Every one had four faces; the first face was the face of a cherub.
The Christian ministry
The text seems to have a decided reference to the angelic hosts,--those ministers of God who do His pleasure. To resemble these should be the great desire of every Christian, that God’s will may be done on earth even as it is done in heaven. But especially should this be the case with the Christian minister: his office greatly resembles that of the holy intelligences above; he is a messenger of God to mankind, an angel of the Church, and therefore well does it become him to study the character and emulate the holiness of cherubim and seraphim in heaven.
I. The first face was that of a cherub. The symbol--
1. Of exalted dignity. Dwelling around the throne of Deity. His especial ambassadors, etc. No office can be more exalted than that of the Christian ministry. It is that to which Jehovah appointed His own Son. One writer quaintly remarks, “God had only one Son, and He made a preacher of Him.” “Workers together with God,” etc.
2. Of elevated devotion. They are represented as holding great intimacy and close fellowship with God. How indispensable that the ministers of Christ live near to the Lord, hold close communion with the skies.
3. Of distinguished holiness. Ye that bear the vessels of the Lord, etc., as the priests of old. Not only partakers of the ordinary graces of the Spirit, but adorned with the mature fruits of holiness to the glory of God.
II. The second symbol is that of a man. With the sanctity of the cherub is to be united the sympathy of sanctified humanity. As men, Christian ministers are--
1. To be influenced by their relationship to Jesus as Head of the Church. They should have His meekness, humility, lowliness, desire to labour, readiness to suffer, etc.
2. To feel for their fellow sinners peculiar compassion. They are their brethren, of one blood, spirit, and destiny.
3. To know their own insufficiency and entire dependence on God’s blessing. This treasure in earthen vessels, etc. Paul planteth, etc.
III. The third emblem was the face of a lion. By this we are to understand the strength and magnanimity which are necessary to the ministerial office. The Christian minister must be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. He must be strong to resist evil, to stand firm in the conflict, and to conduct himself as a man of God.
IV. The fourth symbol is that of the eagle. By this--
1. The true character of the minister’s work is portrayed. He has to do with spiritual things. He teaches not philosophy, science, economy, legislation, but the truths of the kingdom of God, the knowledge of the way of salvation.
2. The symbol of the eagle may be designed also to be expressive of their ardour and zeal The minister of Jesus is to be instant, earnest, energetic, zealously affected in every good thing.
3. His soul is to yearn with intense anxiety over perishing sinners. Application--
1. Let the solemn character of the office ever be cherished, and a lively sense of its importance be maintained from day to day.
2. Let the glorious results of faithfulness in the Saviour’s service animate to constancy and perseverance. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The combination of faculties in spiritual life
In the power of this life it does not matter where we are, or under what conditions we are found, we find a sufficiency of grace. Mr. Ruskin, in his Love’s Meinie, describes the Phalerope, a strange bird living out of the way of human beings, in the Polar regions of Greenland, Norway and Lapland, which he calls “The Arctic Fairy.” It is a central type of all bird power, but with elf gifts added: it flies like a lark, trips on water lily leaves like a fairy, swims like a duck, and roves like a seagull, having been seen sixty miles from land; and finally, though living chiefly in Lapland and Iceland, it has been seen serenely swimming and catching flies in the hot water of the geysers, in which a man could not bear his hand. As the above bird has a combination of faculties, so the gift of Eternal Life as personified in Christ bestows faculties of grace which enable us to stand in the clear light of God’s holy throne, which empower us to bear trial’s fiery ordeal, which equip us for conflict with the great adversary, which endow us with endurance in treading life’s rough way, which energise with strength in the work of the Gospel, which environ us with peace and joy in time of persecution, and which ennoble our whole being, for we are lifted into the realm of God’s dear Son. (Footsteps of Truth.)
