Exodus 25 · a question people ask
Hadn't God just forbidden images? Why make cherubim of gold?
At Sinai the LORD said, "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth beneath" (20:4), and went on, "you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them" (20:5). Here the LORD himself commands, "You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold" (25:18), and more cherubim are to be worked into the tent's curtains and veil (26:1, 26:31). The text doesn't explain how the two fit together. What it does show: these cherubim are made at the LORD's command and to his pattern (25:9, 25:40); nothing in the chapter tells Israel to bow to them; and their faces are turned "toward the mercy seat" (25:20), the place from which the LORD says he will speak (25:22).
The verses
““You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,”
“According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.”
“See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.”
““Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. You shall make them with the work of a skillful workman.”