People can get so logically minded they rule out anything supernatural in the Scriptures... until their child gets sick or possessed.
We have to face it... I know the human ego wants to be the center of it all. We want it to be all about us. But there are greater creatures in this creation that are higher than man. Fearsome, strange, and downright freaky creatures. Are they some sort of living hieroglyph? I think the idea is cool... clearly these very real beasts represent a greater reality. Every lamb slaughtered in the OT was a literal lamb, but typified Christ. These can be literal angelic creatures and be living hieroglyphs. I see them as living celestial representatives of creation itself. They are seen when all creation is giving praise to the Lamb of God.