Exodus 25:1-22 NKJV
25 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. 3 And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze; 4 blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; 5 ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; 6 oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; 7 onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. 9 According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
10 “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. 13 And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. 15 The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.
17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. 20 And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. 21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. 22 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
Everything the Lord commands Israel to build for worship is a type or foreshadowing of Christ Jesus and His ministry. The Lord commanded Israel to build a tabernacle—a tent—so that He might dwell among His people in a specific place. This looked ahead to the incarnation of the Son of God, who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). We will hear more about this in the days to come.
The focal point of the sanctuary was the ark of the testimony. The ark was a small box, about three and three quarters feet long and two and one quarter feet deep. It was to be overlaid with gold inside and out. Rings were installed on the sides so that the Levites could insert poles and make the ark mobile. Moses would put the testimony—the ten commandments—into the ark and make a lid to cover the ark. The lid was made of pure gold with two cherubim on top, facing towards each other and the lid. The golden lid was called the “mercy seat.” The word translated “mercy seat” means “covering,” and a “means of appeasing” or “propitiation.” God would speak with Moses from above the mercy seat (22). This was also the place where the High Priest would sprinkle the blood of the sin offering each year on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:14-15). The mercy seat was the place to which Israel looked for God’s mercy for their sins.
The mercy seat Moses was commanded to build for the ark was a foreshadowing of our Lord Jesus Christ as well. Christ is the “place” where God reveals Himself and His will to mankind. Not only that, but St. Paul writes in Romans 3:25 that God set forth Christ asa propitiation by His blood. Christ is the mercy seat because He is “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). Christ’s sufferings and death appeased God’s wrath against us for our sins, so that all who place their trust in Him receive the forgiveness He earned by His blood. As Israel looked to the mercy seat, we look to Christ, the one whom the mercy seat of gold foreshadowed.
Let us pray: We give You thanks, heavenly Father, for setting Your Son forth as the propitiation for our sins against Your law. Grant us faith to flee to Christ as our mercy seat whenever our sins oppress us. Amen.