1. Revelation 4:8 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

How do passages from Isaiah and Ezekiel help us to understand the purpose of the creatures' wings?

Revelation 4:8 (ESV)

8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

The seraphim of Isaiah 6:2 also had six wings, while the four living creatures of Ezekiel 1:1–28 had four (Ezekiel 1:11, Ezekiel 1:23). Though the living creatures of Revelation 4:1–11 remind us of the creatures of Isaiah 6:1–13 and Ezekiel 1:1–28, we need not assume on the strength of their wings that they are the same beings. It is enough to conclude from those earlier passages that their wings served the purpose of hiding their finiteness and creatureliness from the overwhelming majesty of God as well as equip them to carry out whatever task God assigned them to do.