“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 …” (Ex. 25:22).
The plans for an earthly sanctuary began with the construction of the ark of the covenant. In the ark, the Ten Commandments were placed, for they were the “testimony” of God’s will for His people. His giving them the Law was a token of His favor toward them, and their acceptance of it was a token of their obedience to Him. This law functioned as a testimony to them to direct them in their duty, and it was a testimony against them when they transgressed. God gave His people the Law, and its presence in the ark symbolized God’s presence among His people. This correlates to the New Testament in that God’s Spirit dwells inside our hearts—His temple is within us. And just as the tablets of the Law were placed in the ark of the covenant, so God writes the Law on the hearts of His chosen ones (Heb. 8:10).
The mercy seat was the covering of the ark, or chest, which is also known as the “atonement covering,” or “propitiatory covering.” Propitiation is when God’s wrath is appeased because justice has been satisfied. In the case of sin, justice can be satisfied only by the shedding of blood because the penalty for sin is death. This covering was a type of Christ, the great propitiation, whose satisfaction fully answers the demands of the Law, covers our transgressions, and comes between us and the curse we so rightly deserve.
The apostle calls the cherubim that were attached to the ark the “cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat” (Heb. 9:5). This denotes their attendance upon the Redeemer (to whom they were ministering spirits), their readiness to do His will, their presence in the assembly of the saints, and their desire to look into the mysteries of the Gospel (1 Peter 1:12).
God is the one who dwells between the cherubim (1 Sam. 4:4; Pss. 80:1; 99:1), and it is by the mediation of Jesus Christ, who is represented by the mercy seat, that man is reconciled to Him and can approach His throne. In an allusion to the mercy seat, we are said to come boldly to the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16), for we are not under law, which is covered, but under grace, which is fully displayed to all the people. The purpose of the Exodus was this meeting between God and man, and here is where that meeting occurs—at the point of atonement where God and man are reconciled in Christ.
Where do you meet God? Do you try to meet Him on the basis of your own good works—on what you can offer Him? Do you meet Him on the basis of what Christ has done on your behalf? Do not try to earn your way into His presence through the Law, but approach Him daily at the mercy seat on the basis of grace alone.
