The method he took to accomplish his purpose was the dedication of a place, (probably with a sacred tent or tabernacle,) and of images in Dan and Bethel. Who can doubt that these images were imperfect imitations of the CHERUBIM of the Temple at Jerusalem, since his animal symbol was one of the compound animals of that Divine hieroglyphic?* He of course furnished a directory of worship which resembled in some measure that to which his people had been accustomed; otherwise it would not have answered the end he proposed to himself thereby. The Israelites had been preserved, during the reigns of David and Solomon, from the pollutions * "These calves of Jeroboam's, by the way, seem to have been mutilated imitations of the CHERUBIC emblems. Thus they were very significant symbols of a religion founded in misbelief, and upon the self-conceit of natural religion, discarding revelation, and by its own boasted powers, forming erroneous notions of the Godhead." Horsley's Bib. Crit. Vol. iii. p. 241. The Bp. adds in a note to the above, "The Cherubim of the Temple, and the calves of Dan and Bethel, were both hieroglyphical figures. The one of God's institution; the other of man's, in direct contravention of the second commandment. The CHERUB was a compound figure; the calf single. Jeroboam therefore and his subjects were Unitarians. And when his descendants added to the idolatry of the calves the worship of Baal, they became Materialists. For the most ancient Pagan idolatry was neither more nor less than an allegorized Materialism. The deification of dead men was the corruption of later periods of idolatry, when Idolaters had forgotten the meaning of their original symbols and their original rites." of idolatry and a national apostacy from the true ALEIM. The sin of Solomon seems to have been confined to his own household and court, so as not to have interfered with the regular service of the Temple. No hint is given, so far as I recollect, of a general departure from Jehovah. And as error, whether of principle or practice, is usually gradual and progressive; * it seems probable that, if Jeroboam had at once set up a worship, the object of which was directly opposed to Him whose Scriptures Israel recognised, revolt from his newly usurped government would have been excited rather than prevented. It appears, therefore, to me, that, when he called his calves "the ALEIM of Israel," he wished to have them considered as representatives of the true God, and insinuated that the place and means of worship were matters of indifference, whether Jerusalem or Bethel, the CHERUBIM or his own calves. And I think the inference is very strong, that if Jeroboam's two calves were intended as symbols of the Lord God of Israel, so were the CHERUBIM of the temple, of which those calves were corrupt imitations. *Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus. "If the word hay, as used in Psalm lxv. 11, and there translated " paths," denotes, according to its radical meaning, light and spirit in perpetual circulation, the term bay, a calf, young beeve, or steer, may be an emblematic name given to this animal, as being, both to believers and heathens, a representative нь VOL. I. For Besides the CHERUBIC images which were placed on the mercy-seat in the holy of holies, the curtains and vails of the Tabernacle, and the walls, doors, and vail of the Temple, were painted or embroidered, with figures of CHERUBS.(Exod. xxvi. 1. 31. 1 Kings vi. 29, 32. 2 Chron. iii. 14.) But these latter CHERUBS differed from the images in the holy of holies. whereas the latter were, as we learn from Ezek. i. and x., figures with three heads and four faces, the former had only two faces, as we learn from Ezek. xli. 18, 19, 20; where, speaking of the wall of the Temple, he says, "It was made with CHERUBIM and palm-trees, so that a palmtree was between a CHERUB and a CHERUB; and every CHERUB had two faces, so that the face of a man was toward the palm-tree on one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm-tree on the other side: it was made through all the house round about."* According to the hypothesis I have adopted, the LION-MAN was the emblem of the GOD-MAN, of fire, that condition of the heavens in which the celestial fluid is in the most violent act of circulation, and which is the great circulator, the natural and mechanical spring, of all the action, motion, and circulation in the universe. Hence the golden calves of Aaron and Jeroboam were set up as secondary representatives of the First Person, (as we speak) of the ever-blessed Trinity, whose primary emblem was fire." Parkhurst. * It should be remarked that the Cherub with two faces was in the outer Temple, and consequently was visible to all who or, of IMMANUEL God with us." And the painted or embroidered CHERUBS on the doors, walls, and vail of the Temple, appropriated it and its services to Him, who, when "he spake of the temple of his body," thereby indicated that the holy place, its furniture and services, were shadows of what He was to be, to do, and to suffer, as the incarnate Saviour of the world. The union of the faces of the lion and the man in one head was a striking symbol of that Divine Person who is "perfect God and perfect man; equal to the Father as touching his God-head, and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood; — who, although he be God and man, is not two, but one Christ;-one, not by conversion of the God-head into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God;-one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person." - The palm-trees which intersected the CHERUBS, had also their symbolic relation to our Lord Jesus Christ. "The straight and lofty growth of this tree, its longevity and great fecundity, the permanency and perpetual flourishing of its leaves, and their form resembling the solar rays," from which characteristics its Hebrew name seems to be derived, "make it a very proper emblem of entered it; while the triune Cherub was within the vail, invisible to every one. Thus the God-man became visible to man, while the Triune Jehovah dwells in the light which no man can approach. the natural and thence of the Divine Light. Hence, in the holy place or outer sanctuary of the Temple, (the emblem of Christ's body) palm-trees were engraven on the walls between the coupled CHERUBS. Hence, at the feast of Tabernacles, branches of palm-trees were to be used, among others, in making their booths. Comp. Levit. xxiii. 40; Neh. viii. 15. Palm branches were also used as emblems of victory, both by believers and idolaters. The reason given by Plutarch and Aulus Gellius, why they were so used among the latter is, the nature of the wood which so powerfully resists incumbent pressure. But, doubtless, believers, by bearing palm branches after a victory, or in triumph, meant to acknowledge the supreme Author of their success and prosperity, and to carry on their thoughts to the Divine Light, the great conqueror over sin and death. (Comp. 1 Mac. xiii. 51; 2 Mac. x. 7; John xii. 13; Rev. vii. 9.*). And the idolaters, likewise, probably used palms on such occasions, not without respect to Apollo or the Sun; to whom, among them, they were consecrated. Hence Baal Tamart was the name of a place in Canaan (Judges xx. 33;) and hence the Delian palm, consecrated to Apollo, was, from very ancient times, famous among the Greeks." * See Vitringa's Avaкpiois Apocalypsios on this verse. From the palm-tree. See Parkhurst. |