Steps to the Altar

84.  cherubim

The term "cherubs" usually refers to the cute, pudgy angels found on Christmas cards.  But in the Bible they, are awesome, almost frightening creatures.  The prophet Ezekiel had a strange vision of the cherubim (that's plural--one cherub, two cherubim):  "Their whole body, with their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels that the four had, were full of eyes all around ... Each one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle"  (Ezek.  10:12, 14).  Much earlier, cherubim had served as sentries, brandishing flaming swords to keep Adam and Eve out once they were banished from Eden (Gen. 3:24).  The most commonly seen cherubim--or, at least, figures of them--were the two on the lid of the ark of the covenant.  The ark is describned in detail in Exodus 25, including the two winged figures who face each othere, their wings touch ing (and protrayed accurately, by the way, in the movies Raiders of the Lost Ark).  Israel was prohibited form making images of God Himself, but apparently they thought of the space between the cherubim as the place where God was present:  The phrase "LORD Almighty, enthroned between the cherubim"  occurs many times in the Bible.