We will take, as illustrating the believer's union with Christ, the cherubim on the veil, the covering, in the mercy-seat, and in the throne.
1. On the veil (Exd 36:35). "The veil of the temple was rent in the midst" (Luk 23:45); and in this we see that, in the person of our Representative, we have borne the punishment due to sin, satisfied Divine justice, and hence we are said to be baptised into His death (Rom 6:3).
2. On the covering of twined linen, &c. (Exd 36:8). This covering was the ceiling of the tabernacle, and when the priest went in, he would see the cherubim inwrought on the beautiful covering. As it was above, so, in a spiritual sense, we are risen in and made to sit with Christ in heavenly places; or, as we are told in another place, "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead" (Col 2:12).
3. In the mercy-seat. The cherubim were made out of the same piece of gold as the mercy-seat, as we read in Exd 25:19 "And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end; even of the matter of the mercy-seat (margin) shall ye make the cherubim on the two ends thereof." This reminds us that "both He that sanctifieth and they which are sanctified are one;" that we are made partakers of the Divine nature; that we are accepted, blest, risen, and seated in the heavenlies in the person of our Lord.
4. In the throne (Rev 4:6, and Rev 5:6, R.V.). We cannot do better than quote the words of another on this point: "These living ones not only stand before the throne and serve, as redeemed unto God by the blood of the Lamb; they are one with the Lamb in the midst of the throne, 'members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones,' raised up together and made to sit together in Him and with Him in the heavens. For when God 'raised Him up from the dead, and set Him on His own right hand in the heavenlies,' He 'gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.'"