02.17. THE MERCY SEAT

THE MERCY SEAT THE Mercy Seat was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant.

It was pure, solid gold.

Out from each end of it there was beaten and fashioned a figure of the cherubim.

They bowed inward toward each other with their faces to the Mercy Seat. Their wings were lifted up above their heads, forming a canopy of wings. The lid of gold was set in a groove under the cornice or crown of the Ark and fitted with absolute exactness.

Between the cherubim figures the shekinal light shone forth.

It was here God met and dealt with the representatives of Israel; as it is written:

“And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims 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 shall 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 above 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, 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.” (Exodus 25:17-21.) The Mercy Seat is a distinct symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a Scripture which definitely declares that it is; as it is written:

“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” (Romans 3:25.) The word “propitiation” is a translation of the Greek word, hilasterion, and hilasterion means “mercy seat.”

Literally, the Apostle says:

“Whom God hath set forth to be a mercy seat through faith in his blood.”

According to Holy Scripture therefore the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle was a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the true Mercy Seat and to be approached by faith in His blood. The Mercy Seat was placed upon the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of the throne of God. The Ark and therefore the Mercy Seat were behind the vail in the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. The Mercy Seat as well as the Ark could be seen but once a year and that on the Day of Atonement. On that day the priest offered a sacrifice at the Brazen Altar, took the blood, sprinkled it before the vail, put it aside, entered the sacred place, stood before the Mercy Seat, sprinkled the blood thereon and hastened out lest if he tarried a moment he should die. As the Mercy Seat is a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ (Scripturally so declared) and the Mercy Seat was upon the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of the throne of God (Scripturally so declared) and as the Mercy Seat could be seen only after the sacrifice had been offered on the day of atonement, then you have a perfect picture of our Lord after He had offered Himself ‘on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, after He rose from the dead, ascended to Heaven and sat down on the throne of God. The Type and the antitype are complete. The picture is such as only the Spirit of the living God could paint.

It ‘is the picture of a risen, ascended, deathless, immortal man on the throne of God.

‘The Cherubim were on the Mercy Seat and formed an essential part of it.

You could not separate the cherubim from the Mercy Seat. To separate the Cherubim from the Mercy Seat you would have had to break, ruin and destroy the Mercy Seat. The Cherubim represent supremacy over natural powers.

They symbolize all power. In the logic of symbols, they testify that our Lord Jesus Christ on the throne of God today has all power.

He claimed all power when He, was on earth.

He claimed all power after His resurrection and just before He ascended, to His disciples He said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18.) All Power is—omnipotence.

Here then you have the amazing fact: An omnipotent man on the throne of God in Heaven.

What that ought to mean to those of us who believe in Him!

Behold us in our mortal flesh, subject to a thousand ills, in a world of sin, confronted by problems we cannot solve and where we are called upon to turn away from sight and mere reason and live by faith. At the sight of things we see, in the face of conditions that sometimes seem to crush out all hope and all impulse to live, when we are absolutely nigh unto fainting under burdens which seem not only too heavy but actually unjust, when perplexity stands at the cross roads and smiles with a cruel smile at our indecision, the smile of the sphynx that will not speak and instruct us; when we confront all this where shall we turn to find comfort, get fresh courage to take up the burden again and go on in the pilgrim way?

There is one answer.

“Look up.”

Behold Him whose face was once wet with tears of sympathy, who walked the earth” a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” behold Him on the cross, having come all the way down from His pre-existent glory and hanging there for us, our sacrifice, our sin bearer, our punishment for sin; behold Him now on the throne of the All Highest and with all power, omnipotent, the man who died for us because He loved us even when we were dead in sins, loving us still and still filled with sympathy, the sympathy that even now inspires and distills His tears for us.

He is up there specially for us.

What then? Shall we cry aloud and insist that for our sakes He shall flash the forked lightnings and send down the chariots of His glory. Shall we demand that He open Heaven and send forth a squadron of His mighty and willing angels and prove Himself omnipotent God and at the same time that we shamefully are of little faith and unwilling to abide in His wisdom, His grace, as well as power?

Nay!

Because of all He was in Himself when here, because of all He was for us on the cross, because of all He is for us now and changeth not, because He is Jesus Christ the immutable, the same yesterday, today and forever, and has all power, and because the restraint of His power is as much an evidence of His omnipotence as the exercise of it we are to do just the one thing:

Trust Him.

Say with the Psalmist:

“In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities are overpast.” (Psalms 57:1.) The fact that He is there on the throne, the omnipotent man who is very God, and there for us, knowing each one of us by name and all the circumstances of our life, that should be all sufficient to bid us rest with ‘peace in the love that is as much for us in its silence and quiescence as well as when in open action.

Again with the Psalmist we m\y say:

“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” (Psalms 56:3.) And remember this well:

You cannot separate the Cherubim from the Mercy Seat without ruining it; just so, you cannot set aside the deity of Christ without utterly repudiating Him as the Christ set forth in Holy Scripture.

Indeed you cannot separate His humanity and His deity without destroying the Scriptures themselves. The verses which speak most clearly of His humanity’ are the verses which speak most authoritatively of His deity.

Behold Him at the well of Sychar.

What does the record say:

“Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well.” (John 4:6.) To the sinful woman who came there He said: “Give me to drink.”

Weary! and thirsty! Can there be anything more human than that? But then you have John 4:10.

Listen to the record:

“Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”

He declares the “living water” to be the gift of God, and then says He is able to give it. Who can give the gift of God but God Himself? In affirming “living water” to be the gift of God and claiming power to give that gift Himself He openly and plainly declares Himself to be very God.

You cannot separate His humanity and His deity in that record.

Behold Him weeping at the grave of Lazarus, and weeping with tears as human as ever washed the face of sorrowing men and women, groaning in Himself and making a protest against death, rebelling against it, and then doing what only God can do, calling the dead to life. Where will you find the knife whose blade is thin enough and sharp enough to separate between the deity and the humanity of Christ in that record?

Asleep in the midst of the storm in Galilee, asleep from very weariness, arising and with a word stilling the storm, doing that which is declared to be the function and the privilege as well as the power of God alone; as it is written:

“Thou (the Lord God) rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.” (Psalms 89:9.) Either you must accept the whole record with its human weariness and its unqualified act of God, or reject it all.

No! you cannot separate the Cherubim from the Mercy Seat.

Like the Cherubim beaten out of the pure gold of the Mercy Seat, in it and of it, the humanity and the deity of Christ are of one piece—one person. The Mercy Seat was covered with the blood of the atoning sacrifice.

Immediately after the sacrifice was offered on the Brazen Altar the priest took the blood of the victim in a bason, went within the vail and sprinkled it upon the Mercy Seat. Our Lord fulfilled the type and symbol exactly. On the day He rose from the dead as antitypical high priest He ascended to Heaven and put His blood upon the throne of God; as it is written:

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by (dia with the Genitive as instrument of action and therefore, with, as well as, by) his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, (that is, Heaven) having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12.) He ascended and took His blood within the vail and placed it on the throne of God the very day He arose. His words to Mary demonstrate it. In the grey dawn of the resurrection morning when she came to the tomb, her face still wet with continual weeping, and found the sepulchre empty and the body gone, it came upon her like a shock that some ruthless enemy had entered the sacred place and taken away the body of her Lord.

She saw one whom she supposed to be the rich man’s gardner.

He turned to her and said:

“Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? “ When the angels had asked her that question she answered and said:

“Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” But to the man whom she supposed to be the gardner she said:

“Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.”

O wondrous Mary, what love was thine, precious that crucified body to thee. But she did not know this supposed gardner who talked to her was the Lord Himself. In the grey mist of the hour she did not see distinctly and her tears seemed to vail everything from her vision, everything was blinded by that soul mist that filled her eyes. Then this seeming gardner said just one word:

“Mary.”

O the music of it.

Suppose your beloved dead (more beloved now they are dead than ever you dreamed) should suddenly appear to you and speak your name? Do you think there is any music on earth would be like that to you?

Thanks be to God this is the music that shall sound in our ears on the morning of the First Resurrection when He shall come to take us up together and our names shall be uttered on lips long since held closed under the seal of death. And mark how she answered:

“Rabboni; which is to say, Master.”

All He put into that word, “Mary,” she put back into that word, “Master.”

All the love that said, “Mary,” from His lips, from her lips replied in “Master.” But she said more than just “Master.”

“Rabboni “is a noun, in the possessive it means:

“My Master.”

Just as David said, “My shepherd.” With that same intense accent of personal appropriation she said, “My Master.” In that supreme moment she forgot everybody r everything else but Him and herself.

There He was face to face with her and-alive. She shut out the thought of the relation of anybody to Him but herself.

“My Master alive, and mine for ever more.” For the moment there was nothing else in the universe for her but that. This is the personal appropriation that brings intimate joy. There is nothing like it: My Master and Me. Let the world fade and all things in it be as though they never had been, here is the abiding thing, My Master and me in a relationship of life that death cannot sever, in a relationship of love that nothing can destroy.

She prostrated herself in the gladness of self-abasement before Him and would have kissed His feet. But with almost terrifying abruptness He said:

“Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (John 20:11-17.) “I ascend to my Father.”

Literally, “I am now about to ascend to my Father.”

He was on His way to Heaven and the Holy of Holies within the vail.

Because He was about to ascend there He would not allow her mortal lips even to touch His feet. But that same evening in the upper room where the disciples were gathered together, He came and stood in their midst and said unto them:

“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see.” (Luke 24:39.)

If in the morning He would not allow His body to be touched because as He said to Mary He was on His way to Heaven and to .the Father, and in the evening of the same day commanded, the disciples not only to touch Him, but to handle Him, and the word as used here means, intimately, closely to examine Him, there is only one conclusion, and that in between the time He saw Mary in the morning and spoke to her, and the evening when He stood face to face with the disciples and insisted on their doing what He had forbidden Mary to do, He had ascended to the Father’s throne in Heaven and had returned to earth. And all this is in strict accordance with the type. On the Day of Atonement the priest offered a sin offering.

All the blood of the sin offering was to be poured out at the bottom of the altar, there was to be no blood left in the body of the victim. As it is written:

“And the priest... shall pour all the blood of the bullock (sin offering) at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, (the Brazen Altar) which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” (Leviticus 4:7.) Our Lord Jesus Christ was the true sin offering.

“God hath made him to be sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) “Once in the end of the age hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26.) “His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24.) The Prophet Isaiah foretold God would make Him to be a sin offering.

“Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” (Isaiah 53:10.) The Cross of Calvary was the Brazen Altar. On the cross He poured out all His blood.

It poured out from beneath the crown of thorns that stabbed His forehead.

It poured out from His hand where the nails went driving, crunchingly through to the wood of the cross.

It poured out from His right hand. It poured out from His left hand. It poured out from His feet. The feet driven through with a spike that held them.

Then a spear was thrust into His side, and the blood poured out from His heart with water, a witness that He was already dead, that He died of a physically broken heart—a broken-hearted Christ. And the blood flowed down like a rain of blood.

It fell into the bottom of the Altar-the bottom of the Cross. The blood was all poured out of His body.

Thus was He the fulfilled Sin Offering. That this blood had all been poured out of His body, He Himself declared in that upper room that Sunday night of His resurrection.

Hear what He says to them:

“Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke 24:39.) When speaking of men we often describe them as “flesh and blood.”

We do not say, “flesh and bones.” But He said, “flesh and bones.”

If He had said, “flesh and blood” as ye see me have, He would have destroyed Himself as the Antitypical Sin Offering, destroyed the meaning of His death and the value of His cross. But He said, “flesh and bones,” because He was the actual Sin Offering and all the blood had been poured out of His body on the cross. But now mark the type and its characteristic fulfillment. On the Day of Atonement the pries should proceed as follows:

“He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD (the Altar of Incense), and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward: and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.” (Leviticus 16:12-14.) When our Lord rose from the dead He became a priest, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedec; as it is written:

“Made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Hebrews 6:20.) As a Priest on that resurrection morning when He met Mary on His way to Heaven He took His blood to the throne of God within the vail.

“Within the vail;

Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest, forever after the order of Melchisedec. “ The incense He took up with the blood was the fragrance of His perfect work in offering Himself as a sacrifice for sin. The blood within the vail changed the throne of God from a throne of judgment to a throne of grace; as it is written:

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, No not allow any doubt to rob you of the joy and privilege of it).

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace.” (Hebrews 4:14-16.) The Ark was a chest. The tables of the law were placed within it. The Mercy Seat like a golden lid covered the Ark. It covered it exactly.

It covered over the law within it, covered it exactly, met it at every point and hid it from view. When the priest approached the Mercy Seat he saw the blood thereon.

He knew the blood was between him and the law. He knew the blood of the sin offering had met and settled (ceremonially) all claims of the law against him.

He knew judgment against him for that year was at an end. The Lord looked at the blood.

He knew it had met (ceremonially) all His claims against the sinner.

He had no judgment against him. Where there is no judgment there is grace. On the basis of His ceremonially established righteousness, established by the sacrificial death of a victim on the Brazen Altar, He could deal in grace, invite men to approach and hold communion with Him.

All this is set forth in the Lord’s instruction to Moses concerning the Mercy Seat.

He says:

“And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony (the law) that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy’ seat.” (Exodus 25:21-22.) At the blood stained Mercy Seat He would meet and commune with those who approached Him on the basis of that blood. And all this has been wondrously fulfilled. The blood is on the throne in Heaven. The throne of God is a blood sprinkled throne. When we look up, by faith we see the blood.

We know the blood is between us and all the claims, not only of the law of Sinai; but the essential law of God’s righteousness.

We know all claims against us have been” covered,” (the Hebrew word “to atone” means “to cover,”) that is, “met,” (for sometimes in speaking of the settlement of a claim involving money, or price, we say, the claims were covered, the expenses were covered, or met, and we mean satisfied—) complete satisfaction has been rendered to God, the voice of judgment is hushed. When God looks at the blood He knows all His claims against us have been met at every “point,” and His righteousness exalted by the death of the cross.

He no longer has judgment against us.

Thus it is that the throne of God today is a throne of grace. On the basis of blood established righteousness He now invites us to draw near that we may hold communion with Him and He with us. This then is our privilege as believers, to ascend by faith to Him who is on the throne, both as Mercy Seat and Priest, and He will meet us there. Not in lordly fanes, amid the sounds of swelling organ, not where censers are swung by human hands are we to meet Him and have Him hold communion with us, but in Spirit, by faith—within the vail—in Heaven itself. To the woman of Samaria the Lord said:

“Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4:22-23.).

Therefore it is that the Apostle writes his exhortation:

“Having’ therefore, brethren, boldness (liberty) to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; And having a high priest over the house of God;

Let us draw near in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:19-22.)

Sprinkled with the blood that was shed for us, blood that has met our case, blood that tells us He who shed it, who died for us, is alive upon the throne for us, immortal, glorified, omnipotent man, our living and ever interceding priest.

Wondrous Mercy Seat! well may we draw near and listen while He talks to us; for the startling thing is this, when we draw nigh in Spirit and in truth, when His Word is dwelling richly in us, by and through that very Word He will speak intelligently to us, and our hearts shall burn within us as we hear His gracious and hope-inspiring speech.