The Coming of CHRIST
as related to God's law of the Ten Commandments
HE work of Christ in coming to earth was
definitely and primarily related to the law
of God. To appreciate this best, it will be
necessary for us to study the great object
lesson the Lord has recorded in His word.
The Lord bade Israel build for Him a
sanctuary that He might dwell among them. (Exodus
25:8.) The remaining part of this chapter and the
chapters following give a full description of it with
its vessels and service. Space will permit us to men-
tion only the salient points related to our subject.
In the second of the two apartments, called the
Holy of Holies, was the ark of the testament, a
chest covered with gold. Within were the two tables
of stone upon which were written the ten command-
ments, the law of God. Above it was the mercy
seat, made of pure, beaten gold, signifying its great
importance in the plan of God. On either end of
the mercy seat was a golden cherub with his face
toward the other and toward the mercy seat and his
wings spread on high covering the mercy seat.
Between them and above the mercy seat was mani-
fested the glory of God's presence. From this place
the Lord communicated with Moses His instruction
for the children of Israel. Reverently and in the
attitude of responsibility, the covering cherubim
spread their wings over all in apparent protection
and justification of the principles governing all.
ORDER IN HEAVEN
|B ‘THIS picture God would represent a situation
in His divine government. We are likely to
picture to our minds a very different condition. In
heaven, it is thought, all are equal, all occupy a
like position, all do good because they are good,
all are wise to recognize the good, and as a result
there is no prescribed order, no external mode of
procedure. This is, however, a great error. The
Lord represents the condition as very different,
and we should not presume to be wise above what
is written. “‘Order is heaven’s first law.” What of
order and organization there is in the world is of
God. Where there is a lack of it we have the foot-
prints of the enemy. We read of “all rule, and
authority, and power, and dominion, and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but
also in that which is to come.” Ephesians 1: 21,
A. R. V. There are cherubim and seraphim in
heaven. Adam was made the ruler of this world
before sin entered. In the world to come the twelve
apostles are to sit on twelve thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel. God has provided a definite
place and a definite work for every one of His children
throughout the extent of His boundless universe.
The cherubim standing on and covering the mercy
seal represent a scene at the very center of all
PAGE TWENTY-TWG
By John W. Westphal
authority. “He [Jehovah] sitteth between the cheru-
bim.” Psalm 99: 1. His throne has for its founda-
tion the principles of His righteous and all-including
law, just as the tables of the law were beneath the
mercy seat of the sanctuary. With the throne of
the Eternal One as their own sure standing place,
the cherubim- shelter with their own person the
Infinite One, the throne, and the law beneath it.
They are given the exalted privilege and authority of
making known the principles of the government of
the heavenly King, and protecting it against the
attacks of any enemy that might arise, or any ques-
tion of its principles that might ever be raised.
Not that God needs the protection of any creature
He has ever made. He is not, and never can make
Himself, dependent on any one. If He did, He would
cease to be God. The worlds He has made bv a
word He can as easily blot out in the same way. He
has no fear of any. But to maintain and justify all
His righteous acts in harmony with His law, and to
safeguard the interests of those He has made,
He has in His divine economy ordained that angels,
two of them, exalted above the rest to covering
cherubim, shall be sponsors to Him and to His
children, to represent the interests of His throne.
This is in principle nothing less than what He is
still doing in choosing and ordaining His ministers
to plead for the people before Him and to bring
home to the people His just claims upon them. This
does not signify that other angels do not have a
similar responsibility. Every Christian has the
same responsibility as the minister, although to a
lesser degree, even though they, like the other angels,
are not especially anointed, at least not like the
minister and the anointed, covering cherub.
THE Most TRAGIC FAILURE
WEEN, therefore, rebellion broke out in heaven,
against whom and against what did the angels.
rebel? — Against God and against His law. The
easy yoke and light burden that infinite love and
justice had devised became to them an unbearable
burden. With love, the basis of all true obedience,
gone, they sought no longer the interests of the
throne, but their own mistaken, selfish aims. They
could see no reason for the existence of law when all
were equal, or ought to be, as they conceived. Law
to them was the restriction of this freedom, as it
always is when it is no longer written on the tablets
of the heart.
Here we see the wisdom of God's arrangement in
placing angels as the guardians of His throne.
THE WATCHMAN MAGAZINE