"And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.." (Rev. 4:6)
 

During every single moment of our lives here on earth the Lord is watching over us. He governs and moderates everything which happens to us in such a way that we might be led, eventually, into His kingdom in the heavens. This is what the Divine Providence is. It is the government of the Lord, a government which has as its purpose a heaven from the human race. So important is this end, this purpose, that the Lord works unceasingly, governing even the most minute things, to lead us out of selfishness, out of evil, into the heavenly blessings of charity and unselfish love towards the neighbor.
 

This is the primary end of the Lord's Providence. To fully understand the way in which the Lord works, though, we must realize that His Divine Providence also has a secondary purpose.
 

If people are willing to cooperate with the Lord, He will indeed lead them to heaven. It depends entirely, though, upon their free cooperation. Sometimes people freely choose to reject all that is truly good. They do not allow what is good to enter their hearts. All that they really love is themselves. In cases such as this, the Divine Providence has an intermediate object or purpose. When people are unwilling to be led by the Lord into heaven, all that He can then do is try to prevent them from descending even further into evil. He does all that is possible to protect such people from their own evil desires. If somebody refuses to follow the Lord into heaven, the Lord then strives that that person might at least enter the mildest hell possible. The Lord softens, in every possible way, the misery which evil people bring upon themselves.
 

The principal way in which the Lord does this might sound surprising at first. He protects evil people by preventing them from coming too close to the things of heaven. When people choose to follow the Lord, His Providence leads them towards heaven. When they choose evil, this same Providence strives for what seems the exact opposite. It works in countless ways to stop such people from approaching heaven. This is not as paradoxical as it might at first seem. For those in evil, heaven is not a blessing, but a curse. Evil, by its very nature, perverts what is good, and indeed is nothing else in essence than the perversion of good. Therefore, the more an evil person can approach things that are good and true, the more he can pervert them -- and in doing so he becomes more evil than before.
 

If somebody genuinely desires what is good, the Lord will lead him, at length, to heaven itself. But if he desires hell, then it is far better that he be allowed to remain in his evil than that, approaching the things of heaven, he pervert and profane them, and so bring upon himself even greater misery.
 

The Lord keeps evil people away from heaven for their own sakes. There is another aspect involved in this though. If Divine Providence has as its primary end a heaven from the human race, then it must, for this reason as well, prevent those in evil from approaching. There could not be a heaven -- a happy heaven -- if those in evil were allowed to enter. Thus, for the sake of the good in heaven, even more than for the sake of the evil, the Divine Providence must include a provision that those who are evil be prevented from approaching the things of heaven.
 

There are thus these three aspects of the Divine Providence -- first, and foremost there is the provision that those who desire good be led to heaven. Second, those in evil are prevented from approaching heaven lest they descend even further into the perversion of good. Third, and at the same time, the Lord provides that the angels of heaven may not be infested by the approach of those in evil.
 

These last two aspects -- that the evil might be protected from harming themselves, and that the good might be protected from the evil -- means that there must always be a protection for those things which are holy.
 

Divine Protection is thus an essential aspect of the Lord's Providence. If we are in good, then He protects us from evil. If we are in evil, on the other hand, then He will protect us by preventing us from approaching what is good.
 

NOW IN ANCIENT TIMES men gave various names to the different aspects of the work of Divine Providence. In the course of time, when mankind turned away from wisdom, these various names then became the names of idols. Some of these names, though, were retained in the Word. One such name retained in the Old Testament is the term cherub, or, to use the Hebrew plural form, cherubim.
 

Now the term cherubs, or cherubim, was used by the ancients to describe that aspect of the Divine Providence which prevents people from approaching the things of heaven from evil motives.
 

Cherubim tend to be completely misunderstood in the world today. Because they are portrayed in the letter of the Word as winged heavenly beings, the popular assumption is that cherubim are angels, and that therefore angels have wings. And yet the cherubim were not angels. They were actually something completely different.
 

The first time we read about them in the Word is in connection with the expulsion of the man and his wife from the garden of Eden. We read in Genesis: "So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life."
 

But what were these cherubim? We might have, from childhood, some picture in our mind, of angels standing guard at the entrance to the garden of Eden. Artists have portrayed it this way. A similar idea of cherubim as angels might be formed from the cherubim which were on the mercy-seat above the ark. These also were winged figures . . . figures we might naturally think of as portraying angels.
 

And yet these cherubim were not actual human beings, or angels, at all, but representations. In the spiritual world all kinds of wonderful things can be represented before the eyes. These representatives portray or present Divine or spiritual qualities. This is what the cherubim were -- they were representatives -- and they represented specifically the Divine work of protection. Angels of course play a part in this work. But the cherubs themselves were not angels, but representations, representations of the way in which the Lord unceasingly protects what is good from perversion by what is evil.
 

The most detailed description of cherubim is to be found in the Book of Ezekiel. During the Jewish captivity in Babylon, a priest by the name of Ezekiel was shown visions from the other world. And in the record of these visions in the Book of Ezekiel, we find a detailed description of creatures we later find referred to as cherubim. There were four of these creatures in Ezekiel's vision. Each one had four faces and four wings. They had a human appearance, but at the same time each one had, for its four faces, the face of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. And each of these four-faced creatures appeared to glow, it is said, like coals of fire.
 

Obviously, this description of the cherubim in Ezekiel is filled with correspondential meanings. So too is a similar description in the Book of Revelation. John saw a throne set in heaven, around which sat twenty-four elders, and in front of which was a sea of glass. It is said that in the midst of and round about the throne were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. These four creatures also had wings, indeed each had six wings. But unlike the cherubim seen by Ezekiel, the cherubim in the Book of Revelation did not have four faces. Rather, each cherub appeared differently. One appeared as a lion, another as a calf, another like a man, and the fourth appeared like a flying eagle.
 

Though it is not said in the Book of Revelation that these creatures seen by John were cherubim, the Writings make it quite plain that they indeed were, and that they represented the same as those cherubim seen by Ezekiel. Both visions were a representation of the Divine Providence, and specifically of the way in which the Lord provides that what is good might be protected.
 

Each detail of the cherubim contains a wonderful lesson teaching of the way in which the Lord protects. The eyes, for example, are obviously symbols of the way in which the Lord sees and watches over all things. The Lord not only watches over all things in the world. He also watches over all things in our minds. Every least thought and every least feeling in our minds, is under His care. His knowledge of our progressive mental states is unlimited, and with this infinite knowledge He protects us. This protection has infinite power, a power portrayed by the appearance of a lion. His protection is also loving and kind and gentle, something we can see in the image of a calf. The wisdom with which He protects us is portrayed in the appearance of a man. The Lord's view of our states, from which He watches over us, takes into account every least possibility. His watching over us is symbolized by the appearance of an eagle.
 

In the Lord's protection of what is good, all four of these things are involved. They are joined together, as it were, to make a one. This is why there were four cherubim. The number two of course stands for conjunction, or a joining together -- and four is nothing else than a double conjunction.
 

These four cherubim represent, therefore, the way in which the Lord watches over us. He watches over us with infinite power, infinite gentleness, infinite wisdom, and infinite foresight. These four Divine qualities are joined together as He leads us, insofar as we are willing, towards what is good, but, at the same time protecting us from what is good while our states are evil.
 

Now the greatest work of these cherubim, the greatest work of the Divine Providence, is the Lord's Word itself. Here we can clearly see the Lord's work of salvation, and also His work of protection.

It is obvious that the Word is the principal way in which the Lord leads people to heaven. In the Word is provided all that we need, to be led to heaven, and, once we are in heaven, the Word then provides what we need to be led closer and closer to the Lord to all eternity. The truth of the Word, when loved and lived, is heaven itself. And yet, as we all know, the Word, at least the first two parts of the Word -- namely the Old and New Testaments -- is not always easy to understand. Sometimes we see things in the Word. Sometimes, though, we may be confused, and may even completely misunderstand what we are reading.
 

This, though, is the very nature of the Word. It is written so that people might be led towards heaven. But it is written in such a way that when our states are evil, or when the Lord sees that we will pervert the truth, rather than be fed by it, we then see relatively nothing in the pages of Divine Revelation. Of course, the basic truths of spiritual life are always obvious in the Word; otherwise no evil man could be led towards what is good. But we cannot see more than this unless our state is a good one. What is at work here is that aspect of the Divine Providence called cherubim by the ancients. The letter of the Word potects us from seeing things we are not ready to see.
 

This is why the Word can, in many places, seem obscure, rather than clear. There is much hidden within which we cannot see until the Lord allows us to see it. This is why one and the same part of the Word can at one time seem dull and almost unreadable, but can at another time seem full of meaning. The Word has not changed, but our state has, and when we can benefit from a deeper insight into the truth, the Lord will provide it.
 

The same Divine protection is at work within the third part of the Word -- the Heavenly Doctrines. Now the truths of the Writings are not shrouded in a literal sense in the same way as the Scriptures. And yet they too are written in such a way somebody in an evil state will see relatively nothing. In a temple seen by Swedenborg in the other world, that temple on which was written above the door the words NUNC LICET -- "now it is permitted to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith" -- there was seen a golden cherub. This temple, in all its details, represented the New Church.
 

And so there must be a cherub for the New Church as well. In other words, the Writings also are protected by the Lord. To put it another way, when we are in evil states, we are, as far as is possible, protected by the Lord from profaning the truths of the Writings. If we approach the truths of the spiritual sense, as revealed in the Writings, from selfish and evil motives, then we will see relatively nothing of the truth -- we won't understand that much -- and what little we do see will appear boring and insignificant. Alternatively, somebody who approaches spiritual truth from an evil state, will, we are told, sometimes become spiritual insane. His view of the truth will be spiritually crazy -- and he will see everything in the Writings from a completely distorted viewpoint, and thus see nothing at all.
 

The Lord thus endeavors to protect us from seeing even the truth of the Writings, if our state be such that we might profane it. This is one function of the cherubim, and of the golden cherub above the "Nunc Licet" temple in the other world.
 

But there is another and far more wonderful way in which the Lord protects people from profaning the truth of the Writings -- another function of the cherubim. Cherubim have wings. These wings represent the Divine truth -- truth which can lift us up above our petty selfishness and petty love of worldly pleasure.
 

The greatest protection in the Writings -- a protection lest we profane and pervert their truths -- is the fact that in these Writings there is an abundance of truth -- what the Writings call "continuous truths laid open by the Lord". If we turn to these truths and live what we learn, we can indeed be lifted up -- and lifted up to the point where we are no longer in danger of profaning the truth from an evil state. The truths themselves have lifted us above that evil. The Writings do not have a literal sense in the same way as did previous revelations, because they have been given so that people might be lifted up into spiritual light to a degree never before possible. The protection in the Writings lies not so much in a literal sense, but in the way in which they can bring us so fully into the truth that we no longer have any desire to profane it.

There is only one thing necessary on our part -- one thing necessary if we are to spiritually survive the fulness of truth which has now been revealed. We must love and live this truth. Of course we will have our failures. We are not perfect. But still we must strive, for if we do, then the Lord Himself will lift us up upon the wings of the cherubim. In the words of Malachi: "to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings".
 

The wings of the cherubim are really the Lord's wings -- wings spoken of many times in the Word. These wings are the Divine truth, truth which can teach us, truth which can lift us up, and truth which can protect us.
 

If we insist on remaining in evil, the Lord will indeed protect us from the truth. It will then be of His Providence that we will be prevented from really understanding or fully appreciating the truth of the Writings. But the deepest end of the Lord's Providence is not to prevent us from seeing His truth, but rather to reveal it to us in ever-increasing fullness. If we but follow the Lord, turn to Him freely, and forsake what is evil and wrong, then, by the power of His Divine truth, by the powerful wings of the cherubim, we will be lifted up above all that is selfish and evil, into the joy and light of heaven itself.
 

Amen.