LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Propitiatory
The mercy seat was the golden covering that covered the ark. Unlike other furniture, the mercy seat was not made of wood covered with gold, but of pure gold. This indicates to us that there is nothing of humanity in what the mercy seat represents. Here is the testimony of God's work in Christ, done on man's behalf to reconcile him to God. In the work of redemption, there is no participation of man, except to receive it, as the recipient and beneficiary of it.
If the ark had been without a mercy seat, it would have been perfect for God, but terrible for us. The mercy seat is God's provision, His grace and mercy for man. The word "mercy seat" has to do with "propitiate", which is to be in favor of something or someone; the mercy seat is entirely in favor of man. The mercy seat completely covered the ark, which means that its contents are sufficient for God and for us.
The ark is also the throne of God in the midst of his people, for through it God rules. And God's rule often involves judgment. However, this throne of government (and judgment) has its covering permanently anointed with blood. It is the blood of atonement, by which God's justice is satisfied, and men are acquitted and declared righteous.
This was the declaration of every sacrificial victim, whose blood was put there once a year by the high priest. But above all, it proclaimed the most precious, spotless blood, which the Lamb of God was to shed on the cross of Calvary, no longer to cover our sins, but to take them away once and for all. For indeed, that typological blood only temporarily covered the multitude of sins, but the blood of Christ took them all away, those of the Old Covenant, and the present ones, under the New (Heb. 9:15).
Paul's expression in Romans clearly suggests to us the precious work of the blood of Christ on the mercy seat, not of the earthly tabernacle, but in the heavenly: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood..." (Rom. 3:24-25). Hebrews also says: "For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkled on the unclean sanctifies for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your consciences from dead works to serve the living God" (9:13-14).
John, at the end of the apostolic era, reminds us of this very thing when he says: "My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not: and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:1-2). Christ is not only the true ark, but also the true mercy seat, a constant and precious provision for every believer.