Exodus 25:9–22 (ESV)
Exactly as I Show You
1. God is the Architect of the Tabernacle (25:9)
9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
As we begin looking in detail at the Tabernacle, it’s vital for us to understand its purpose. To do that let’s look to verse 8.
Exodus 25:8 (ESV)
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
God’s purpose for the Tabernacle was to live with His people, that He would dwell in their midst. That He would be their God and they would be His people.
When God tells Moses He was going to show him a pattern the Hebrew is very interesting. It’s more than a set of blueprints. The word for Pattern has more to do with a three-dimensional model or a model prototype. It very well could be Moses built the Tabernacle according to this model God had shown him.
TABNIT- means scale model, pattern, replica
Speaking of the Tabernacle and all its furnishings,
Paul writes in Hebrews…
Hebrews 8:5 (ESV)
5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”
The Tabernacle was approximately 40’ X 50’. It contained the outer and inner rooms. Outer room called the Holy Place…lampstand, alter, the table of bread. The Inner room or Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant.
The image for the Israelite who wondered if God was with them, simply looked to the Tabernacle, the place where God was sort of camping out with them.
This is the same language used by John for the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
John 1:14 (ESV)
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God gave Israel the Tabernacle where He dwelt with them
God gave us His Son who has Tabernacled with us.
The Tabernacle was the place of worship for the Israelites as they traveled through their wilderness wandering.
Here too, we learn that God sets the parameters for man’s worship.
2. The Ark: the Centerpiece of the Holy of Holies (25:10-15)
10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it.
The very first thing God told Moses to make was the ark of the covenant. This piece of furniture was the first thing mentioned concerning the Tabernacle. So, before anyone started on the Tabernacle, they began to build the Ark.
This is not to be confused with Noah’s Ark. Here, ark means, wooden chest. In verses 10-15 we are given some of the technical specifications concerning the building of this sacred chest or ark. It measured about 4 feet X 3 feet and 3 feet tall. It was covered or plated with pure gold inside and out. Had four feet at the bottom to keep it from ever touching the ground. It had four rings at the bottom where gold plated poles would be slid through so the priests could carry it. These poles were to never be removed.
The purpose of these poles was so that once constructed, the ark was to never be touched with human hands.
Picture of the Ark
2 Samuel 6:1–11 (ESV)
6 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. 3 And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, 4 with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark.
5 And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. 6 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. 8 And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. 9 And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” 10 So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. 11 And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.
We must also take care to do things the way God tells us. God said that He wanted priests to carry the Ark with the poles because the Ark is sacred. So, if you choose to disregard those instructions and place what’s sacred on a new ox cart there will be consequences.
Christ is our Savior. Mankind cannot access God but through Jesus by faith. To attempt to access God by your own means will result in eternal condemnation. We cannot do holy things any way we desire but must obey God’s instructions.
3. The Testimony and the Mercy Seat (25:16-22)
16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you. 17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. 21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.
The Mercy Seat-
The cover or as God called it, the mercy seat was fashioned from pure gold. This was not made of acacia wood and then covered with gold like the Ark but was itself made from gold.
Next, God told Moses to make two cherubim out of gold and place them on each end of the mercy seat facing each other look down to the center.
Cherubim are special angels. They are not messengers like other angels but guardians of what is sacred.
Genesis 3:24 (ESV)
24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
One writer calls them palace guards and throne attendants to the Most High.
Psalm 99:1 (ESV)
99 The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
Other verses tell us that God is enthroned and the cherubim are surrounding Him. That’s what we would see if heaven were opened to us right now. We would see God seated on the throne in the throne room with the many angels surrounding Him and hurrying to do God’s commands.
So, this is what the mercy seat with the cherubim is to depict. It was the spot where God’s presence was to be on earth. It was a picture of the throne room in heaven. It was a model of the heavenly throne room with God enthroned. It’s the earthly symbol of the heavenly reality.
God’s presence was to be above the mercy seat with the two angels bowing in worship.
Once the tabernacle was built, the Ark of the Covenant was set in the Holy of Holies and this is where Moses would meet with God. Moses would hear God’s voice speaking with him from above the mercy Seat.
Numbers 7:89 (ESV)
89 And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him.
The Ark-
16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.
We see that God placed the Mercy Seat on top of the Ark of the Covenant. Now, let’s learn why the Ark was called the Ark of the Covenant…
21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.
One of the items found within the Ark was the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them. That’s why it was called the Ark of the Covenant. It contained the covenant regulations God had given the Israelites.
Theology of the Ark and the Mercy Seat-
So, here’s the picture…The Ark contains the covenant stipulations that the Israelites agreed to keep but could not keep them. They sinned against God and the Ark had God, Himself looking down upon their sin. He watched continually as the Ark was at His feet where the Ten Commandments stayed.
It is usually credited to Martin Luther who first called the cover with the Cherubim, the mercy seat. Often before it was known as the atonement cover. Luther saw this as a wonderful act of God where mercy could be found.
Mercy seat does not mean a place where God sits but it’s used in the old English style which meant the location of mercy or the seat of Mercy and the place where mercy could be found.
On the Day of Atonement…
Leviticus 16:11–17 (ESV)
11 “Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself. 12 And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil 13 and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. 14 And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.
15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel.
Let’s think through what is taking place and what a visual this is for us. The tablets with God’s commands lay in the Ark which Israel was unable to keep. God is enthroned above the Cherubim looking down at man’s sin. Then the High Priest takes blood from the sacrificial ram (for himself) and goat (for the people) and places the blood between God and the sins of His people. In between God and sinful man comes the blood. The blood is the atonement that covers the transgressions of God’s people.
Hebrews 9:22 (ESV)
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
The atonement cover was not sufficient unless blood was sprinkled on it.
Remember the Ark and the Mercy Seat are models of the heavenly realities. They are types or signs of the real holy of holies, the real shed blood and the real seat of mercy and atonement.
Aaron was the high priest but he was not the true High Priest.
Hebrews 9:11–12 (ESV)
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
What Aaron was doing in the holy place by sprinkling the Seat of Mercy with blood, Jesus was doing as He hung between God and humanity suffering, dying and shedding His blood on the cross.
The NT speaks of Jesus’ shed blood in Mercy-Seat Language.
The Greek word used in the passages I’m going to read is the word that specifically means blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat by the High Priest.
Hebrews 2:17 (ESV)
17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Romans 3:25 (ESV)
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
1 John 4:10 (ESV)
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
In each case the word Propitiation comes from hilasterion which means mercy seat sprinkling for atonement.
The cross is the place where sinners can find mercy for sins.
Leave a Reply