherubim you shall weave them.” (Ex. 26:1). This is thus the external cover of the tabernacle into which the cherubim are woven. This cover is also called a “splendid veil” (Edersheim, Alfred: The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, p. 33).
• “Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.” (1Kin. 6:29). The inner and outer rooms that are mentioned are respectively the Most Holy and the Holy Place, the walls of which featured carvings of cherubim.
• “The two doors were of olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees.” (1Kin. 6:32). These are the so-called “double-leaved doors” (as Isa. 42:2 refers to them in a different context, but also referred to as such by Edersheim, pp. 33-34), and are found before the veil, which served as the entrance to the “inner sanctuary” (verse 31). The AMP translates it as follows: “For the Holy of Holies he made [folding] doors of olive wood …”
These emblematic cherubim are found almost everywhere, also on walls, and especially on gates or entrances. Take note: they are specifically referred to as emblematic, as it is not CONCRETE or REALISTIC, but rather represents something else! The word emblematic can be replaced with words like symbolic, representative, demonstrative, suggestive, indicative, and typical. In addition, there are also cherubim in the Holy of Holies (Ex.15:18-22; 1Kin. 6:23-28), in the tabernacle and in the temple, mere human-made REPRESENTATIONS in wood and golden overlay, not a real being. This is also emblematic. As almost EVERYTHING in the tabernacle/temple, the cherubs merely point to a different reality. Even the real items that are present, for instance the physical sacrifices on the altar of burnt offering, the water in the bronze laver, the oil and the flame in the menorah, the bread on the table with the showbread, the coals and incense on the golden altar, the physical stone tablets of the law, the bowl with the physical manna, Aaron’s physical staff, the physical blood of the sacrificial animal that is sprinkled on the mercy seat, are representing something else. Each of these physical signs are also like the produced signs: the altar of burnt offering, the bronze basin, the curtains, the badger skins, the menorah, the altars, the tabernacle of acacia wood overlaid in gold, the mercy seat, etc., each point to something else. They are ALL merely “a pattern and … a foreshadowing” (Heb. 8:5, AMP).
The only thing that does not point to something else, but is a dramatic manifestation, is the glory of the Lord that manifests between the cherubim on the mercy seat. But it was more than just the manifestation of glory: “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony …” (Ex. 25:22). “Meet with” and “speak” was clearly not intended as occurring between God and the high priest once a year on the Day of Reconciliation; it was a coming together with the entire people (Ex. 29:42). The set expression “from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim” is often found in Scripture (for instance 2Sam. 6:2; 2Kin. 19:15; Ps. 99:1; Isa. 37:16). It largely means that it has a direct link to the throne of God, where His glory and light (Ps. 80:1) manifests.
Heb. 9:5 explains that on top of the ark of the covenant “were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat”. The AMP insightfully paraphrases it as follows: “Above [the ark] and overshadowing the mercy seat were the representations of the cherubim [winged creatures which were the symbols] of glory. We cannot now go into detail about these things.” We are indeed now delving into the detail of these things – it is indeed time!
The only spiritually-living something, or rather Something (by way of speaking) in the entire tabernacle/temple, is the living presence of God, or as God Himself notes in Lev. 16:2: “… I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat”. This strange, specifically positioned manifestation of the glory between the typological/symbolic cherubim render them a coded utterance, which clearly encloses and hides something, and thus must also be unlocked.
• Selah: Try to find a link between the cherubim and the epos-word.
• Read: 1Sam. 28-32; 2Sam. 1-2.
• Memorise: 1Sam. 31:4 (what would this event mean in the light of this teaching?)
• For a more in-depth understanding: Ponder the sword of 1Sam. 31:4, compared to that
wielded by the cherubim.
