Words and Phrases

The Four Living Creatures

HOW DO WE KNOW THE FOUR BEASTS REPRESENT GOD’S ATTRIBUTES?

It has become standard Bible student response to say that the four living ones (four “beasts” in the KJV) of Revelation represent the four attributes of God —Wisdom, Justice, Love, and Power. From whence did this understanding come? It seems to have been defined by Brother. W. I. Mann in 1883 (See R529). To summarize his explanation, we give the following:

By building upon several steps of information, we can determine that the LIVING ONES of Revelation are mentioned elsewhere in the Bible as CHERUBIM. The story is built as follows:

(1) In Gen. 3:24 we find CHERUBIM guarding Eden so that man would no longer have access to the tree of life.

Strong’s, strangely, says the word is of uncertain origin —“an imaginary figure.”

Clearly “imaginary” is not the right thought since God, Himself, uses the word in describing Lucifer (Ezek. 28:14), and God does not deal in the imaginary. However, He DOES deal in the SYMBOLIC. Perhaps referring to Lucifer as a Cherub —the ONLY heavenly creature which God authorized to be represented in a visual way —is to draw our attention to some attribute of Lucifer. He was a “Covering Cherub” —much the same as the tabernacle cherubim covering the mercy seat.

(2) The next occurrence of cherubim is in Exod 25 and the many places thereafter where these creatures appear as part of the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant. They are replaced by similar but larger cherubim in the Temple (1 Kings 6:23). Ezekiel also describes cherubim in Chapters 1 and 10. He does not call them cherubim in Chapter 1; but he does in Chapter 10 where he says they were what he described in Chapter 1 (Ezek. 10:20-22). Here we see the connection with the four living ones of Revelation in that the same representations of Ezekiel 1 appear in Revelation 4.

(3) God’s presence is always stated or implied with reference to the Cherubim. Even in Genesis, a careful comparison of Gen. 4:3, 16 will show that God was represented as being at the gate of Eden (even after the fall). His presence between the cherubim of the tabernacle and temple is well known: “He who dwells between the cherubim.” (See Exod 25:22 and Psa. 18:10). In Ezekiel 10:4, “the glory of the LORD went up from the Cherub.”

(4) The conclusion is then easy to find when the meanings of Ezekiel’s descriptions are discerned and compared with Revelation Chapter 4:

The eagle is wisdom, the face of man is love (God SO loved man that He gave His son), the calf is justice (which is satisfied in the tabernacle), and the lion is power (as represented in Jesus and Satan, the two powerful antagonists of the Bible.)

Or if you prefer the alternative view, the OX (the calf, a young bull) is power, and the Lion is justice.

The CHANGE in the tabernacle Cherubim to the Temple Cherubim is most revealing.

It is scripturally clear that justice is SATISFIED on the mercy seat. It is also clear that God, in all His wisdom, is represented by the LIGHT above it. The two cherubim so well show love and power WAITING to aid man once justice is satisfied.

And so it is pictured in the temple (representing the Millennium) when the cherubim NOW have their wings spread to fly to mankind’s aid (ushering in the “times of restoration of all things”, Acts 3:21). See 1 Kings 6:23-28