The Tree of Life and the Temple Veil…and the Cherubim!
Is there any connection between the Tree of Life and the Temple Veil? And how might the cherubim come into all this?
When Adam and Eve sinned, God prevented them from accessing the Tree of Life.
He drove man out, and east of the garden of Eden He stationed cherubim with a flaming, whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life. Gen 3:24
Thousands of years later our Savior Jesus Christ died for our sins. The gospels record an interesting event which followed immediately after our Lord’s death:
Jesus shouted again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit. Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was split in two from top to bottom; the earth quaked and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened and many bodies of the saints who had gone to their rest were raised. And they came out of the tombs after His resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many. Mat 27:50-53
Tim Challies brings all this information together in a fascinating short article The Cherubim Cheered the Loudest:
If you have been a Christian any length of time, you are familiar with that miraculous moment when the great curtain of the temple was torn in two. At the death of Jesus, at the very moment he drew his last breath, that curtain was ripped apart stitch-by-stitch. And not only was it ripped apart, but it was ripped from top to bottom by the hand of God rather than bottom to top by the hand of man. There is tremendous significance in this act. But there is even greater significance if we pause for just a moment to consider one often-overlooked detail about that curtain.
Let’s start back in the Garden of Eden. Man committed sin against God and God determined that man must be barred from Eden, this place where God dwells and this place where God had planted the Tree of Life, that source of life that will never end. “He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24 ESV). These cherubim, fierce angelic warriors and their ferocious swords, now stood between God and man to serve as a warning and an object lesson: The way is shut. Man can no longer be where God is, he can no longer walk and talk with God, he can no longer be near that source of life. Instead, he must live out his days alone, die, and return to the dust he was taken from…
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Where else does Scripture speak of the Tree of Life?
Then he showed me the river of living water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the broad street of the city. On both sides of the river was the tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. Rev 22:1-4
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Rev 22:14
How do you wash your robes?
I said to him, “Sir, you know.” Then he told me: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Rev 7:14
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