Cherubim and Their Duty

Who are the cherubim in the bible? What was their duty?

We are first introduced to the cherubim in Genesis 3:22-24 “And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

When man had fallen into sin, the cherubim were guardians to keep sinful man away from the holy. They ensured the separation.

We learn more about the cherubim from the prophet Ezekiel who had a vision in which the heavens were opened and he saw visions of God. The entire first chapter of Ezekiel describes the cherubim in great detail. He also shares that there was a vault spread above the heads of the cherubim. And above that vault was the Lord sitting on a throne. Ezekiel’s vision reveals that the cherubim were situated between man and the Lord in Heaven as the cherubim sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.

God instructed Moses to include cherubim on the cover of the “ark of the covenant”. God told Moses in Exodus 25:22, “There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.” The cherubim were a symbol of protection of the contents of the ark from man and guardians of the place were God would meet with Moses.

We also see this same symbol of protection and separation in the tabernacle of the wilderness and later in Solomon’s temple. God instructed Moses in Exodus 26 and King Solomon in II Chronicles 3 to include cherubim woven into the curtains which separated man from the “Holy of Holies” where the ark of the covenant was placed and where God dwelt.

God never planned for this separation between Him and mankind to be permanent. He pre-planned to send his one and only Son to die for man’s sins, to conquer death and to repair the separation that occurred in the Garden of Eden. We see this in many prophecies throughout the Old Testament.

When Jesus died, the barrier between man and God was destroyed. In Mark 15:37-39, we read: “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’” As the curtain was torn, the cherubim were torn apart. The guardians, the protectors, were removed. Messiah broke through that barrier, leading us back to paradise, the Garden of Eden where God dwells.

There was no longer a separation. The door was reopened to God. Access to the Father, and to the eternal life offered in the Garden of Eden, was now available once again. The chasm between God and man had been repaired.

In Revelation 4, we see the duty of the cherubim has changed after Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. John writes about the cherubim he witnesses during a vision of the Lord. And his vision is different from Ezekiel’s. John sees the cherubim, but they are not situated between him and the Lord. Instead, they are around the throne where the Lord sits. They exist to give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne.

Let us also give glory, honor and thanks to Him for His great mercy and love in removing that separation so we may now be filled with the Holy Spirit, have direct access to God through prayer and one day dwell with Him forever and ever.