There are various levels or orders of angels. Just as not all men have the same strength or intelligence or functions in life, so it is with angels. Also some are archangels, meaning ruling angels.
Ezekiel 1 describes some
powerful
angelic creatures.
They are unnamed in Ezekiel 1, but Ezekiel is seeing “visions of God” Ezek 1:1, and he see powerful creatures around Yahweh, the Lord God. He sees a storm coming out of the north with clouds and lightning, and brightness all around it, and there in the midst of all of this he sees “the likeness of four living creatures” having “the likeness of a man.” Each one had four faces and four wings, and hands under their wings. In front was the face of a man, to the right the face of a lion, to the left was the face of an ox, and to the rear the face of an eagle.
So what does this symbolism tell of these creatures? They had the intelligence and reasoning of a man, the ferocity of a lion, the strength of an ox, and the swiftness and sharp vision of an eagle.
Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and they “ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.” Ezek 1:14 WEB. The noise of their wings was “like the noise of great waters,” Ezek 11:24. There is much more to tell in Ezekiel 1, but above these awesome creatures was a vision of Yahweh God, “a likeness as the appearance of a man,” Ezek 1:26. “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh.” Ezek 1:28 WEB. Then in chapter two, this One and Only God speaks to Ezekiel and calls him.
There is a similar vision in Ezekiel 10.
There they are called “cherubim,” which is the Hebrew plural of cherub. Cherubim, if you remember, were angels stationed to guard the garden of Eden, Gen 3:24. They are represented as over the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle that was built.
In Ezekiel 28 there is a dual
discussion of the King of
Tyre, who symbolizes Satan, and Satan.
It says in Ezek 28:14 that he was “the anointed cherub who covers,” WEB. It says he was on “the holy mountain of God” until he sinned, and then he was cast down to the earth, doomed to die by fire coming from within him, Ezek 28:18.
What might this covering
cherub who sinned
be able to do?
In Job 1, by God’s permission, he is able to move wicked men to steal all of Job’s livestock and murder his servants. He is able to make lightning fall from heaven sufficient to kill seven thousand sheep and all of their shepherds. He is able to make a straight line wind come across the plains and hit the house where Job’s sons and daughters are having a dinner, making the house collapse and kill all of its occupants. He also able, but again only by permission, to afflict Job with terrible diseases in Job 2.
But angels are not given dominion
over the earth!
No, man is given that, Gen 1:28.
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901