Pondering God’s Throne

( edited from the Chamberes Encylcopedia ( 1896 )

CHERUBIM

Heb. k’riibh), in the plural Cherubim
or Cherubs, is the Hebrew name of a winged
creature with a human countenance, which in the
Scriptures is almost always represented in connection
with Jehovah, and especially as drawing
his chariot-throne. In Scripture the cherubim
appear to be quite distinct from the angels, who
are Jehovah’s messengers, while the cherubim are
found where God himself is personally present,
and are the living bearers of God manifesting
himself in his glory on the earth. It is possible
to trace a development both of their form and
their significance. While they are always conceived
as living creatures, their perfectly free power of movement seems to suggest a connection with the thunder-clouds which reveal to the world the majesty of God. In the 18th Psalm it is said Jehovah ‘rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; yea, he flew swiftly upon the wings of the wind;’ and elsewhere the clouds are called the chariot of Jehovah.
According to Sayce, the word is probably connected with the Assyrian kirubu, the
name denoting the winged bull which guarded the house from the entrance of evil spirits.
Most Jewish writers and Christian Fathers conceived the cherubim as angels ; and Dionysius the Areopagite, in his Celestial Hierarchy, makes them a separate class in the first hierarchy.