260. Moreover it should be known that the sense of the Letter is a guard for the genuine truths lying within it, lest they should suffer injury. It is a guard in this respect that it may be turned this way and that, and interpreted according to one's own apprehension, without its interior content being injured or violated. It does no harm that the sense of the Letter is understood differently by different persons; but harm results when falsities are introduced which are contrary to Divine truths. This, however, only happens in the case of those who have confirmed themselves in falsities. In this way violence is inflicted on the Word; and to prevent this, the sense of the Letter acts as a guard with those who are in falsities from their religion, but who do not confirm its falsities. The sense of the Letter of the Word as a guard is signified and also described in the Word by cherubim. This guard is signified by the cherubim which, after the expulsion of Adam and his wife from the Garden of Eden, were placed at the entrance. Of these it is written, when JEHOVAH God drove out the man,
"He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" Genesis 3:23-24.
[2] No one can know what these words signify unless he knows the signification of cherubim, the garden of Eden, the tree of life therein, and also the flaming sword which turned every way. These particulars are explained under this chapter in the work, "Arcana Caelestia," published in London, as follows: cherubim signify a guard; the way of the tree of life signifies access to the Lord, which men obtain by means of the truths of the spiritual sense of the Word; and the flaming sword turning every way signifies Divine Truth in ultimates which, like the Word in the sense of the Letter, can be so turned. The same is meant by the cherubim of gold placed over the extremities of the mercy-seat which was above the ark in the tabernacle, Exodus 25:18-21. The Word was signified by the ark because the Decalogue was the foremost of its contents, and a guard was signified by the cherubim. On this account the Lord talked with Moses between the cherubim,Exodus 25:22; 37:8; Numbers 7:89.
He spoke in the natural sense, for He never speaks with man except in fulness, and in the sense of the Letter Divine Truth is in its fulness, as may be seen above,214-224. The same is signified by the cherubim upon the curtains of the tabernacle and upon the veil; Exodus 26:31; for the curtains and the veils of the tabernacle signified the ultimates of heaven and the Church, and consequently of the Word,220; also by the cherubim carved on the walls and doors of the temple at Jerusalem, 1 Kings 6:20, 32, 35, as may be seen above,221; and also by the cherubim in the new temple, Ezekiel 41:18-20.
[3] Since cherubim signified a guard lest the Lord, heaven, and Divine Truth as it is interiorly within the Word, should be approached immediately instead of mediately through ultimates, therefore, it is said of the king of Tyre:
"Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was Thy covering... Thou, O cherub, art the spreading forth of the covering (A. V., art the anointed cherub that covereth)... I have destroyed (A.V., I will destroy) thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire" Ezekiel 28:12-14, 16.
Tyre signifies the Church as to the knowledges of truth and good; and hence the king of Tyre signifies the Word, which is the source of that knowledge. It is evident that the king here signifies the Word in its ultimate, and the cherubim a guard, for it is said: "Thou sealest up the sum, every precious stone was thy covering; thou, O cherub, art the spreading forth of the covering," and "O covering cherub." By the precious stones also mentioned here are signified the contents of the sense of the Letter, as may be seen above, 217-218.
Since by cherubim is signified the Word in ultimates, and also a guard, therefore it is said in David:
"JEHOVAH bowed the heavens also, and came down... and He rode upon a cherub" Psalms 18:9-10.
"O Shepherd of Israel... Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth" Psalms 80:1.
"JEHOVAH sitteth between the cherubim" Psalms 99:1.
To ride upon the cherubim, and to sit upon them, means on the ultimate sense of the Word. Divine Truth in the Word and the nature of that Truth are described by the four animals, which are also called cherubim, in Ezekiel 1 9 and 10; and also by the four animals in the midst of the throne, and near the throne, Revelation 4:6; and following verses. See "Apocalypse Revealed," published by me at Amsterdam,239, 275, 314.
