Cherubim

4/10/24 

I can honestly say the higher I climb up the angelic ladder, the less important life here on earth seems to mean.  Perhaps that is why we humans are limited in our understanding of this realm.  We would become no earthly good!  But, to glimpse the glory of God’s majesty through the lens of His angelic beings is surprisingly comforting.

Next, “in the angelic hierarchy comes Cherubim. These angels are powerful celestial beings with four faces—that of a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle, each respective face representing man, domestic animals, wild animals, and aviary creatures. They possess four wings covered with eyes, the body of a lion, and ox’s feet and are guardians of God’s glory. In the New Testament, they are often considered to be celestial attendants in the Apocalypse, referenced in in Revelation 4-6.”  The Throne Room of Heaven - After these - Bible Gateway.

Their name means "winged angel” and one who blesses.  In Ezekiel’s vision of God (Ez. 1), their appearance is fully described and quite strange I might add!  Ezekiel’s Vision of God.

Cherubim are first introduced to us in Genesis 3:22-24 as the first angelic beings mentioned in Scripture. Cherubim guarded Eden’s gate with a flaming sword after Adam’s fall.  Then, in Exodus 25:8-22, Exodus 26:31 and Exodus 36:8 concerning the building of the Ark of the Testimony with their images on the mercy seat, the veil, the curtains and in the temple. 

Cherubim were in the temple when David’s son Solomon built the temple to replace the tabernacle; cherubim were again featured in the furnishing, but this time even more so. The temple followed closely the pattern God had shown Moses for the tabernacle in 1 Chronicles 28:11-12”.  Jeremiah, David. Angels: Who They Are and How They Help--What the Bible Reveals.

Also, when the Ark was brought into the Temple: Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. 1 Kings 8:6-7.

“A different glimpse of the cherubim comes in David’s song of praise and victory in 2 Samuel 22, when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.”  It’s an amazing picture of the cherubim actually carrying God’s presence down to David’s rescue: He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. (22:10-11).

Could the heavenly beings in Zechariah be cherubim as they are also seen coming with the wind?  Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.  Zechariah 5:9.

Then, in Ezekiel as “flaming rotating rings, covered with eyes representing the steadfastness of the love of God as they contemplate God' power and judgment, and they appear as the most, unlike the others when revealed.”

Ezekiel 10:9-17:  And when I looked, there were four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by each other cherub; the wheels appeared to have the color of a beryl stone. ¹⁰ As for their appearance, all four looked alike—as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. ¹¹ When they went, they went toward any of their four directions; they did not turn aside when they went, but followed in the direction the head was facing. They did not turn aside when they went. ¹² And their whole body, with their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels that the four had, were full of eyes all around. ¹³ As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, “Wheel.”

¹⁴ Each one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. ¹⁵ And the cherubim were lifted up. This was the living creature I saw by the River Chebar. ¹⁶ When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also did not turn from beside them. ¹⁷ When the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still, and when one was lifted up, the other lifted itself up, for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

I will end this post with a quote from the Books of Enoch where he was shown great and mighty things: “And those two men lifted me up from there on to the seventh heaven, and I saw there a very great light, and fiery troops of great Archangels, incorporeal forces, and dominions, orders and governments, Cherubim and Seraphim, thrones and many-eyed ones…I became afraid, and began to tremble with great terror, and those men took me, and led me after them, and said to me: “Have courage, Enoch, do not fear”, and showed me the Lord from afar, sitting on His very high throne.

And the Cherubim and Seraphim standing around the throne, and the six-winged and many-eyed ones do not depart, standing before the Lord’s face doing his will, and cover his whole throne, singing with gentle voice before the Lord’s face: Holy, holy, holy, Lord Ruler of Sabaoth (host/army), heavens and earth are full of Your glory.”  Chapter 20 1, Chapter 21 1.  Lumpkin, Joseph. The Books of Enoch: The Angels, The Watchers and The Nephilim.