The Lid
Today’s Bible Reading: EXODUS 25:1-28:43
Exodus 25:22
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.
God always has a purpose for what He presents to His people. Here he has brought the people to Mt. Sinai to instruct them in two areas. First, He has given them principles to follow that they might please Him (Ex 20). Second, He now gives them a pattern to follow that they might be in His presence. He gives them the tablets and the tabernacle.
The tabernacle was designated to be the place of God’s presence among His people. God outlines very specific guidelines to build the tabernacle. Every detail of its design is to be carefully constructed according to His blueprint. He also sets forth certain perimeters for those who would be designated to approach Him. Moses was one of those who would meet with Him.
God gives the instructions for its construction from the inside out. He begins with the Holy of Holies, the place where His presence would dwell. He instructs them to build the one piece of furniture that will be placed inside this veiled enclosure. The symbolism is significant.
First, they are to construct the Ark of the Covenant. It was a “box” where the stone tablets of testimony were to be placed. It is to be the receptacle for God’s law. It is to be a wooded box overlaid in gold inside and out. The significance is two-fold. Its presence is a consistent and constant reminder of God’s standard for His people. His law was to be ever before Him as the criteria by which He judged the people. His law both commanded and condemned humanity. It directs us in what we are to do to please God and divulges what we are not doing that displeases God. Thus, the ark becomes a reminder of humanity’s rebellion against God and our need for redemption.
But in addition, the Ark of the Covenant is significant because it points to our Redeemer, the one who would perfectly obey God’s law. The material used to make the ark is symbolic of Jesus, the god-man. The wood represents His humanity and the gold His deity. The tablets within the “box” represent the fact that Jesus fully kept God’s law. It points to the future law keeper who would give His life for the lawbreakers. Our disobedience to God’s law brought God’s judgement upon us. Jesus’ obedience to God’s law made Him exempt for God’s judgement. Jesus willingly took God’s wrath meant for us upon Himself. He died in our place. The Ark of the Covenant gives us hope of redemption.
Second, they were to fashion a cover for the ark, the mercy seat. This was to be the seat for the sovereign. It was to be the place where the visible presence of the invisible God would reside among His people. Its composition differed from that of the ark in that it was forged out of pure gold. It is significant that this is where God would meet with Moses. He meets Him with mercy not manuscripts. Moses encounters compassion not commandments. The lid over God’s law represent His mercy.
God also meets us with mercy. Mercy is defined as not getting what we deserve. God has every right to pour out the full measure of His wrath upon all of us because we have broken His law. But His mercy moves Him to look at us through the lens of love rather than the law. His mercy is manifested in His son, Jesus. He took all the wrath of God that we deserved and dispensed the mercy of God that we never deserved. Jesus is the filter by which the Father sees us. Without the “mercy seat” to save us all we have is God’s law which condemns us.
Today praise God for the vivid portrait of His mercy displaced in the design of the tabernacle. Thank Him for His mercy toward you. Thank Him that in Christ you find His mercy manifest. Thank Him that in Christ there is hope of redemption from our rebellion to God’s law. Rejoice that the lid over God’s law is His mercy.
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