As we continue to progress through the Hebrew Scriptures, we find out about another temple. This temple is what is known as “Ezekiel’s Temple.” This temple has no veil of separation from the Most Holy Place. Though Ezekiel’s temple differs from the others in many ways, this is probably one of the more significant differences. So make no mistake, this veil is an important feature, therefore, the lack of a veil is an important feature as well. In the ninth chapter of Hebrews, the author mentions the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, speaking specifically of the tabernacle, though his audience could have easily connected it with the veil of the two temples, while also remembering the tearing of the veil upon the death of Jesus. He also writes about the fact that the high priest could only enter behind that veil but once a year, with the blood that he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance (Hebrews 9:7).
So now that we have discussed these veils, the question is posed as to why this matters? Why is the veil important? Those who witnessed the tearing of the veil were obviously supposed to draw a specific conclusion from the event. Also, because the Gospels continue the narrative of the Scriptures, those who read about the tearing of the veil were supposed to come to some type of enlightening position based upon what was known about cherubim. Was the tearing just supposed to illustrate the dramatic event that had just taken place? Clearly, it was far more than that. To understand why, we have to examine what could be seen on those curtains.
So what was on the curtains? We have already seen that they were made with blue and purple and scarlet and fine white linen, but they also bore an image. What image did they bear? Returning to Exodus, and the directions for the veil of the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle, we read that “it is to be made with cherubim” (26:31b). Images of cherubim were embroidered into these curtains. Not only that, but they were also worked in to the embroidery of all of the curtains of the tabernacle, as we read a few verses earlier that “The tabernacle itself you are to make with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet; you are to make them with cherubim that are the work of an artistic designer” (26:1).
Cherubim are an extraordinarily prominent feature of both the tabernacle and the temples. It is another one of those topics that seem to receive an inordinate amount of ink in the Bible. We first read about cherubim, in relation to the tabernacle, in connection with the Ark of the Covenant. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus we read, “You are to make an atonement lid of pure gold… You are to make two cherubim of gold… Make one cherub on one end and one cherub on the other end; from the atonement lid you are to make the cherubim on the two ends. The cherubim are to be spreading their wings upward, overshadowing the atonement lid with their wings, and the cherubim are to face each other… I will meet with you there, and from above the atonement lid, from between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will command you for the Israelites” (25:17a,18a,19-20a,22). The very place where God said that He would meet with Moses was to be, effectively, guarded by two cherubim, not only on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, but on the curtains that marked off that place of meeting.
Later in the book of Exodus, as the items for the tabernacle begin to be made, as the curtains are produced, and as the Ark is built, we see the cherubim specifically mentioned numerous times (chapters 36 & 37), thus bolstering the fact that we should pay them some attention. In the book of Numbers, “when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak to the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the atonement lid that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim” (7:89). Again, a point is made to speak of the cherubim in connection with the place where God is to be met. In the first book of Samuel, when the Ark is mentioned, specific reference is made to the cherubim (4:4). In the second book of Samuel, when King David brings the Ark to Jerusalem, the cherubim are referenced yet again” (6:2). When the same event is presented in the first book of Chronicles, once again, we find the cherubim (13:6).
When Solomon constructs the first temple, not only are there images of cherubim included in the design of the separating curtain, but we find cherubim throughout the temple. “In the inner sanctuary he made two cherubs of olive wood; each stood fifteen feet high” (1 Kings 6:23). Their wingspans were also said to be fifteen feet (6:24-25), so that their wings reached out to touch the walls (6:27). These cherubim would have shined brilliantly, as they were overlaid with gold (6:28). Though the temple did not have curtains all around it, as did the tabernacle, Solomon still made it a point to mimic the decorative cherubim of the tabernacle curtains, carving cherubim into the walls, the doors, and the stands for the large basin. When the temple was completed and the Ark was brought into the most holy place, it is pointed out that “The cherub’s wings extended over the place where the ark sat; the cherubs overshadowed the ark and its poles” (8:7). Of course, we come to find out that Solomon did this because his father, David, “gave him the blueprint for the seat of the gold cherubim that spread their wings and provide shelter for the ark of the Lord’s covenant” (1 Chronicles 28:18b). Naturally, the second book of the Chronicles also details the construction of Solomon’s temple, with numerous references to the cherubim to be seen there.
Many years later, when Hezekiah and Judah are threatened by the Assyrians, Hezekiah went to the temple and prayed to the “Lord God of Israel, Who is enthroned on the cherubs!” (2 King 19:15a) The Psalms speak of cherubim (80:1,99:1). Isaiah calls upon the “Lord Who commands armies, O God of Israel, Who is enthroned on the cherubim!” (37:16a). Though in a different way, cherubim feature prominently in Ezekiel’s prophecy; and though there is no veil with cherubim in Ezekiel’s temple, representations of cherubim are still to be found there. Finally, cherubim make their way into the New Testament, being referenced in the letter to the Hebrews, where the author writes, taking in the full scope of cherubic presentations, of “the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat” (9:5).
Why all this talk of cherubim? Were they just really fond of angels, or are God’s people to be reminded of something each and every time they hear about and see these cherubim?
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