In this last post in this series we are going to be looking at the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat. It can be found in Exodus 25:10-22:
“Have them make an ark of acacia wood – two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. Then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law, which I will give you. Make an atonement cover of pure gold – two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make on cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”
There is a lot that can be said about this item, the mercy seat really being the lid of the ark of the covenant. The ark held the stone tablets on which the ten commandments were written and these were covered by the mercy seat which had been sprinkled with blood. The symbolism here is that although we can’t keep God’s commandments, Jesus died for our forgiveness so that when God looks at us He no longer sees the broken commandments, but rather Jesus’ blood and sees us as holy before Him.
The two cherubim represent the Old and New Testament, they both point to Jesus’ , death and resurrection and so the two cherubim are facing one another.
The ark was made out of acacia wood, covered inside and out with gold and so represented Jesus’ humanity and Divinity while the lid of the mercy seat was pure gold.
We are also told in Hebrews 10:11-13 “Day after day the priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.” There was no place to sit down in the tabernacle but we see the atonement cover referred to as the mercy seat because after Jesus’ had sacrificed Himself at calvary we are told that He sat down at the right hand of God because His work was finished. So we come to the end of this series on Biblical Typology with regards to the Old Testament tabernacle. If you would like to study it in more depth then you are welcome to join our Udemy course where we go into more depth on this topic.
