Exodus: The Lord and His PilgrimsSample

The Meeting Place

The Lord commands a dwelling place for himself (v. 8) and then immediately commands the ark (v. 10). In a word, that is what the tabernacle is for – to house the ark; the ark secures the purpose for which the tabernacle is intended (v. 22): the place to meet the indwelling God. 

The ark is to be overlaid and inlaid with gold (v. 11), which, among the metals of the tabernacle, stands for all that is special and glorious: the very presence of God. Inside the ark is to be placed the ‘tablets of the covenant law’ (v. 16, NIV), called ‘the Testimony’ in the NKJV because they testify to who and what the Lord is, to what he requires of his redeemed people, and, by implication, to our need before him as those who have broken his law. 

Next, however, is ‘the mercy seat’ (v. 17): a wholly golden ‘lid’, made to the exact measurements of the Ark so as to cover it precisely. In Hebrew it is the kapporeth or ‘covering’, but the parent verb kaphar, while in its simple form means ‘to cover’, in its developed form means ‘to pay the covering price’ – as we saw on Day 24. The kapporeth, then, is ‘the atonement-covering’ or ‘the price-covering-the-debt’. This name comes into its own on the Day of Atonement, when the atoning blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat (Lev. 16:15–16), and the atonement cover receives the price that covers the sins and transgressions of Israel. The symbolism is of the broken law covered by the sprinkled price of a substitutionary life laid down in death. 

Integral to the mercy seat are the cherubim figures turned inward and gazing downwards (Ex. 25:18–20). Ezekiel 1:10 reveals the cherubim as having four faces, representing the whole of creation – that of a lion, the greatest of wild beasts; an eagle, the greatest of birds; an ox, the greatest of domestic beasts; and a man, the crown of creation. The cherubim are both earthly and unearthly, because the whole of heaven and earth is focused on the wonder of the atonement.

Reflection

Consider these words: 

‘Be thou my shield and hiding place that, sheltered by thy side, I may my fierce accuser face, and tell him thou hast died!’

(John Newton, ‘Approach, my soul, the mercy seat’)