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Exodus 27

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1 "You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and its height shall be three cubits.

2 You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it; and you shall overlay it with brass.

3 You shall make its pots to take away its ashes, its shovels, its basins, its flesh hooks, and its fire pans: all its vessels you shall make of brass.

4 You shall make a grating for it of network of brass: and on the net you shall make four bronze rings in its four corners.

5 You shall put it under the ledge around the altar beneath, that the net may reach halfway up the altar.

6 You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with brass.

7 Its poles shall be put into the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar, when carrying it.

8 You shall make it with hollow planks. They shall make it as it has been shown you on the mountain.

9 "You shall make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen one hundred cubits long for one side:

10 and its pillars shall be twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.

11 Likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings one hundred cubits long, and its pillars twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver.

12 For the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.

13 The breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.

14 The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

15 For the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

16 For the gate of the court shall be a screen of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the embroiderer; their pillars four, and their sockets four.

17 All the pillars of the court around shall be filleted with silver; their hooks of silver, and their sockets of brass.

18 The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits, of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.

19 All the instruments of the tabernacle in all its service, and all its pins, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.

20 "You shall command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.

21 In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh: it shall be a statute forever throughout their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

   

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True Christian Religion #260

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260. It should furthermore be known that the literal sense is a protection to prevent the genuine truths hidden within being harmed. It acts as a protection because that sense can be twisted in different directions and explained as it is understood, without its internal being harmed or violated. For it does no harm for the literal sense to be understood differently by different people; but harm is done, if a person introduces falsities which are in opposition to the Divine truths, and this is only done by those who have convinced themselves of false ideas. This is what does violence to the Word. The literal sense acts as a protection to prevent this happening, and this occurs with those whose religion has given them false ideas, but who have not convinced themselves of these falsities. The literal sense of the Word acting as a protection is what is meant by cherubim in the Word, and it is there described by them. This protection is meant by the cherubim which were placed at the entrance to the garden of Eden after Adam and his wife were expelled from it. We read of these:

When Jehovah God had cast out the man, He made cherubim to dwell on the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword turning this way and that, to guard the way to the tree of life, Genesis 3:23-24.

[2] No one can know what this means, unless he knows the meaning of cherubim, of the garden of Eden and the tree of life in it; and also of the flame of a sword turning this way and that. These details have been explained in the section dealing with this chapter in ARCANA CAELESTIA, published in London. This shows that cherubim mean protection, the way to the tree of life means the approach to the Lord, which people make by means of the truths of the spiritual sense of the Word; the flame of a sword turning means Divine truth at the outermost level, which resembles the Word in its literal sense, in being capable of being twisted like this. The meaning of the cherubim made of gold placed on the two ends of the mercy-seat, which was above the ark in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:18-21), is similar. The ark meant the Word, because the Ten Commandments contained in it were the rudiments of the Word; the cherubim there meant protection, which is why the Lord spoke with Moses from between them (Exodus 25:22; 37:9; Numbers 7:89). He spoke in the natural sense, for He does not speak with man except in fulness, and in the literal sense Divine truth is in its fulness (214-224 above). Nor was anything else meant by the cherubim on the hangings of the tabernacle and on the veil (Exodus 26:1, 31). For the hangings and veils of the tabernacle meant the outermost of heaven and the church, and so also of the Word (220 above). Likewise the cherubim carved on the walls and the doors of the temple at Jerusalem (1 Kings 6:29, 32, 35; 221 above); and equally the cherubim in the new temple (Ezekiel 41:18-20).

[3] Since cherubim meant protection to prevent the Lord, heaven and Divine truth as it is inwardly in the Word, being directly approached, but only indirectly through the outermost, this is why it is said of the king of Tyre:

You who set the seal on your measured space, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, you were in Eden the garden. Every kind of precious stone was your covering. You, cherub, were the expanse of the covering. I have destroyed you, cherub who cover, in the midst of the stones of fire, Ezekiel 28:12-14, 16.

Tyre means the church as regards its knowledge of truth and good, and so the king of Tyre means the Word, which is the place and source of that knowledge. It is obvious that in this passage the king means the Word at the outermost level, and cherub means protection, for it says 'You who set the seal on your measured space; every kind of precious stone was your covering; you, cherub, were the expanse of the covering' as well as 'cherub who cover'. The precious stones which are also named there mean the contents of the literal sense (217-218 above).

Because cherubim mean the Word at the outermost level and also its protection, it is said in the Psalms of David:

Jehovah tilted the heavens and came down, and rode upon a cherub, Psalms 18:9-10.

Shepherd of Israel, who sits upon the cherubim, shine forth, Psalms 80:1. Jehovah that sits upon the cherubim, Psalms 99:1.

Riding on the cherubim or sitting on them means the outermost sense of the Word. The Divine truth in the Word and its nature are described by the four creatures, which are also called cherubim (in Ezekiel, chapters 1, 9-10); and also by the four creatures in the midst of the throne and beside the throne (Revelation 4:6ff). (See Apocalypse Revealed published by me at Amsterdam, 239, 275, 3-14.)

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.