face as a man
Revelation 4:7
4:7 face as a man. Ezekiel notes that all four cherubim “had the likeness of a man” (Ezekiel 1:5), but also agrees with John’s description as also having the faces of a lion, an ox and an eagle. The cherubim had been created before any of these creatures, but their ministries were to be with reference to God’s animal and human creations. The lion represents the created “beasts of the earth,” the ox, or calf, the “cattle,” and the eagle “the fowl of the air” (Genesis 1:25; 2:20). It may possibly be significant that there was no representation of the “fish of the sea” or “creeping things” that God would create. In the new earth, there will be “no more sea” (Revelation 21:1), and the most representative of the creeping things have been serpents and scorpions (note Deuteronomy 8:15; Luke 10:19; see also Revelation 9:10,19), which are always depicted in Scripture as enemies of mankind.
