Hebrew Word Study – Cherubim  כרובים Kap Resh Vav Beth Yod Mem

Cherubims On The Ark

Exodus 25:18: “And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.”

Exodus 20:4: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:”

Well, I like that, God commands Moses and His people to not make any graven image or likeness of anything that is in heaven above, and then just five chapters later he instructs Moses and the people to make a graven image, a likeness of something that is in heaven, namely cherubim.  Not only that but these graven images presided over the Ark of the Covenant which contained the very command to not make a graven image. 

The Jews give numerous explanations for this such that the cherubim are not models of any particular heavenly being, they are just a metaphor of peace and love and we have no idea what they looked like.  Another explanation is that the beings were protecting the priest and any onlookers from the glory that was manifested on the mercy seat and were not created to be an object of worship which was the objective of the first commandment. 

However, the one that makes the most sense is this explanation that they were not objects of worship. If we reference Exodus 20:5, the very next verse we find that it is not the making of anThe image but the worship of these images: “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;”  In other words, we do not make any graven image with the intention of worshipping or serving that image. So, don’t throw away your pictures of Jesus, his disciples or other saints, so long as you don’t start thinking that the possession of such a picture is going to bring you good fortune. Then you crossed that line.

Jewish literature also notes that Exodus 20:26 which teaches: “Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.”  Hence, Rashi, the Medieval Jewish commentator concludes that there is an exception to making these graven images.  “You do not make with (alongside) Me any gods (elohi literally my god or figures of Divine authority) made of silver, neither (nor) shall you make for yourself gods of gold.”  In other words, you were allowed to make images alongside God that were figures of declaring Divine authority, but they must not be made of silver.  They could only be made of gold, as with the cherubims on the ark.  However, you are not to make for yourself gods of gold. You cannot make for yourself any gods of silver or gold, the only image you can make are those which declare God’s Divine authority and those can only be made out of gold.  

All objects in the temple were to be made of gold or silver.  Silver could be used in place of gold if the silver was not available.  However, the cherubims could only be made of gold.  On top of that, the cherubims were not be to make separate.  The Mercy Seat or cover of the Ark which carried the presence of God had to be formed from one large rectangular block of gold.  The cherubims had to be hammered out of that one solid block which was to be the Mercy Seat. They could not make the cherubims separately and then weld them to the mercy seat, they had to be made from the same block of gold as the Mercy Seat.

Exodus 25:19 tells us that the cherubims were to have wings spreading upward and sheltering the Mercy Seat.  The Talmud in Sukkah 5b teaches that each cherub had the image of a child’s face and the Zohar teaches that one is the face of a boy and the other is that of a girl.  It is believed by many Jewish teachers that the cherubims were not really angels but were meant to represent children not guarding the presence of God but overshadowing the presence of God. The cherubims which were made of the same block of gold as the Mercy Seat was made show that we are in God’s image only as children who belong to God as a child belongs to their birth parent and will always be that parent’s child by blood no matter what.  Just as we are the children of God by blood (blood of Jesus) no matter what. 

There is another picture of the cherubims, male and female who are facing each other but looking at the presence of God.  A couple who are married face each other in love but look to the presence of God and have the presence of God overshadowed by their wings.  This also pictures our marriage to God with the marriage contract tucked away in the box under the Mercy Seat or presence of God.  That marriage contract is the Ten Commandments. 

We learn something very important about our relationship with God from the cherubims. In II Chronicles 3:13 we learn the cherubmim faced the walls of the temple and not each other.  According to the Talmud Bava Batra 99a when the people of Israel did not fulfill God’s will the cherubims would face the walls of the rooms but when they were in obedience they would face each other again. The message is that if we are not fulfilling God’s will, if we are in disobedience, God will not face us or bring His presence before us.  But note it is the cherubims that are turning away from the presence of God.  God will not remove His presence from us, we remove ourselves from His presence. It is up to us if we will turn again to His presence or not. 

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