Monday Meditation
April 25, 2016
From the desk of A.J. Higgins
The Mercy Seat
“Thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be the length … and thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work … in the ends of the mercy seat” Exodus 25:17,18
Its Construction:
While wood and brass or gold are combined for most of the vessels of the tabernacle, in each compartment – holies, holy place, and court, there is one piece of furniture which is only of one material. In the most holy place, that piece of furniture was the mercy seat. It was of gold. In fact, what is specified is “pure” gold. The uncompromised deity of the Lord Jesus is in view when we consider the pure gold. Everything rests on Who He is.
The dimensions correspond precisely to the top of the ark, reminding us that the Lord Jesus in His “mercy seat” work, or His propitiatory work, met all the claims of the law of God perfectly. The approaching high priest was not exposed to a law he could not keep in its entirety. The law was covered by a blood-stained mercy seat.
Craftsmanship
Little detail is given as to how this mercy seat was made. We learn later that God raised up two men and specially equipped them for the task. But to work with gold and to fashion a mercy seat would have taken great skill. The skill needed to beat out gold and to form the two cherubim reflects divine enablement for the task.
The mercy seat and cherubim were of God’s design. What assurance this gives as to the work of salvation. Peter reminded his readers that Christ was “verily foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20). That all is according to God’s design means that He is satisfied. The gold had to be beaten into the form needed to craft the mercy seat. There was the necessity for Christ to be bruised at Calvary to be our propitiation.
The cherubim were not attached to the mercy seat but were part of it. Recall that a cherub blocked the way to the tree of life. It looked out, barring the way. These cherubim look down – down at the mercy and the blood which would be on it. When we come to Solomon’s temple, they are seen looking out, almost welcoming men to come and enter. Many commentators would suggest that they represent the government of God’s throne. If so, then the mercy seat and the blood upon it, have satisfied the demands of God’s righteous government.
Cherubim:
These celestial beings are found at the two ends of the mercy seat with their faces one toward the other – “toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be” (v 20). Occupied with God’s demands and His righteous claims, they are intently gazing on what has met His every claim. God was thus teaching even His people under the law that only blood sacrifice could meet the demands of a law that was broken and allow Him to continue to presence Himself with His people.
Communication:
The lesson of the mercy seat is grasped if we understand that it is really a propitiatory place and not so much a place of “mercy alone.” Here is where propitiation was made for the sins of the people. Here is why God could show “mercy” to the nation. Propitiation is a doctrine which teaches that the Lord Jesus satisfied God’s righteous claims and character concerning the issue of sin; in doing so, He made provision for every human being to know sins forgiven and fellowship with God.
Every time the high priest approached the mercy seat, he would see the blood and not the law; he would be conscious that cherubim were not looking at him but at the blood.
Consider:
1. Read the parable of the publican and the Pharisee but look at the margin of your Bible when the publican asked God to be “merciful to me a sinner.” What was he really pleading?
2. Look up the New Testament references to propitiation.
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