And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.
Every one had four faces. Not only were there four distinct living creatures, but each of the four had four faces, making sixteen in all. The four living creatures of the cherubim answer by contrast to the four world monarchies represented by four beasts, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome, (Daniel 7:1-28.) The fathers identified them with the four gospels; Matthew the lion, Mark the ox, Luke the man, John the eagle. Two cherubim only stood over the ark in the temple; two more are now added, to imply that, while the Law is retained as the basis, a new form is needed to be added to impart new life to it. The number four may have respect to the four quarters of the world, to imply that God's ministers and angels execute His commands everywhere. Each head in front had the face of a man as the primary and prominent one, on the right the face of a lion, on the left the face of an ox, above from behind the face of an eagle. The Mosaic cherubim were similar, only that the human faces were put looking toward each other, and toward the mercyseat between, being formed out of the same mass of pure gold as the latter (Exodus 25:19-20).
It is doubtful whether the cherubim are identical with the seraphim in Isaiah 6:2. In Isaiah 6:2, besides the two wings to cover their feet with, and the two with which they flew, two wings are added to cover their countenances, making six in all upon the seraphim, because there they stand by the throne; here the cherubim are under the throne: there God deigns to consult the seraphim, and His condescension calls forth their humility, so that they veil their faces before Him; here the cherubim execute His commands. The face expresses their intelligence; the wings, their rapidity in fulfilling God's will. The Shechinah or flame, that signified God's presence, and the written name. Yahweh (H3068), occupied the intervening space between the cherubim. Genesis 4:14; Genesis 4:16; Genesis 3:24 ("placed;" properly, 'to place in a tabernacle') imply that the cherubim were appointed at the fall as symbols of God's presence in a consecrated place, and that man was to worship were appointed at the fall as symbols of God's presence in a consecrated place, and that man was to worship there.
In the patriarchal dispensation, when the flood had caused the removal of the cherubim from Eden, seraphim or teraphim (Chaldaic dialect) were made, as models of them, for domestic use (Genesis 31:19, margin; Genesis 31:30). The silence of Exodus 25:1-40; Exodus 26:1-37 as to their configuration, whereas everything else is minutely described, is because their form was so well known already to Bezaleel and all Israel by tradition as to need no detailed description. Hence, Ezekiel (Ezekiel 10:20) at once knows them, because he had seen them repeatedly in the carved work of the outer sanctuary of Solomon's temple, wherein he had ministered as a priest. He therefore consoles the exiles with the hope of having the same cherubim in the renovated temple which should be reared, and assures them that the same God who dwelt between the cherubim of the temple would be still with His people by the Chebar. But the cherubim were not in Zerubbabel's temple; therefore Ezekiel's foretold temple, if literal, is yet future.
The ox is selected as chief of the tame animals, the lion among the wild, the eagle among birds, and man, the head of all, in his ideal, realized by the Lord Jesus, combining all the excellencies of the animal kingdom. The cherubim probably represent the ruling powers by which God acts in the natural and moral world. Hence, they sometimes answer to the ministering angels; elsewhere to the redeemed saints (the elect Church), through whom, as by the angels, God shall hereafter rule the world, and proclaim the manifold wisdom of God (Matthew 19:28; 1 Corinthians 6:2; Ephesians 3:10; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 4:6-8). The "lions" and "oxen" amidst "palms" and "open flowers" carved in the temple were the four-faced cherubim which, being traced on a flat surface, presented only one aspect of the four. The human-headed winged bulls and eagle-headed gods found in Nineveh, sculptured amidst palms and tulip-shaped flowers, were borrowed by corrupted tradition from the cherubim placed in Eden near its fruits and flowers. So the Aaronic calf (Exodus 32:4-5), and Jeroboam's calves at Dan and Bethel, schismatic imitation of the sacred symbols in the temple at Jerusalem. So the ox figures of Apis on the sacred arks of Egypt.