When the Lord ordered Moses to build the Ark of Covenant, He asked him to make cherubim of gold on top of it. He said: “And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy, seal. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel” (Ex.25: 18-22). And it was done.
Forming the images of these two cherubim was not a transgression of the second commandment which orders not to make an idol in the form of anything in heaven above, because the aim was not to worship the angels represented by these two cherubim, . On the contrary, the image of the two cherubim was formed upon a Divine command in the same way that the snake was made upon a Divine command.