Exo 25:10-22 | KingComments | STEP | God begins with a description of the center of the tabernacle: the ark. It is most hidden from man, but most precious to God. There He dwells. The ark with the mercy seat on it represent: 1. the truth concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus: He is God (pure gold) and Man (wood) in one Person; 2. the truth of the work of the Lord Jesus, of which the mercy seat speaks ( ). The testimony, the law, must be placed in the ark. This represents the Lord Jesus saying: “Your Law is within my heart” ( ). His desire is to do God’s will. In everything His obedience to God is expressed. The ark must be carried by the Levites. The care for the ark is entrusted to people who have been appointed by God. In our time it means all believers. A special class doesn’t exist in the New Testament church.

‏ Exodus 25:10-22

The Ark

God begins with a description of the center of the tabernacle: the ark. It is most hidden from man, but most precious to God. There He dwells. The ark with the mercy seat on it represent:

1. the truth concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus: He is God (pure gold) and Man (wood) in one Person;

2. the truth of the work of the Lord Jesus, of which the mercy seat speaks (Exo 25:17).

The testimony, the law, must be placed in the ark. This represents the Lord Jesus saying: “Your Law is within my heart” (Psa 40:8). His desire is to do God’s will. In everything His obedience to God is expressed.

The ark must be carried by the Levites. The care for the ark is entrusted to people who have been appointed by God. In our time it means all believers. A special class doesn’t exist in the New Testament church.

The Mercy Seat

The mercy seat covers the ark in which the law is. The law condemns man. On the mercy seat are two cherubs who form a whole with the mercy seat. Cherubs watch over the holiness of God and are the executioners of His judgment (Gen 3:24). Therefore blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat. The blood says, as it were, that God’s holy and just demands have been met. Judgment has been exercised, but it has been exercised over an innocent sacrifice, so that the guilty may receive forgiveness and go unpunished.

God’s Place of Meeting

God is enthroned above the cherubs (Psa 80:1c ; Psa 99:1b; Isa 37:16). It should not surprise us that this is the place where God will and can come together with the people. God has found His full pleasure in His Son and in the work He has accomplished. The Man Christ Jesus is the “mediator … between God and men” (1Tim 2:5). “God displayed” Him “as a propitiation” (Rom 3:25), that is the mercy seat.

God wants to meet with His children, the church, where the Lord Jesus is the center point and where His work is considered. There He also wants to make known His will for the way He wants His people to go. Although the church no longer acts as a whole, God does indicate in His Word how He wants His church to conduct when they assemble (1Cor 14:26). Thus Paul also writes rules of conduct to Timothy, so that we as members of His church know how to conduct ourselves daily in practice “in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth” (1Tim 3:15).