Ark and Mercy Seat

The Tabernacle — Steve Gregg

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Ark and Mercy Seat

The TabernacleSteve Gregg

Ark and Mercy Seat by Steve Gregg delves into the significance of the Tabernacle and its connection to Jesus Christ, highlighting the Ark of the Covenant as a symbol of God's glory and mercy. Gregg explores the dimensions and divine design of the Ark, along with the roles of the cherubim and the mercy seat. He emphasizes the importance of carrying the weight of God's glory and the testimony of Jesus, linking it to the presence of the law within the Ark. Gregg also discusses the role of the Holy Spirit and the connection between the Church and God's mercy in the new covenant.

Transcript

Yesterday we began discussing The Tabernacle. We saw that The Tabernacle was a tent designed by God, which Moses was to supervise the building of, and that it was something that Moses had seen a vision of, or a pattern of, when he was meeting with God up in the mountain, receiving the law. He also received a vision, or saw a pattern, of this tent.

This tent was to become the place where God would meet with man. It would be the place where God would dwell with his people. And his dwelling place would be the house of the Lord.

And you know when you read in the Psalms, scriptures about the house of the Lord, it's talking about The Tabernacle, because there was no temple in those days. It's not talking about heaven. Sometimes in the 23rd Psalm, we say, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

We as Christians sometimes apply that term, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, to going to heaven. In fact, that was no way in David's mind in that passage. Whenever he spoke of the house of the Lord, he was thinking of The Tabernacle.

And he was indicating that he would never see a time of exile where he would not be able to worship in The Tabernacle. And he would always be able to dwell there, and God would be dwelling there to meet with him. And this was the agreement that God made with Moses, that he would meet and commune with his priests in The Tabernacle.

Now, the Tabernacle was made up of three parts. The outer court was the open air court, surrounded only by tall curtains. In that court was the brazen or brass altar, whereon blood sacrifices were offered.

There was also there the laver of cleansing, which was a basin where the priests would wash their hands after they made their sacrifices. Then, as you went further into the compound, you would find a tent which was called the sanctuary or the holy place. Sanctuary means holy place.

And that sanctuary was about three times as long as it was wide, and it was divided into two parts. One part was a cube. This was the deepest part of the whole compound, the deepest place you could press into if you were worshiping in The Tabernacle.

And the other was just called the holy place. The holy place was where the priests would enter after they had offered the blood sacrifices on the brazen altar, after they had washed their hands at the brazen laver of cleansing. They would then proceed through the first veil into that tent, which was called the sanctuary, and there they found before them three pieces of furniture.

On their left hand, there was the golden lampstand, actually seven lampstands. On their right hand, there was the table of shewbread, which was a little table overlaid with gold, which had twelve loaves of bread representing the twelve tribes of Israel on it. And straight ahead of them was another veil going into the deepest compartment of The Tabernacle.

Right in front of that veil was a little golden altar where incense was offered up just before the man would go in. And only, of course, the high priest could go in past that second veil into the holy of holies, where there was one piece of furniture only. And there was the Ark of the Covenant, which was a wooden chest overlaid with gold inside and out, containing certain things, specified things that God had said should be placed in there.

The tables of stone, which Moses had received, a pot of manna, the rod of Aaron, which had budded, which we haven't read that story yet because we haven't gotten there in our studies of Exodus. But these things were in the Ark, and upon the Ark was a solid gold lid, which was called the mercy seat. And that lid had, as part of it, engraved two golden cherubim.

Now, cherubim is plural for cherub, so we might say cherubs instead of cherubim. The King James Version says cherubims, but it's redundant to say that because the letters I and M on the end of the Hebrew word make it plural, so you don't need an S. So cherubim is plural for cherub. These two cherubim were upon the mercy seat, this golden lid on the chest, which was called the Ark.

And they were facing each other, but their wings spread out, and they were looking down upon the mercy seat. And this is basically the way the tabernacle was laid out. We will go into detail in the ensuing studies about what the various articles of furniture in the tabernacle refer to, and even the curtains and the skins and such that were used to build it and the colors that were used seem to have symbolic meaning, which we will investigate in the following studies.

Today we'll be studying the Ark of the Covenant. Now, I said that the tabernacle had to be made specifically according to a pattern which God had shown to Moses. Again and again, God warned Moses, make sure that you do it exactly according to the pattern which was shown to you on the mount, that nothing should be in any way deviant from the pattern.

It was to be exactly like something in the heavens. And we read in Hebrews chapter 9 yesterday that the tabernacle was a pattern of the things in the heavens. So there are spiritual truths, heavenly realities and principles that are demonstrated in a tangible form in the tabernacle.

God frequently has been known to use tangible lessons to teach us spiritual truths. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, if you can't even understand when I tell you earthly things, how will you understand heavenly things when I tell you those things? And it's clear that man more easily perceives the earthly things and so God has conceded to this weakness on our part and has deigned to use physical, visible manifestations in symbolic form to represent spiritual realities which we can't otherwise see. The coming of Jesus in fact was the ultimate manifestation of this principle that Jesus came here partly because we needed someone to die for our sins but also because we needed someone to show us the Father.

Jesus indicated that the art of his mission was to restore us to the Father. But the Father is invisible and dwells in a light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see. And therefore it was necessary for us if we were really going to understand the Father in the fullest measure that he would speak to us in the person of his own dear Son, that he would come down to dwell among us as in the tabernacle only in a greater sense in the person of his Son.

The tabernacle did show us the Father in some respects. It showed us many spiritual realities but the tabernacle had no personality. The tabernacle had no character.

It was simply a building with furniture in it. And it's not strange that God might choose to use a building as a symbol of heavenly realities because what God is doing in the earth primarily is building. He's a builder and so the apostles considered themselves builders.

Paul said, I as a wise master builder have laid the foundation. Other men are going to come along and build on that foundation. Other ministers, he spoke of Apollos and Cephas and others, 1 Corinthians 3. And he said, but every man better be careful how he builds on it because this is the building of God and if anyone destroys this temple which is the church, the building of God, then God's going to destroy him.

So the project of God in the earth has been from very early times to build a building and Israel was his people and his tabernacle in a sense at one time but in a much more literal sense we are his tabernacle because he is dwelling among us. The scripture says, Revelation chapter 21 verses 3 and 4, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And so this is God's heart, to dwell among his people.

He took the initiative, we didn't ask him to come, he came on his own and he calls to us. It is God always who is first. It is God who initiates.

Even if we come to Christ it is because the Father who sent Jesus has drawn us to him. Now we are reading in Exodus chapter 25 verses 10 through I'd say 22. This is the description of the Ark of the Covenant and of the mercy seat which is placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant.

He says, And they shall make an ark of shim wood, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. So the ark was actually a little chest.

The word ark means a chest and there were other arks in the Bible. Noah's Ark is notable, it's the same word in Hebrew and also the ark into which Moses was placed as a baby in the Nile. When he was threatened by the decree of the Pharaoh to have all the babies killed, his mother made an ark, the Bible says, of reeds and bulrushes and put him in it and dobbed it with pitch just like the Ark of Noah was.

An ark, actually the dictionary definition of an ark is a chest or a coffer for keeping safe and secret anything. You're going to keep something safe and secret in a chest or in a coffer, that is an ark, that's the meaning of the word. So this particular ark was a chest that was of these dimensions.

The length of it was about three feet nine inches. If we figure the length of a cubit at 18 inches, which was the standard cubit, the cubit really referred to the distance between the elbow and the tip of the longest finger of the hand. Since different people had different sized arms, they came up with a standardized cubit of about 18 inches, a foot and a half.

So the length of it was two and a half cubits, which is three feet nine inches, and the height and width of it were a cubit and a half, which comes out to two feet and three inches. So it's two feet three inches high, two feet three inches wide, and about three foot nine long. And on top of this, this was made of wood, it was made of shittim wood, whatever that was, and then it was overlaid inside and out with pure gold.

Inside the box and outside the box were covered with gold. And on top of that, besides the mercy seat sitting on top of it, there was a crown of gold that surrounded it, and that would probably refer to a crown-like arrangement that went around the edge of it with little, well you know what a crown looks like. And if you've ever seen pictures of artist representations of the Ark of the Covenant, they'll usually portray it as sort of like when you picture a king's crown with the little points on it going around the edge of the Ark.

That may or may not be how it really was designed, but it seems to be so. And later on, they took the pot of manna and also the gold and they put it in the Ark of the Covenant. And when Aaron's rod butted in the story of Korah's rebellion, they put that in there too.

Now, thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold. That's this slab, this lid that goes on top, the estimated worth of the gold that it was made from was something like $25,000, just for the lid on the thing. Two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

In other words, the same size as the top of the Ark. And thou shalt make two cherubims, King James says, of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end and the other cherub on the other end.

Even of the mercy seat shalt ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.

And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the Ark. And in the Ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, God said, 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.

Now God says that the Ark would have to be certain dimensions and have certain specified characteristics in the mercy seat also with the cherubims attached. And then God said, I will meet with you and commune with you between the two cherubims. The presence of God actually would come in a visible form, in the form of a glowing cloud.

The Shekinah Glory as it came to be called, though the word Shekinah is not found anywhere in the Bible, it's a Hebrew word that the rabbis used to describe the brilliant, glowing presence of God, Shekinah. And so the Shekinah Glory, this cloud, shining cloud would come and rest upon the Ark of the Covenant. And it would be between the cherubims.

Now unfortunately only once a year could a man even see this or be there. The high priest of course once a year would be able to enter in. Now the Ark of the Covenant was placed in that cube, ten cubic cube, which is about 15 feet high and wide and deep, which was part of the tent, the Holy of Holies it was called.

And this was the only piece of furniture in there. And only once a year could a man go in there. He had to be the high priest and he had to make all kinds of special preparations before he could even go in there.

He had to make sure he was all sprinkled up with blood and his sins were confessed and he had to have a rope around his leg in case he dropped dead in there and they couldn't go in after him so they'd have to pull him out through the veil. And this was only even once a year. Now outside that veil was the other court of the sanctuary, which is where the altar of incense, the table of shewbread and the candlesticks were.

And there the other priest could go. You didn't have to be the high priest to go into that section. Now if you wonder what the Levites did, the priesthood, they would normally minister in the outer courtyard area, the uncovered area where the brazen altar and the labor of cleansing were.

And all the Levites or the priests, all the priests were actually out there offering the blood sacrifices and doing those things. But there were a rotating portion of the priesthood who were able to go into the sanctuary and offer the incense on the altar. You remember that John the Baptist's father, Zechariah, went in there to do it on one occasion when it was his turn.

There was a rotation. There were I think 52 courses of priests. They were divided up into these numbers of courses and then once each week out of the year.

No, I think there were 104. I forget exactly. But anyway, once a week the incense would be offered on the golden altar by a member of a different course of priesthood.

And if you were a member of a certain course of priests and it was the week that your course was supposed to supply someone to burn incense on the altar, they would cast lots among the members of that course and one would be chosen to go in there and do it. And then after he'd done it, he was eliminated from the casting of lots at any other time. He could only do it once in his lifetime.

Then he was eliminated so that the others would have a chance. John the Baptist's father, Zechariah, had been chosen for this honor on the occasion we read about in the first chapter of Luke. And there the angel Gabriel met with him there before the golden altar.

But he was alone in the sanctuary, but not in the Holy of Holies. He was there before the golden altar, which was on the outside of the veil, which went into the Holy of Holies. It was a special privilege to offer incense even on the golden altar, but that was done every week.

But to go into the Holy of Holies was even a deeper place with God, a deeper place of communion with God, and it could only be done once a year. Now we've said that in the New Testament we read, especially in the book of Hebrews and also in the Gospels themselves, where there's reference to the veil being torn at the death of Jesus. When Jesus died and said, it is finished, the Bible records that that veil, which kept all men from entering the Holy of Holies in the temple, now the tabernacle had ceased to exist by this time and the temple had replaced it, but the veil was still there.

The veil was torn from top to bottom, and this signifying, according to the book of Hebrews, that the way into the Holiest of all was open now to anyone who would come in the way that Jesus provided, in a new and living way in which he provided. The Jews apparently sewed up the veil or replaced it or made a new one, and it kept functioning together in the temple for another 40 years after this time, but the glory had departed. Well, let's talk about the Ark of the Covenant.

This was that special piece of furniture that was in the Holy of Holies. The Ark of the Covenant has received some attention lately because of the movie, The Raiders of the Lost Ark, which gave all kinds of misinformation about the Ark of the Covenant. Some of the pictures they showed in the movie were rather ridiculous.

I mean, they had pictures of the Jews carrying the Ark and lightning bolts going out from it, killing all their enemies all around them and everything. And then when the archaeologist in the movie was describing the Ark, he said, well, the Ark of the Covenant leveled whole mountains, and all kinds of supernatural phenomena were just flashing from this thing. And in fact, they treated it in the movie as an occult relic.

They treated it along with any other kind of occult relic, like a good luck charm or something like that, that had demonic powers attached to it. And in fact, in the movie, if you saw that movie, you know that when they did open the Ark, that all these demon spirits came out of it. So you can see the kind of message that that's trying to portray.

And since that movie was produced by the same guy who produced Star Wars, it's pretty clear that it was certainly no friend to Christianity, because George Lucas, who produced and wrote Star Wars, is Buddhist or Hindu. And so he also produced the Lost Ark movie, and he didn't have a very Christian or Jewish conception of the Ark. It was just an occult, magical piece of furniture.

And of course, the devil loves the fact that this movie got so much attention, because that perverts the pure meaning of the Ark of the Covenant, which was so important to be understood. The Ark of the Covenant is important enough that it was even found again in the Book of Revelation. So even in the New Testament, we find reference to the Ark, although it's in heaven there in the Book of Revelation, in Chapter 11.

But we don't know where the real Ark is today. But there was such significance that God made sure that Moses made it according to exact specifications. I am going to suggest that the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat represent Jesus himself, because of the points that I'm about to make.

First of all, it was made of shinny wood. Well, this is the case of a lot of the furniture in the tabernacle. The table of showbread also was made of shinny wood, and the golden altar and the brazen altar, I believe, were also made of... not the brazen altar, maybe, but the golden altar, I think, was, and overlaid with gold.

But this wood was a special desert-growing wood. It wasn't the kind of wood you'd find in Canaan, and the Jews weren't in Canaan yet. It would be a pretty disastrous thing if God made them use wood that was not native to their area.

It was a kind of wood that grew there in the wilderness. Some kind of acacia wood was what is referred to here. But the point is, it was a desert plant.

It was a desert tree. So, if he had said, make it out of cedar wood, it would have been kind of a bummer, because they'd have to go to Lebanon to get some of that. Or if he said, make it out of oak, they'd have to go into Canaan and get it, or out of gopher wood.

But he said, make it out of shinny wood, which is what was available to them there. And God...the Bible says, we don't have to ascend into heaven, to bring Christ down, or descend into the depths to bring him up from the grave, but the word of God is nigh unto thee, even in thy mouth. You don't have to go to far countries in order to meet Christ.

You don't have to ascend into the heavens or descend into the pit. Again, he has come down here already. He has been drawn near.

He has made himself available. Now, this wood, I'm going to say, represents the humanity of Jesus, and the gold that overlays it represents the deity of Jesus. And I'll give you reasons for that.

First of all, in the Old Testament, I believe that trees and wood commonly are used to represent men and humanity. We find a number of cases in that. In Daniel chapter 4, we find that Nebuchadnezzar is compared to a tree.

And he actually had a dream about a tree, and Daniel interpreted it as though he was the tree. The tree was cut down, and then later on, after about seven times had passed over it, then it began to come back to life again. And the same image is used of the Assyrian in Ezekiel chapter 31, about verse 3 there, you'll find that the Assyrian was like a great tree.

And this refers to the kingdom of Syria, I believe. So these men are compared to trees, but that's not the only references in the Scripture to trees and men. Jesus said that men are like trees.

In fact, John the Baptist said that too. John the Baptist said, even now, the axe is laid at the root of every tree, and every tree that doesn't bring forth good fruit will be hewn down and thrown in the fire. And Jesus said about prophets and false prophets that they were like trees, and they bear some kind of fruit.

And the fruitfulness of a human life actually compares men to trees. And that's not unusual. Jesus said about the Pharisees, every tree that my father has not planted will be plucked up by the roots.

So I believe that the wood and the trees refers to the character of Jesus as his human side. The gold, which I believe represents deity or divine character. And the reason I believe that is because so often the Bible talks about our character being made into the divine likeness through trials and says that's like the testing of gold.

It's making our character into like fine tested gold. And I believe that refers to the character of God and that his character has been worked in us even as gold is purified by the heat of trials. But we have both aspects of Christ here suggested, I think.

And it's interesting about Jesus, about his humanity, that Isaiah in chapter 53 said that he shall be... Let me read that to you because I can't quote it exactly. Isaiah 53, in verse 2, it says about Jesus, For he shall grow up before God as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground or a desert plant. And he has no form or comeliness.

And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. Now, to say that he will come up as a root out of a dry ground may or may not be intended to picture this particular kind of wood that was used by Moses and the craftsmen for the tabernacle because it was a desert plant. It was a root that grew out of a dry ground.

And I believe this refers to the humanity of Jesus. And of course the gold referring to something else, his deity. Now, there are dimensions given of the ark and I can't tell you exactly what the dimensions represent.

But it does become clear that the ark had to be limited to a certain size. They couldn't just make it any size they wanted to. God told them what size, what height, what breadth, what depth.

And this is reminiscent, I think, of Jesus being confined to a certain space. Because before he came to earth, though he existed in the form of God and counted it not robbery to be equal with God, so he took on himself the form of a man. He confined himself.

He laid aside much of his divine attributes, including omniscience, his ability to be everywhere at once. He confined himself to one location for a while, for those 33 years or so. And he had then physical, measurable dimensions.

We don't know how tall or how broad he was, but he was confined and limited in that sense. Even as the ark had special limitations placed on the space that it would occupy. And then there was a crown of gold upon it, very clearly, I think, a reference to Jesus being crowned with the authority from God.

Now, it says you put four rings in it, rings of gold for it. And you put poles through there, which were made of the same kind of wood and overlaid with gold. And those poles would be used to carry the ark.

This was the only right way to carry the ark. You know, you've got to do things God's way or else you can't expect a blessing. In fact, you can often expect his judgment.

You remember the time when David was ordering the ark to be brought back and it wasn't being carried by the poles as it was supposed to be. It was being it was on an ox cart and an ox was carrying it. And the ox ran into a little trouble as it was walking and the cart started to flip over.

And this one man put his hand up to the ark to hold it, to steady it. He was smitten dead. And it's really a strange story in a way.

I mean, it puts the fear of God in you. I think that God would smite a man who thought he was doing God a favor by trying to hold the ark up. But in fact, the whole problem arose because things were not being done God's way in the first place.

Things were it wasn't being carried the way it was supposed to be carried. And by the way, God doesn't need any help. If the ark is something that you're not supposed to touch, you don't violate that in order to give God a hand.

To bear the glory of God, there are prescribed ways. You can't just decide that you're going to carry God's glory around the way you would carry anything else around. You've got to make sure that you're careful to bear the glory in the right way.

The Bible speaks of glory as a weight to be borne. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, it says, For our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The afflictions are light.

The glory is a weight. It's a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So, the glory of God is a burden, in fact.

And in Zechariah, the book of Zechariah, it says about Jesus, which is nice to know, because bearing the glory of God is quite a task. If God blesses your life and your ministry, and you receive attention, and glory or honor is given to you, and sometimes this is the case, you'll just be humbly doing the work of God, and all of a sudden, people start honoring you and start glorifying you. And, you know, in a way, that's not totally wrong.

The Bible says those who seek for glory and immortality are in a good place. It says in Romans, that's a good thing to seek for glory, but to seek it from God and not from man is the issue. God wants to glorify us.

That's what he made us for. He made us so that we could be glorified. It seemed fitting to him that in bringing many sons to glory, he should make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.

So, God's intention is to bring us all to glory anyway, to glorify us with his Son. Didn't Jesus indicate that too? That we would share in his glory? I think John chapter 17 makes reference to that happening too. But the point is that we are going to be glorified.

Isaiah chapter 6 says, Arise, shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of God has risen upon you. And he has called us unto his eternal glory. So, to be glorified is not a bad thing.

That's God's plan for you, is to be glorified. But not necessarily by man, and certainly not by your own efforts to be glorified. If you seek the honor that comes from men, from each other, and not the honor that comes from God alone, you will not even be able to have faith.

Jesus said, how can you believe? You receive honor one from another, and not the honor that is from God alone. So, it's clear that we're not supposed to seek for glory from men, but we are supposed to seek the honor which comes from God alone. The glory that God will give us.

And God will glorify you if you're faithful. He will glorify you in many ways. You will receive honor in many cases.

Some people don't receive any recognition or honor until the Lord comes, but many times you will get some glory and some recognition. Now, when that is given to you, you better learn how to carry it, how to bear it. Because the most natural thing for a person to do, when people begin to extol them and begin to speak well of them, Jesus said, beware when all men speak well of you.

Woe unto you when all men speak well of you. But, when people begin to speak well of you, then you're in danger. You're in danger of handling the glory wrongly, because your ego can so easily get involved there, and so easily you can begin to think that you've done something.

And God said, through one of the prophets, I believe Jeremiah, that the saw cannot boast against the one that shakes it and claim that it was sawing by its own power. Obviously, the saw is just a tool in the hand of a carpenter. And yet, he was suggesting that the armies that were going to come in and bring judgment on Israel were like boasting in themselves and their own strength, and God was going to judge them, because they were like a saw being used by him, by a carpenter, and they were thinking that it was in their own strength, and the saw can't make any claims.

It's not doing anything. It's the person who's shaking it, Jeremiah, I think, said. If you've ever been glorified by man, and if you've ever had a humble heart about it, you know how much a weight it is.

It is a hard thing to bear. And you often will have to just... One of the hardest things to do is to know how to handle praise, especially if you're doing the work of God. You do something that's from the Lord, and someone comes up and tells you how good it was, or how good you did, or whatever.

It's a very difficult thing to know how to handle. But if you don't carry it correctly, you may come under the judgment of God. The glory is actually a test as well as a blessing.

God blesses you with recognition, but he uses it also to test your spirit, and to see how you're going to respond, and how you're going to handle it. And the Ark of the Covenant had to be carried in a specific way, in a specific prescribed way. And when the Jews on one occasion departed from that, it ended in the judgment of God being shown upon the man who touched the Ark.

It says that the testimony will be in the Ark. Now I want to talk about the mercy seat. The mercy seat was this cover, this lid, that was just solid gold.

Now, the word mercy seat is interesting, because in the Hebrew and in the Greek, it's the same word as propitiation. The word propitiation in the New Testament is the same Greek word as is translated mercy seat. And in the Old Testament also.

The Hebrew word is kipporah. And propitiation, we talked a little bit about yesterday. The Bible says Jesus is our propitiation.

It says that in a number of places. One of the places that is worth noting especially is in Romans chapter 3, I think. So we'll see that the mercy seat corresponds directly to Jesus.

This is in fact the same word mercy seat is used in Romans to describe Jesus. Romans 3, 24 through 26. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, in the Greek word there is a mercy seat, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, or the tolerance of God.

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now it says that God sent Jesus forth as a mercy seat to us. Now the mercy seat in the tabernacle on the Ark of the Covenant was sprinkled with blood by the priest.

The high priest would go in there on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur, and he would sprinkle it with blood. And that would be sort of making the atonement once a year for the people. That would be the place where God's blanket forgiveness would be given in order to keep them alive for another year, and to offer his forgiveness through that means.

That's where mercy was besought from God. And Jesus is that mercy seat. Now the mercy seat, of course, was not a seat at all.

It was just a lid. It's strange that it's called a seat. In fact, in the tabernacle it's interesting that there were no seats, there were no chairs.

Of all the furniture that was made, there were tables but no chairs. And that's because, of course, there was no rest. There was no place of rest that could be entered into under the Old Covenant.

It was something that had to be offered again and again because of the unregenerate man. Man was not born again in those days. He wasn't regenerated.

His heart wasn't changed. He was simply making provision for the sins that he continually committed by offering sacrifices from week to week and year to year. And so there was no rest.

The priest stood continually offering sacrifices and offerings. But of course, Hebrews chapter 10 tells us that Jesus, by contrast to them, offered once and for all the sacrifice of his own body and then sat down at the right hand of God. He's the only high priest who ever is seen sitting down because his job was finished.

And he said so himself. When he had offered the sacrifice on the cross, he said, And then he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high where he now makes intercession for us. So the Old Covenant had no seat for man, but there was a seat where God would rest.

And it was the place of his rest. The tabernacle was sometimes called the place of his rest, of God's rest. So he would there sit and meet with man between the chair.

But the Holy of Holies, that little compartment where the tabernacle or where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, was sometimes called the house of the Caporet. First Chronicles 28, 11 calls it that. And the Caporet, of course, is the Hebrew word for the mercy seat.

So the mercy seat was the central issue. Now, the mercy seat covered the Ark. The Ark had some things in it.

We remember the law it had in it. It had the rod that butted in the manna. Now, I said and I maintain that Jesus is what the Ark represents.

And the contents of the Ark correspond to what's in Jesus. Because if you look at Psalm 40, there's a reference there to Jesus that is quoted later on in the book of Hebrews. And it's specifically said to be a statement about Jesus.

And in Psalm 40, verse seven, it says, Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Thy law is within my heart.

Now, this is true of Jesus, that the law of God was within his heart, even as the law was inside the Ark. It was encased in this piece of furniture. So the law was in Jesus' heart, was in him.

He was the new lawgiver. He was the replacement for Moses, really. And as he came, he was the embodiment of the law.

He contained the law. And of course, he was the institutor of the new covenant by which the law be written in all the hearts of the people of God. So that they shall say no more one to another, every man to his neighbor, know the Lord, but they shall all know me.

Because he would write his law in all their hearts, in their inward parts. But Jesus was the first of this. He was the forerunner of this new arrangement of the new covenant.

And so just as the law was inside the covenant, Ark of the covenant, so the law was in Christ's heart. Also the bread of life was in there. As you read chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, the discussion that comes up there about the manna.

The people said to Jesus, show us a sign. Moses gave us bread from heaven in the wilderness. And what are you going to do for us? Jesus had already fed them, fed the 5,000 and they'd seen it.

But he said, well, Moses didn't give you bread from heaven. I am the true bread that comes down from heaven. He indicated that the manna was a picture of him, of Jesus, the bread of life.

And so that was also in the Ark of the covenant. And then Aaron's rod that budded. Now a rod is a dead stick.

It's a stick that once had life, but is now dead. It was once attached to a living organism and is broken off and is no longer living. Aaron had his authority challenged by Korah on one occasion in the wilderness.

And in order to show which of these two men really had God's approval, Moses said, well, and he got this idea from God. He said, let's put out Korah's rod and Aaron's rod overnight. And in the morning, whichever one buds and brings forth new little shoots and stuff, that'll be the rod of the man who God has chosen.

And so in the morning, of course, Aaron's rod had budded. And as I recall, it even had leaves and almonds growing on it. And it was it was a miracle of resurrection.

It was it was life from the dead. And I believe that this represents another aspect of Jesus, because in the 11th chapter of John, in verse 25, he said, I am the resurrection and the life, life from the dead is what I think Aaron's rod represents. And these things were all in the heart of the earth.

The law of God, the bread of life and the resurrection. These are all parts of the character of Jesus Christ. But also each of these things represents something negative, because each of them are reminiscent of a time of testing where God's people put him to the test.

Because in the case of the law, the law was given because of transgressions, because the people of God were not keepers of the law, because they were not obedient to God. He had to give them a law to restrain them from wiping themselves out and the rest of society, too. So the law was given because of transgressions, because of disobedience, because God was tested by them.

He gave them the law to preserve them. They tested him in the wilderness. They said, where's the bread? We're going to starve out here in the wilderness.

Weren't there enough graves in Egypt that you brought us out here to die in the wilderness? And so God says, I'll give them food. And he brought manna. And the coming of the manna was in response to a time when people tested God and complained against him.

And Aaron's rod was due to the fact that people had tested God again. They had challenged his authority and his chosen one. And so the judgment of God is represented by these things, too.

Even though they are good, all these things were good, the law, the manna. These represent times when God was tested by the people and he had to show himself faithful. He had to prove himself.

Now, the law, of course, was broken by the Jews right from the beginning. Even before it came down off the mountain, they were breaking it with the golden calf. The manna they complained about.

God gave them manna because they complained. And then eventually they were complaining about the manna because it was too bland. And they were remembering the leeks and the onions and the other food, the spicy food they had in Egypt.

And they were complaining about the manna. As far as Aaron's rod, Aaron was only temporarily vindicated. The people still criticized Moses and Aaron after that.

So these things did not finally solve the problem with the people. These things didn't really change the fact that people were complainers against God and had an evil heart toward God. And the mercy seat covered all that.

The mercy seat covered up those emblems that represented man's rebellion against God. And so the mercy of God covers our breaking of the law and our rebellion against God. That was the primary part of our lives until we came to Christ.

And the mercy seat, the blood of the mercy seat covers that. Now, there was no wood in the mercy seat. The ark had wood in it.

It had a human element. But the propitiation had no human element. It was solid gold.

It was entirely of God. You see, our salvation is not of man but of God. We have no part in it except to respond to the overtures of God.

He first calls. He provides the way. He gives us even the life and the chance to repent.

He even grants repentance, the Bible says. So everything we do is just sort of a natural flowing response to what God has done. And the work is His work.

It's God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. So it's not our work at all. There's nothing of man's labors or sweat that caused our salvation.

The priest's garments, we'll find, were made out of linen. They couldn't be made out of wool. Couldn't have any wool in them.

Very possibly because wool, people sweat. And they perspire when they wear wool. And there's to be no perspiration in the work of God.

No human effort. No human perspiration and energy put into it in the same sense of bringing propitiation and salvation to people. That's entirely of God.

The mercy seat had no wood in it. Now, I said that Jesus was called our propitiation in a few places in the New Testament. We saw Romans 3, 24 through 26.

We also remember 1 John chapters 1 and 4. Chapter 1 says, and he is the propitiation for our sins, mercy seat for our sins. Not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And in chapter 4 of 1 John, it says, it was the love of God manifested that he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

So Jesus is the mercy seat. Now, the cherubim on top have to be discussed and then we'll close with this discussion. The cherubim, we don't know what they were.

They are apparently angelic beings. There is reference in the Old Testament to those who had visions of the heavenly scene, Isaiah for instance and others, and Ezekiel, who saw heavenly beings, non-human. And they weren't God and they weren't demons, they were something else.

They were spiritual beings. Cherubs are mentioned and seraphs are mentioned, seraphim. And we don't know what they are.

The seraphs, I guess, are described in Ezekiel as having the four faces and the six wings. But cherubs, I don't know of any detailed description of the cherubs. If we found the Ark of the Covenant, which no one has really, we might be able to see how Moses saw the cherubs.

We'd actually see what cherubs looked like, because the cherubs on the mercy seat were engraved according to the pattern that Moses saw. And so if we found that mercy seat, which wouldn't be of any value to us really, it would just be a matter of curiosity, we'd see what cherubs looked like. Nonetheless, we know this, that they are angelic or spiritual beings, heavenly beings.

And that's just about all we know about them. Now there's a number of ways we can apply the presence of these cherubs here. Now remember, God said in the second of the Ten Commandments, you shall not make any graven image of anything that is in heaven or in the earth or under the earth, and to bow down and worship it.

Now it's clear that this commandment has not to do with making of images, but of worshipping them. Because God actually commanded them to make images of these cherubs, but not to worship them. Now in Colossians chapter 2, there is reference to people who have a temptation to worship angels.

It says, let no man beguile you in these forms of false worship, which he describes as false humility, or voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels. And there is a tendency to worship angels. Almost everyone in the Bible who ever saw one fell down and almost worshipped it until they were rebuked.

John fell down and tried to worship the angel in the book of Revelation, and he was rebuked for it, because it's not right to worship angels. But nonetheless, to make images of these angelic beings was not forbidden, just to bow down to them. The angelic beings were putting their attention not on themselves, but on something else, down on the mercy seat.

Now there's two applications that I can see as valid here that I think both apply. One is the fact that it says in Ephesians that through the church, or what God is doing in the church, is showing mercy to us. He is demonstrating his manifold wisdom to the principalities and the powers in heavenly places.

In other words, the angelic beings are observing the wisdom of God as they watch his dealings with the church. His mercy upon us, the way he provided our salvation. The angels are watching.

The angels are observing, and they're learning something of God. This is in Ephesians 3.10. And the wording in the King James, if you work through it, it's not real clear at first, but we can work through it. It says, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, the angelic beings, might be known by or through the church, the manifold wisdom of God.

So the manifold wisdom of God would be known through the church to those heavenly beings, the principalities and powers. In 1 Peter, in chapter 1, verse 12, it says about the prophets of the Old Testament, it says, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. Now the mystery of the church, the mystery of Christ in you, and the mercy of God shown to us in this way in the new covenant, was something that the angels even craved to observe.

The angels desire to look into it. And God has actually set us on display to the angels. You might keep that in mind when you're tempted or when you're making decisions, and you can either make a decision to glorify God or one to indulge yourself, realize that there's a whole host of angelic beings watching you and observing, and they are God's intentions for them to observe your life and to see the manifold wisdom of God.

Unfortunately, sometimes what they see is not that. Maybe, I don't know, maybe even in our sins he's glorified because his mercy is made evident. But that doesn't mean we should sin so that his mercy would become more evident.

Nonetheless, there is the reference to angels watching, angels observing, and as these cherubim were looking down on the mercy seat intently. But also the fact that there were two cherubim, both of them attached and one with the mercy seat, and facing each other has another application. And this I believe from Brother Bruce, and it really bears witness to me that it's reality.

And that is that the two cherubim would represent the Holy Spirit and our human spirit bearing witness. The scripture does say in Romans 8 that the Holy Spirit also bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. And that there is a communion between our spirit and the Holy Spirit, this face-off between these two spiritual beings could represent this.

And they are united to the mercy seat. They are one with it. They are of one peace with it.

Christ is the mercy seat. The Holy Spirit and Christ are one. And so are we one with Christ.

The Bible doesn't say that we are one with the Holy Spirit. But since the Holy Spirit is one with Christ, and we are one with Christ, there is that relationship, that connection, that unity there, and that agreement. And there is that face-to-face encounter between us and the Holy Spirit.

Now since he doesn't have a face that can be observed with natural eyes, our encounter with him is a spiritual one. We observe him spiritually, not with our natural eyes. But we enter into a deeper place of communion with him in this, in the Holy of Holies.

It was the deepest place of communion between man and God. And so also the deepest place of man is the spirit of man. And it bears witness with the Holy Spirit.

In fact, I'm reminded of 1 Corinthians 2, which points out the deepness of the human spirit and the deep place we must be in to know God in this intimate way. Verse 11, 1 Corinthians 2, 11, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. So the deepest aspect of God is the spirit of God.

And the deepest aspect of the human being is the spirit. And no one knows the deep things of a man except his own spirit. No one knows the deep things of God but the spirit of God knows.

And as our spirit has communion with the spirit of God, as that joining takes place in regular daily fellowship, the deep things of God are revealed to the deep things of man so that deep calleth unto deep. And the spirit of man and the spirit of God have intimacy and communion in this way. Now, the position of these pieces of furniture is important because it was the deepest place you could come with God.

Now, outside you'd come to the cross, the blood sacrifice, the grace and altar. You'd have your sins washed there by the blood. Then you'd go to the labor of cleansing and cleanse yourself like water baptism.

After you've come to the cross, you then go to the water, to the Jordan, and you're washed from your sins. And from the old life is the burial of that old. Then you enter into the holy place with God and there you have the table of showbread, the light from the golden candlesticks and the altar of incense which is the prayers of the saints.

And you have a place of worship there. After you've been baptized, after you've come to the cross of Christ, you've received the forgiveness of your sins, the blood sacrifice has been applied to you, you've washed at the labor, you've been baptized. You come into the place of worship where you eat of the living bread, where you are illuminated from the light of the candlesticks, from the light of God.

And you also offer your worship there at the golden altar, your prayers and your praise to God. This is a place deeper than those who just stay... There are some people who are just saved and baptized and just hang out until the rapture. They think that's all they're supposed to do is just hang out.

And they never press in to the holy place at all. They never come into a place of worship. They never come into a place where they eat of the bread of life or where they are illuminated by the candlesticks, by God's people, really, by the church, because the candlesticks are the seven churches.

Now, that is a deeper place you can come into. And I trust that most of you have come into that place. But there is a deeper place still beyond the second veil.

And there, it is no longer only one man once a year who can go in, but Christ our forerunner has entered in before us within the veil. And we follow and come boldly before him. We don't have to be afraid that we're smitten down.

We don't have to have bells on the bottom of our garments so that people can listen and see if we're still moving. We don't have to have a rope tied around our leg for fear that God might smite us down. Because Jesus has come before us as a high priest and sprinkled his own blood on the mercy seat.

He has become our propitiation, our satisfaction before God, the appeasement of God's demands. And we come boldly before the throne of grace. But it is still a secret place.

Though we come there boldly, we come there alone. Only one man at a time goes into the Holy of Holies. And when you enter into the presence of God in this depth, you come alone.

No one goes with you. You can't bring your pastor or your friends with you. You go alone.

It's you and God. And it's the communion that you experience in the Spirit. Just your Spirit and God's Spirit.

No one else can walk with you in that garden. It's God and man walking together alone. This is the secret place of the Most High.

This is dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty. This is a place of safety. Now, this doesn't apply directly to the study of the tabernacle, but in my personal devotions this morning, I was reading Psalm 27.

And I found something that did sort of tie in here. And it has to do with the times we live in and the persecution and such that we expect. And there was something that reminded me of this Holy of Holies.

In Psalm 27, it says, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host or an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against me. In this will I be confident.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. And he was referring to the tabernacle. To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

Or tabernacle. There was no temple in the days of David. It had not yet been built.

It was built by his son later, after his death. For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.

He shall set me up upon a rock. God will hide me in the secret place in his tabernacle. In the day of trouble.

Now we are facing a day of trouble. Some of you have grasped that, I think. You've gotten that impression.

The day of trouble is coming. There is a hiding place for the people of God. It's in the secret place of the tabernacle.

It's in the Holy of Holies. If you'll press in, to in your spirit. It's not a geographical area.

Now God may lead you to hide in the sewers or to go into the wilderness or to live in the catacombs. Or to meet in secret places or to build secret places in your house. In order to escape persecution.

And this may be entirely of God. But this will not be your security. Because people in the wilderness can be captured too.

People in hiding places in their homes can be captured. People who meet in the catacombs can be found too. If it's God's will for them to be caught, then they will be caught.

But the point is, there is a place of safety that is secure for us. In Isaiah 26, verse 20, God says, Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed. There is a place of hiding.

It is in the chambers with the doors closed. Does this remind you of anything Jesus said? In Matthew 6, verse 6, Jesus said, When you pray, enter into your closet and shut the doors. I believe the chambers that we enter into until the indignation is overpassed, the place of safety is a place of spiritual, lonely communion with God.

And I say lonely, not in a negative sense, but in that it is just between us and God. We can't expect our husband or our wife or our parents or our pastor or elders to sustain us in that time. We have to have a personal relationship with God.

When the time of indignation is coming, we have to enter into that chamber ourselves, that holy place, that place before the Ark of the Covenant, and beseech God for his mercy there. We have to plead the blood there on the mercy seat. We have to have intimate communion with God himself.

This is our place of safety. In the day of trouble, he will hide me in the secret of his tabernacle. And it says in Psalm 91, which I also referred to, which is, I believe, a cross reference to this.

Psalm 91 says, He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wing shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and your guard.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand. But it shall not come nigh thee, only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. Now, and then he talked about he shall give his angels charge over thee.

And by the way, the cherubim do represent guardianship too. The cherubim were placed at the entrance of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the Tree of Life. And the eight guardian angels are mentioned there too.

If you come into the secret place of the Most High, if you are there in an intimate place with God. Now, you see, this is the only safe place in time of trouble. You might have a bomb shelter in your backyard and seven years supply of dried foods.

And say, now I have a safe place. And you know, I've got it about 30 miles from the largest city, so I'll have plenty of time to get down there before the fallout reaches me. You know, in a time of indignation, this is my chamber where I will go in and close the doors behind me.

That's not the chamber that's safe. That's not safe. There is no safety in anything except in the Lord.

He is our hiding place. Our life is hid with Christ in God and we need to hide ourselves in intimacy with him. And there's no one who will be able to help us.

Some trust in horses and some trust in chariots, but we will remember the name of our Lord. And the horse is prepared against the day of battle. The safety is of the Lord.

The only way you'll be safe, your soul will be safe, is if you press into God. If you press into that secret place, if you go into the Holy of Holies and worship before Jesus, the altar, not the altar, but the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, there are the guardian cherubim, there are the angels that he has given charge over thee, and they shall keep thee in all thy ways. There is that intimacy, that bearing witness of our spirits with his spirit.

There is that secret place of prayer, and that is a place of safety. Not always physical safety, because we know of many who have died for Christ, who were nonetheless in this secret place with God. Their souls were safe, and that's what really matters to us, is that in a time when men's hearts are failing them for fear, nonetheless, God's peace, the peace of God that passes under them, will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

So, because we have entered into a place where our soul is encased with the curtains of the Holy of Holies, and there are the cherubim, there is the glory of God meeting with us. And we can do that today, we don't have to wait for the time of trouble. We should be pressing into this place daily.

And this is something you do alone. Now, we have many meetings. We sing a lot of songs together, and there is a special experience that you have when you worship with the people of God.

Jesus said, in the midst of the congregation will I sing your praises. So, God, Jesus is here. When the congregation is singing, Jesus is present.

In the congregation there is a special experience there. But there is another special experience, which you can only experience alone with God, in your quiet time, in that secret place that you must press into. And there, before the ark and the mercy seat, you let your petitions be made known to God with all prayer and supplication at Thanksgiving, and being careful for nothing, because you know that in the time of trouble he will hide you in the secret of his tabernacle.

There is security there.