Since beginning to work full-time, most of my life is occupied with keeping my head above water. The job can be stressful at times, my energy just isn’t top-notch these days, and the amount of extra-curriculars I need to continue my credentials crowd out that precious time for reflection where thoughts are melded to words and given shape and structure.

Instead, my overtaxed mind wanders down random tracks, asking questions like, “When God told Moses to make two cherubim of gold for the ark’s mercy seat, how did Moses know what they looked like?“

NERDY STUFF

Let’s get the nerdy stuff out of the way: Cherubim is the transliteration of a Hebrew plural word כְּרוּבִים (-im being the Hebrew masculine plural form). So, it means “more than one cherub.” Unfortunately, the root of the word – cherub – is obscure. That is to say, we don’t really know what a cherub is except what we can extrapolate from various biblical accounts.

CHERUBIM IN THE SCRIPTURES

The first mention in the Scriptures is in Genesis 3:24 when God stationed cherubim the east of Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden) after Adam and Eve sinned and were cast out. Here, no detailed description is given, other than they were placed “with a flaming sword” and were intended “to guard the way to the Tree of Life.”

That’s why the next mention in Exodus so fascinates me:

And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. (Ex 25:18-19).

Cherubim are also mentioned in Exodus 26:1 & 31 in the descriptions of the tabernacle curtains and veil, but only that they should be “skillfully worked into” these fabrics. Again, to weave a recognizable cherub, one would need to have some idea what they looked like. Other mentions in Exodus are not much different, centered around the construction details or mentioning that the craftsmen made them.

What I can’t get out of my head is this: despite the extremely specific instructions given on the rest of the furniture and implements for the tabernacle, God simply tells Moses to make a couple of cherubim facing one another with their wings touching atop the ark. Save the mention of wings, there’s no description of what the cherubim looked like. It’s rather heavily implied that Moses and the craftsmen would know exactly what to carve and weave.

In 1 Samuel 4:4, God is declared to be “enthroned on the cherubim,” and in 2 Samuel 22:11, He is said to ride on a cherub and fly. This imagery occurs elsewhere, the cherubim are associated in many places with the ark, and there are other cherubim in Solomon’s temple.

CHERUBIM DESCRIBED

In fact, it’s not until Ezekiel’s book, written centuries later, that we get a rather mind-boggling description of cherubim (see Ezekiel 1:5-11, 13-14, 22-28; 9:3; 10:1-22; 11:22 et al). These sparkling beings are described as having straight legs with feet like a calf’s, wings, human hands beneath their wings, and four faces (one face each of a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle). They moved in interesting ways, too – described as moving with the whirling wheels that were beside each one, going “straight forward,” and darting “to and fro” like lightning.

To be honest, I wouldn’t know where to begin to craft or weave one of these beings. It definitely begs the question of how Moses and Co. knew what to do when they were told to decorate the tabernacle with cherubim.

Oh boy, I’d love to see what they came up with!