God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 3:10-13 The cherubim
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, September 19, 2024
10 In the Most Holy Place he made a pair of sculptured cherubim and overlaid them with gold. 11 The total wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and touched the temple wall, while its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the other cherub. 12 And also one wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and touched the other temple wall, and its other wing, also five cubits long, touched the wing of the first cherub. 13 The wings of these cherubim extended twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, with their faces toward the house.
These two giant statues towered above the head of the high priest when he entered into the Most Holy Place. For if the room was 20 cubits wide, long, and high, or thirty feet in each direction (twice the size it had been in the tabernacle—I apologize for my error in the recorded devotion yesterday), and their wings touched the walls and one another’s wings, then we can judge their height. A man’s “wingspan” (fingertip to fingertip) is about the same as his height; around four cubits. These towering cherubim must have been nearly ten cubits tall, or fifteen feet, if their wings were about the same length as their outstretched arms (in proportion to a sparrow or an owl). Of course, they could have been somewhat shorter if their wings were extra long, such as those of a soaring eagle. It was there under the wings of the standing cherubim and above the cherubim that were sculpted on the cover of the ark that God promised to “meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites” (spoken to Moses and Aaron, Exodus 25:22).
A cherub (plural cherubim) is an angel. We are not told about ranks of angels in the Bible, although different names are used: cherubim, seraphim, angel, archangel, and the terms Paul uses: thrones, rulers, authorities, powers, and dominions (Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16). Peter uses some of Paul’s terms as well (1 Peter 3:22). These could simply be tasks given to angels at various times, and not really ranks or hierarchies.
The word cherub appears to mean “glowing one.” Luther took “glowing” to mean “ruddy and cheerful,” and so he is content to allow the artists to depict cherubim the way that they do: “It seems to me that ‘cherub’ denotes the ruddy face which girls and boys have at an early age. Thus painters also depict the angels in the likeness of infants. By cherubim, therefore, you may understand angels who appear with a face that is not wrinkled or sad, but with a happy and friendly expression, with a chubby and well-rounded face.” “Moreover,” he adds in the same place, “what appears in (1 Kings 6 and here in 2 Chronicles) about the curtains with cherubs also denotes the chubby and cheerful faces of angels with wings—not because the angels actually have wings, but because they cannot be depicted otherwise.”
Here the wings touching one another and also touching the walls to either side is an artistic sign that God watches over his people at all times (Psalm 121:4). The Most Holy Place was also decorated with images of palm trees and flowers (1 Kings 6:29). Together with the cherubim, these were reminders of the Garden of Eden. Everything in the temple, as it had been in the tabernacle, was a reminder that the one sacrifice was on its way, his way, to liberate the world from sin. The priests who served would be reminded: the sacrifices that they made pointed to the one sacrifice for all. The holiness that was portrayed pointed to the holiness of the Christ, covering all who have faith in him. Those Old Testament worshipers happened to be born into the world in the years before he came, but their faith is the same saving faith as ours. They trusted in what he would bring. Long before Moses was given the pattern of the tabernacle to build, when Isaac and Israel were still young, the patriarch Job confessed: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25). Our Redeemer lives, and we shall live, too. This is why our liturgical prayers have the wonderful words about Jesus our Lord, “who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever, Amen.” The “lives” part of that prayer is the prayer’s climax, the thrill of having a God who is not dead, not a myth, not aloof, not unaware of us, but alive, compassionate, who came into the world (an historical fact, “he suffered under Pontius Pilate”) to rescue us from our sins. Worship in the New Testament church is a lot different, a world of differences, from worship in Solomon’s temple. But the one they were waiting for is the same one we remember and worship today: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, our King.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.