The Dwelling Place of God with Man - The Mercy Seat
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Text: Exodus 25:17-21, Exodus 37:6-9
Intro: The mercy seat was the cover for the ark of the covenant. It was made out of ___________________. Out of each end there was beaten a figures of cherubims that faced each other inward with their faces bowed down to the mercy seat. Their wings were stretched up and over the mercy seat creating a canopy of wings.
And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.
The ark and mercy seat were behind the vail in the Most Holy Place and were only seen by the high priest on the day of atonement. . Read: Lev. 16:1-15
Atonement was not made simply by the shedding of blood, it was specifically through the application of that blood upon the mercy seat, which was made first by the high priest for himself, and then for the people.
For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.
It is important to note that the mercy seat was only seen after the death of the animal and the shedding of its blood. The mercy seat is also different from every part of the Tabernacle thus far as it is not made of two distinct parts, but only of pure gold.
In the mercy seat we have the distinct symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ as the ______________________.
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
With the mercy seat as a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ and with it placed upon the ark of the covenant, which is the symbol of God’s throne we have the full picture of our Lord Jesus. As the mercy seat could only be seen after the sacrifice had been offered on the day of atonement, we have the Lord Jesus as seen after He had offered Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, after He rose from the dead, ascended to Heaven and is seated on the throne. A picture so complete that only the Spirit of the living God could paint it!
It is a picture of a risen, ascended, deathless, immortal man on the throne of God. He is without shittim wood, signifying Him overcoming, death, hell, and the grave and is seated on the throne on the hand of power, the right hand of God!
The ________________________ were there to form an essential part of the picture. You cannot separate the cherubim from the mercy seat. They were not attached after the fact but they were beaten into the gold used to form the seat itself. To separate the cherubims would mean that the mercy seat itself would have to be destroyed.
The cherubim represent the supremacy over natural powers. They testify that our Lord Jesus Christ seated upon the throne of God today has all power!
A position He claimed while He was here the first time!
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
A declaration that He made after His resurrection and just prior to His ascension to the throne.
All power is omnipotence. Jesus Christ in both the ark and the mercy seat is the omnipotent man upon the throne of God in heaven!
What that means to us believers is this:
As mortal men and women, we are subject to thousands of illnesses, living in a world filled with sin, faced daily with problem after problem. At the sight of another, we are sometimes crushed, without hope, and in a position of helplessness. Another crossroad, another indecision, another comfortless moment. Where do we turn to find comfort, where do we get courage to take up the burden again and continue this journey? There is one answer...
Look Up! Behold the One Whose face was once wet with tears of sympathy, the One Who walked the earth as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, behold Him on the cross, having come all the way down from His eternal glory, to hang upon that cruel cross of Calvary, to shed His blood and die for the sacrifice for our sins, becoming the very sin and paying the punishment that we deserved. BEHOLD HIM now on the throne of the HIGHEST! BEHOLD HIM with all power, the omnipotent man who died for us because He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, and _____________________ HIM!
See the restraint of His omnipotent power as just as much an evidence of its awesomeness as the exercise and display of it and call upon Him like the Psalmist did!
Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me:
For my soul trusteth in thee:
Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge,
Until these calamities be overpast.
What time I am afraid,
I will trust in thee.