308. The symbolism of the east and the Garden of Eden has already been demonstrated [§§98-101, 107-109], so there is no need to dwell on them. Several passages in the Word mentioning the guardian beings, though, show that they symbolize the Lord's providence making sure we do not incur death by profaning the mysteries of faith, through an insane exploration of them that relies on our own powers, empiricism, or mere facts.
The Jews were such that had they clearly recognized certain realities, they would have profaned the knowledge and been destroyed forever. Those realities were that the Lord would come, that the representative or prefigurative forms in the church symbolized the Lord, that life continues after death, that we have an inner self, and that the Word has an inner meaning. The danger of their profanation was represented by the guardian beings on the appeasement cover 1 atop the ark, on the curtains for the dwelling place, and on the veil, and by the same figures in the Temple (Exodus 25:18, 19, 20, 21; 26:1, 31; 1 Kings 6:23-29, 32, 35). They symbolized the fact that the Lord was on guard.
The ark holding the testimony 2 symbolized the same thing as the tree of lives here — the Lord and the things that belong to heaven, which are exclusively the Lord's. This is why the Lord many times is called the God of Israel seated upon the guardian beings 3 and why he talked with Aaron and Moses from between them (Exodus 25:22; Numbers 7:89).
[2] A clear picture of this appears in Ezekiel in the following words:
The glory of Israel's God lifted up off the guardian being on which it had been and moved to the threshold of the House. He called to the man wearing linen clothes and said to him, "Cross through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and make a mark on the foreheads of the men who are groaning and sighing over all the abominations done in the middle of it." And to the men themselves he said, "Cross through the city behind him and strike! Do not let your eye spare any and do not exercise compassion. Old person, young man, and young woman, and toddler, and women — kill them to annihilation. Defile the House and fill the courtyards with those who have been stabbed." (Ezekiel 9:3-4, 5-6, 7)
Further on:
He told the man wearing linen clothes, "Go in, between the wheels, under the guardian being, and fill your palms with embers of fire from between the guardian beings and scatter them over the city." The being stretched its hand out from among the [other] beings to the fire that was among the beings, picked it up, and put it into the palms of the man wearing linen clothes. And he took it and went out. (Ezekiel 10:1-7)
These verses show that the guardian beings symbolize the Lord's providence working to prevent people from prying into religious mysteries. They also show that for this reason people were left to their mad desires, symbolized here by the fire that was to be sprinkled over the city and by the fact that no one was to be spared.
Footnotes:
1. The traditional term for this cover is "mercy seat." Sitting on the ark that contained the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, it was topped with two gold, winged figures — the guardian beings — and was the site of God's presence with the Israelites (see Exodus 25:17-22). The name for the item in Hebrew, כַּפֹּרֶת (kappōreṯ), comes from כִּפֶּר (kipper), a verb whose basic meaning is to cover, although it is most commonly used in the more abstract sense of "covering" transgression by atonement. The same root can be seen in the familiar Hebrew term Yom Kippur, "Day of Atonement," on which the high priest made a sin offering whose blood was spattered on the appeasement cover (see Leviticus 16; the role of the appeasement cover in the sacrifice is described in verses 13-15 there). [LHC, GFD, SS]
2. "The testimony" here is the Ten Commandments. [LHC]
3. See 2 Kings 19:15; Isaiah 37:16. Without being called God of Israel, he is said to sit on (or, in some translations, between) the guardian beings in 1 Samuel 4:4; 2 Samuel 6:2; Psalms 80:1; 99:1. [LHC]
