Tabernacle Truths
The Mercy Seat
Exodus 25:17-22
 
Today we come to our last study of the tabernacle.  We have made our way from outside the courtyard all the way to the very inner room of the Tabernacle. 
 
It is a rather small, cube-shaped room known as the
holy of holies. It is 15' wide, 15'long, 15'high. It's a perfect cube. In the Holy of Holies there are two items that are connected.  One is a gold box called the Ark of the Covenant, and on top of it sits a golden lid called the Mercy Seat. 
 
They are almost always seen together in Scripture, but when God gave the instructions for building and furnishing the Tabernacle, He makes a distinction between the two.  We find that instruction in
 
They are separate, not only in their construction, but also in their instruction.  I mean by that, they teach us different things about salvation and God, and His Son, Jesus. 
 
For instance, as we saw last week, the ark was a wooden box, overlaid with gold, and on top of it sat this slab of solid gold with angels bowed looking down at it called the mercy seat.  The word "mercy" literally means "to cover or make atonement." 
 
So the ark points to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, picturing His perfect humanity in the wood, and His absolute deity in the God.  And as we saw last week, the ark symbolized the person of Jesus Christ in Himself.
The mercy seat that sat on top of the ark is not so much about Who He is, but rather about what He did on the cross.  Obviously, the gold speaks of His character and nature, but the overall message of the Mercy Seat points us to the cross and His sacrifice for our sins.
 
Notice the description we are given of the mercy seat in
 
Exodus 25:17-22
 
So here we read that it was to be made of pure gold, and we are given specific dimensions which are the same dimensions as the ark. It exactly and precisely fit on top of the ark. 
 
But if you were reading as a carpenter or craftsman, you may have noticed there is one dimension missing and that is the thickness of the lid. We know how long it was, we know how wide it was, but we don't know how thick it was.  Keep that in mind, and in a moment we'll return to that thought.
 
We also read that the lid was made of pure gold making it the most expensive article of furniture in the entire Tabernacle. Without knowing the exact weight, it is difficult to estimate its value, but suffice it to say in today's market, it would be several million dollars.
 
You will notice also in verse 18 it says that it is to be a "beaten work."  That means it was to be hammered. It was a hammered piece of furniture.
 
 
And I don't know anything about goldsmithing, but evidently it was hammered in such a way that it was smoothed out in a slab and then on the ends, out of that solid piece of gold, were these fashioned these unusual, mysterious creatures known as the Cherubim.
 
Again, that pictures for us the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It was through the hammering Jesus experienced in Gethsemane, and at Calvary, that Jesus Christ did the work to make it possible for you and me to meet a holy God at His throne. 
 
So if you want to know how to meet God or where you can find God and how to have a relationship with God, then you find your answers at the Mercy Seat of God.
 
There are three words I want to use to help us understand the significance and meaning of the Mercy Seat, and the first word will, at first look, seem to be a little unrelated, but hopefully, you will understand its significance before we finish.  Here we go! 
 
First of all, the mercy seat is a place of
 
1.  Enthronement
 
I mean by that the Mercy Seat was where God enthroned Himself in the presence of His people.  Remember, the original instruction to Moses was to build this tabernacle because God wanted to dwell among His people. 
 
 
So here we are in God's throne room and it is natural to expect to find a throne for the King, and that's exactly what we have in the Mercy Seat. After all, that's why it was called a "seat".  And remember, these are God's instructions, so this is God's word for the lid on the Ark.  The picture of God's royalty and reign is the mercy seat.
 
In regard to the throne of God, there are a couple of verses in the Psalms I want you to see.  The first one is
 
Psalm 99:1
 
"The Lord reigns; Let the peoples tremble!
He dwells between the cherubim; Let the earth be moved!"
 
I don't know about you, but I take great comfort in the first three words of that verse!  Aren't you thankful that "the Lord reigns", especially living in the kind of world in which we live?  There is tragedy and sickness and disappointments and disasters and that's just our personal lives! 
 
But the good news is God is on His throne!  I don't care what's going on down here around you, always keep in mind that the Lord reigns!
 
Then, while you're in the neighborhood, turn back a couple of chapters to the 97th Psalm and notice 
 
Psalm 97:2
 
"Clouds and darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne."
So here we read that there are two foundations for the throne of God.  So the Lord reigns from His throne and that throne is established on the two unchanging, immoveable foundations of righteousness and judgment. 
 
By the way, those two words describe the two basic essentials for all authority, no matter what government it is.  A government can have no authority unless it is based upon righteousness and judgment. 
 
There has to be a standard of right and wrong in that government or kingdom and then there also has to be a punishment for violation of that standard of right or wrong.  That's righteousness and judgment. 
 
And while it is true of earthly kingdoms, it is even more true for the model of all human governments which is the throne of God. God's throne is a throne of righteousness and judgment.
 
Now, with that principle in mind, look back to our text in Exodus 25, and notice what we discover here. 
 
verse 22
 
Notice the wording.  God is very specific in saying that the mercy seat sits ON the Ark of the Testimony.  Now some translations will talk about the Mercy Seat being over the Ark of the Testimony, and in fairness, the Hebrew word can be translated that way.
 
But the first and primary translation is upon.  The Mercy Seat rested upon, sat on the Ark of the Testimony.
So what?  Well, the Testimony was the tablets of stone that contained the Ten Commandments.  So follow the imagery.  God says, "My throne, my government will rest upon My law." 
 
Last week we learned those tablets of stone showed us three things.  First, they represent the fact that Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the law in His earthly life.
 
They also serve as a reminder to us that we are sinners who have broken the law of God, and thirdly, the law was placed inside the box that pictures the Lord Jesus Christ reminding us the only solution for our sins is God's grace and forgiveness.
 
God wants to forgive you of your sins. God wants to save you, but God cannot save you at the expense of His righteousness. God just can't excuse sin or lower the standard of His righteousness in order to save you. God's righteousness must be maintained. Neither can God ignore your sin.
 
That's why Jesus went to the cross.  So, God's throne rests upon the Law of Righteousness.   That's the first foundation. 
 
The second one is judgment.  His throne is a throne of judgment.
 
Now you will notice in verse 22 that God would dwell between two cherubim.  We don't know a lot about the cherubim. They are mysterious creatures. We don’t know how they looked.  But we do learn from the text that they have faces and they have wings.
 
 
And as I mentioned earlier, cherubim seem to be guardians of the holiness of God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3, they were driven out of the garden and the  Bible says that God put a flaming sword at the entrance of the garden, and cherubim were placed there to guard the entrance and protect the tree of life.
 
And I think it safe to say that these cherubim, hovering over the mercy seat with their
wings upward and with their faces downward, looking at that mercy seat represent the judgment of God upon sin. They are poised as if with flaming swords to strike at sin. 
 
Because of His nature and holiness and righteousness, God has no choice but to judge sin. 
Every sin that has ever been committed or that ever will be committed must be judged and will be judged. God could not be a righteous God and not judge sin. That's what wrath is all about.
 
Paul said it this way to the Romans in
 
Romans 1:18
 
"for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men who hold the truth in unrighteousness."
 
The wrath of God is God's holy hatred for sin. God's wrath is God's settled hostility toward sin.  Some
people don't want to hear about a God of wrath, but without the promise of God's wrath, the value of God's love loses its significance.
 
God is a loving Father, but a loving father is a father capable of wrath, and parents illustrate that all the time. 
 
A little boy comes in and says, "Hey daddy!  I found a new toy in the yard!"  And daddy looks down and sees the boy is carrying a rattlesnake!  So what does he do?  He grabs the snake and kills it to remove the child he loves from the danger he is in!
 
Is that because he's a mean father who doesn't want his child to have any fun?  No!  He wants to protect the child he loves from the danger!  A loving father
strikes out against that which can damage and do harm to his child.
 
In the same way, God is a God of wrath against sin. He loves the sinner, but He hates the sin that's messing up your life. He hates the sin that's destroying your marriage!  God loves you, but he hates the sin that's sending you to hell!  And as a loving God and Father, he deals with sin in judgment.
 
So, this mercy seat is a place of enthronement. It demonstrates the integrity of God's righteousness and the certainty of God's judgment.
 
Here's the second truth. This mercy seat is also a  place of
 
2.  Atonement
 
In other words, it is a place where God covers sin. In Leviticus 16, we are given the details regarding the most significant day in Jewish life. It was called the Day of Atonement.
It was a one-time a year event in which the high priest would go alone into the Holy of Holies. He  would remove his outer garments, and wearing  certain garments made of white linen, he would enter the Holy of Holies carrying incense from the altar in the Holy Place.
 
Now the original high priest was Aaron, the brother of Moses.  And notice what God said to Moses regarding the Day of Atonement.
 
Leviticus 16:2
 
In other words, He said, "Tell Aaron he can't come into the Holy of Holies just any old time he wants to because if He does, he will die. "
 
verse 15
 
Without going into all the details, there was certain procedures that had to be followed in order to go behind the veil into the Holy of Holies.  And it always required the blood of a sacrifice.  Elsewhere, we are told that the priest would dip his finger in that blood and sprinkle one time on top of the mercy seat and then he would sprinkle seven times before that mercy seat.
 
So what is all of this about?  Well, we learn from that about the requirements for atonement.  Now don't miss the picture.  Here we have this golden box the contains the Law of God topped with a golden lid adorned with two angels who are looking downward.
 
They are facing one another but they are looking down at that mercy seat. So what are they looking at in particular on the Day of Atonement?
They are looking at the blood. The Bible says it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. The Bible says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
 
And on the day of Atonement, blood was placed upon the mercy seat that housed the Ten Commandments, the Law of God that had been broken.
 
That teaches us that when Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, Jesus Christ was satisfying God's law. It is a picture that the law of God is satisfied by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God satisfied His holy law.
 
Remember, God is righteous.  His righteousness demands that sin be judged.  God can't just ignore it or pretend it didn't happen.  God will not surrender His righteousness in order to forgive us of our sins.
 
And that blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat is a beautiful picture in living color that when Jesus went to the cross of Calvary, God maintained His righteousness and God and executed His judgment and He did it all in the person of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ!
 
Let me give you some support Scriptures for what I've just said.  First, listen to
 
1 John 2:2
 
"and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world."
 
The word, propitiation, in the New Testament is the word for mercy seat in the Old Testament.  Jesus is the propitiation.  Jesus is the mercy seat for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.
 
When Jesus died on the cross He became our Mercy Seat and the blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat and when God saw the blood He was satisfied. When Jesus died on the cross, He died for us—that's substitution, but he also died to satisfy the righteous holiness of God—that's satisfaction. Jesus satisfied the holiness of God on the cross of Calvary.
 
So, at the cross, our Mercy Seat, the Lord Jesus, God's law is satisfied.
 
Isaiah 53:11 says, "He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied."  When Jesus was hanging up there on that cross, He had never sinned.  There was no sin that put Jesus on that cross.  But when Jesus was on that cross, "He who knew no sin was made sin for us."  All our sins, all the sins you ever have committed, ever will commit, all the sins of the world were laid on Jesus Christ.
 
When Jesus was made sin for us God's holy wrath smashed our sins in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He's our Mercy Seat and God's law is satisfied.
 
But at the mercy seat not only is God's law satisfied, but God's love is shown.  Most of us are familiar with Romans 3:23,, but there is a context for that verse that is often ignored.
 
 
Romans 3:23-25
 
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith"
 
That means the cross served as a Mercy Seat where God was satisfied.  And notice, God did it publicly!  "Set forth" means to put on public display!  When Jesus died on the cross, God publicly displayed His Mercy Seat.
 
For centuries and centuries, the mercy seat was hidden in a cube-shaped room.  Nobody could see it. it was hidden.  Only one man, one time year could ever go in there and he could barely see that mercy seat because the room was covered with incense and darkness.   And by the way, he didn't stay long because if he made one little mistake, he was a dead man on the spot.
 
So he would go in there, sprinkle the blood on the top, sprinkle the blood 7 times in front of it, then he'd get out of there! God's plan was confined in a cube-shaped room and hidden from view. 
 
But when Jesus Christ went outside the city of Jerusalem and drug a cross up a hill called Calvary and died on that cross for our sins and became our mercy seat, the Bible says God was displaying His plan of salvation, His way to atonement!
 
And that public display was all about love!
 
 
 
Listen to Hebrews 12:24
 
"to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel."
 
That verse tells us that blood talks! Abel's blood cried out, speaking of judgment and vengeance!  But the blood of Jesus Christ speaks and it says, "I love you."
 
This mercy seat not only tells us that the law is satisfied, but the love of God has been shown in His Son the Lord Jesus. 
 
Romans 5:8 says, "God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  What a wonderful Savior!
 
The mercy seat is a place of enthronement where God enthroned Himself. The mercy seat is a place of atonement where the blood was sprinkled. And thirdly, the mercy seat is a place of
 
3.  Obtainment
 
And I mean by that, you get something there.  So what do we obtain at the Mercy Seat?  Think about it like this:
 
When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary the throne of God went through a transformation.  In the Old Testament the mercy seat representing the throne of God and it was a throne of judgment. But when Jesus died on the cross, a transformation took place and the throne of judgment because a throne of mercy. 
Listen to
 
Hebrews 4:16a
 
"Let us (believers) therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. . ."
 
Now in case you didn't notice, that's an invitation. And the invitation is to come "boldly".  It actually means "to speak freely".
 
In contrast, when the high priest went into that Holy of Holies he didn't open his mouth. He did his work in absolute silence and got out as fast as he could.
 
But now, God says, "I've opened up the holy of holies. Because of the blood of Jesus Christ the veil has been torn open, the mercy seat is accessible and I invite you to come in and speak freely."
 
Now freely doesn't mean recklessly or glibly or carelessly.  But it does mean you can come into the very presence of God with perfect freedom to tell Him what's on your heart.
 
By the way, are you having a little misunderstanding with your spouse?  Tell Him about it.  Having some health problems?  Tell Him about it! God a financial worry?  Tell Him about it!  That's the invitation!  Come in without fear and tell Me all about it!
 
You and I, because of what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary, now have an open invitation that requires no advance notice or appointment!  It's just like going home to Mom and Dad's! 
You don't have to ring the bell!   Just come in and stay as long as you want! What an invitation! 
 
But even more to the point, not only is there an invitation, there is an acquisition.  Remember, the Mercy Seat is a place of obtainment.  God says come in and you obtain something when you get in there. 
 
So what do you get? 
 
Here it is. Are you ready for this?
 
"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
 
Look at those two words—mercy and grace.  Mercy means I don't get what I do deserve.  Grace means I do get what I don't deserve.  I don't know about you but I need mercy. I don't want my rights. This is the day of people demanding their rights. If I got my rights I'd be in hell tonight. I don't want justice, I want mercy.
 
I heard about a lady who went to a photographer and had her picture made. When it came back she said, "Huh, it didn't do me justice."  He said, "Ma'am, you need mercy, not justice." 
 
I don't want justice!  I need mercy. I want mercy. I don't want God to give me what I deserve. I don't want judgment. I want mercy. The good news is I can come down to the throne and before the shed blood of Jesus Christ I can say to my Father, "Father, I want mercy."  He gives it to me.
 
Now, I told you at the beginning that we are not told the thickness of the Mercy Seat. We are given a clue as to why we aren't told in
Psalm 103:11
 
"For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;"
 
That's the Psalmist's way of saying the mercy of God is immeasurable!  It reaches all the way from the heights of heaven to the depths of your greatest need! You can't measure it! 
 
And at the mercy seat of God, I find exactly what I'd expect to find and that is mercy—for my past.
 
But mercy for my past is not the only need I have.  Not only do I need mercy so I don't get what I do deserve, I need grace so I get what I don't deserve.  And again, that is exactly what God promises.  Mercy, and grace to help in time of need.
 
 
Discussions of God's grace, His unmerited favor are very often limited to salvation.  And if you are lost tonight, you need grace.  It is by grace that we are saved.  And the good news of the Mercy Seat is that God will forgive you. God will save you. He'll give you His love and His peace and His joy and His forgiveness.
 
But God offers, not just saving grace, but living grace!  He says you can come and find grace to help in time of need. That means any time you need it you can come get it.  So what is your "time of need'?
Every moment of your life!
 
Isn't that wonderful! Any time you need some grace, God says, just come right in and get it!
I don't know about you, but I need grace a lot during the day. And wonder of wonders, I can go directly into the Holy of Holies and say, "Father, I'm back again!" And there I find everything I need!
 
We have a mercy seat and His name is Jesus. God says in Jesus, at the cross, is where I'll meet you.
 
Let's pray.