For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

The Lord departs with the Cherubim

Ezek 10:1-5

1 I looked, and I saw the likeness of a throne of lapis lazuli above the vault that was over the heads of the cherubim. ² The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in.

³ Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. ⁴ Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. ⁵ The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

A. Find Out

1. What does Ezekiel next see? v.1
2. What did the Lord tell the man in linen to do? v.2
3. Who were standing where? v.3
4. Where did God’s presence go? v.4
5. What was heard? v.5

B. Think:

1. Look up Gen 3:24, Exo 25:18-22
2. How does this add to what we’ve seen previously in Ch.1?
3. How does this passage harmonise with Ch.9?

C. Comment:

In 9:3 Ezekiel recorded that the glory of God went up from above the cherubim and moved to the doorway of the temple. In verse 4 of this chapter this is repeated. It would seem that the activity with the man in linen is taking place while this is happening.  Now the cherubim we previously mentioned were those carved ones on the Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place, where the glory of God usually rested.

In this passage we now also have the creatures in the vision of the throne identified as cherubim.  Although there are some references to cherubim in the Old Testament, most of them refer to the two carved figures on the ark. It is really only when we come into Ezekiel that we see these figures in action. They are those who seem to support, maintain and serve the throne of God.

Who the man in linen is, we are still not told, but he is instructed to get burning coals (?holy fire) from the midst of the cherubim and scatter it over Jerusalem, perhaps indicating the bringing of holiness to the city. The real cherubim were standing to the south side of the temple, and the glory or presence of God over the cherubim of the ark, seemed to move from the ark to the doorway. In verse 18 the glory moves from there to the cherubim outside. It as if they have brought the throne for God to leave His temple on. This is an awful moment, God leaving.

D. Application:

1. In the heavenly realms are things we know nothing about!
2. From the presence of God comes holiness.

The cherubim & the glory

Ezek 10:6-22

⁶ When the Lord commanded the man in linen, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel. ⁷ Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took up some of it and put it into the hands of the man in linen, who took it and went out. ⁸ (Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked like human hands.)

⁹ I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like topaz. ¹⁰ As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel. ¹¹ As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went. ¹² Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels. ¹³ I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.” ¹⁴ Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

¹⁵ Then the cherubim rose upward. These were the living creatures I had seen by the Kebar River. ¹⁶ When the cherubim moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the cherubim spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not leave their side. ¹⁷ When the cherubim stood still, they also stood still; and when the cherubim rose, they rose with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. ¹⁹ While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

²⁰ These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Kebar River, and I realized that they were cherubim. ²¹ Each had four faces and four wings, and under their wings was what looked like human hands. ²² Their faces had the same appearance as those I had seen by the Kebar River. Each one went straight ahead.

A. Find Out

1. What happened with the man in linen? v.6,7
2. What are we told about the cherubim? v.8-17
3. Where did the glory of the Lord move from and to? v.18
4. Where did it then move to? v.19
5. What realisation comes to Ezekiel? v.20

B. Think:

1. What things are repeated from chapter 1?
2. Why must the man in linen be a supernatural being?
3. How is the glory of the Lord linked to the cherubim here?

C. Comment:

This is a chapter of revelation and growing comprehension. First in today’s passage we note the man in linen obeying God’s word to Him (from v.2). There seems to be holy fire in the midst of the cherubim, beneath the throne area. The man is given the fire and he departs. The fire does not destroy him which indicates he is probably an angelic being. Next we see much of the detail of chapter 1 being repeated but this time Ezekiel clearly identifies the four living creatures as cherubim. Now as we said yesterday, the only reference to cherubim elsewhere in the Bible is that reference to the two angels at either end of the Ark of the Covenant. 

Thus these four creatures who appear in four different forms, depending on which side you approach them, are in fact the angelic team that go everywhere with God, that seem to uphold the divine throne. When the glory of the Lord is to leave the temple, this angelic team arrive, almost formally, so that the glory will be transferred from ark to the mobile throne. 

The glory which had moved from the ark to the doorway, now moves to the waiting cherubim and then to the east gate of the temple area.  Later it will move outside the city (see 11:23). There is a strong sense of divine order and steady purpose in these verses.

D. Application:

1. Revelation often comes in stages. If at first you only half understand, seek the Lord until the fuller picture comes.
2. There is divine purpose behind all God does and reveals. We may not always understand it, but it is there.