The Cherub of Ezekiel is not properly the government of God at Jerusalem—there we see the Cherubic faces fixed on the ark of the covenant, and made of one piece with the mercy-seat—the tranquil, hidden, righteous Throne of God. Here it is the supreme and sovereign Throne of God in all the world. A Spirit which goes, and actually is manifested by a whirlwind coming out of the North, and visits Jerusalem, where the Lord (not the Cherub) stands on the threshold. He has left the throne. It is nothing less than the government of heaven and earth, or from heaven, the earth if you will. The government was above the heads of the Cherubs, and the throne above the firmament. This was superior, so to speak, to the habitual Throne at Jerusalem, though the same Jehovah. But then the Lord quits Jerusalem, and takes His place in this public and indefeasible sovereignty, of which, while in the rebellion of will, the enterprises of Nebuchadnezzar, etc., even were but the expression. Antichrist, it is true, is another thing—there it is a defiance from the earth, Satan being cast down who gives his throne to the beast.