SHEMOT

1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubim of cunning work shalt thou make them.

Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle

First of all, the plan or pattern of it was shown to him (doubtless in vision).

Its correct construction was not to be dependent on a description which Moses might misunderstand, or upon the memory of Moses, which might prove defective. As a divine structure, having divine significances in many details, it was needful that Moses should see with his own eyes the actual representation of what was required; having seen which, he was warned to be careful to follow it faithfully. More than once it was said to him, "Thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount" (Exod. 26:30; 25:40; Heb. 8:5).

Not only so; but the correct fabrication of the structure was safeguarded by the impartation of special capacity to the leading directors of the work. "See", said Moses, "the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri... and he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship... and he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach... to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord had commanded" (Exod. 35:30; 36:1).

From all this, we do not deduce a doubtful lesson, when we say that our approaches to God must be in harmony with His own requirements. Men who hope to be accepted in their own way, will find, like Nadab and Abihu, that strange fire in the censer evokes wrath and not favour.

There is much self-invented service in our day, as there was in after times in Israel, and usually the invented service displaces that which has been required. God's question to Israel will rudely awaken many a Gentile expectant: "Who hath required this at your hands?"

Christ represents this class as saying to him, in the day of his return, "Have we not preached in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" to which his response is, "I know you not; depart from me, ye workers of iniquity".

The form of our service must be according to what has been shown. The pattern is in the Scriptures. We must look there for what is pleasing to God. The pattern has been lost in our day in the multitude of human opinions, glosses and traditions.

Law of Moses Ch 11

We wish now to ascertain upon what principles His incarnate manifestation was represented by the cherubim? First, then, in the solution of this interesting problem, I remark, that the Scriptures speak of God after the following manner.

"God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5); again, "God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24); and thirdly, "our God is a consuming fire" (Deut. 4:24).

In these three texts, which are only a sample of many others, we perceive that God is represented by light, spirit, and fire; when, therefore, He is symbolized as manifest in flesh, it becomes necessary to select certain signs representative of light, spirit, and fire, derived from the animal kingdom.

Now, the ancients selected the lion, the ox, and the eagle, for this purpose, probably from tradition of the signification of these animals, or the faces of them, in the original cherubim. They are called God's faces because His omniscience, purity and jealousy, are expressed in them. But the omniscient, jealous, and incorruptible God, was to be manifested in a particular kind of flesh. Hence, it was necessary to add a fourth face to show in what nature He would show Himself.

For this reason, the human face was associated with the lion, the ox, and the eagle. These four faces united in one human shape formed out of beaten gold; and two such, not separate and distinct symbols, but standing one on each end of the mercy-seat, and the same in continuity and substance with it, taken as a whole, represented Jesus, the true blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, or propitiatory, "in whom dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Rom. 3:25; Col. 2:3-9).

All four faces were to look upon the mercy-seat, so as to behold the sprinkled blood of the yearly sacrifice. To accomplish this, two cherubs were necessary; so that the lion, and the ox, faces of the one, and the man, and the eagle, faces of the other, should all be "mercy-seat ward."

It will be seen from this view of things, how important a place the cherubim occupied in the worship of God connected with "the representation of the truth." They were not objects of adoration, but symbols representing to the mind of an intelligent believer, the Seed of the woman as God manifested in the likeness of sinful flesh.

This I take it was the significancy of the cherubim which the Lord God placed at the east of the garden, and which became the germ, as it were, of the shadowy observances of the patriarchal and Mosaic institutions, whose substance was of Christ.

Elpis Israel 1.5.