The tabernacle and Christ

The Mercy Seat

In the tabernacle of Moses · Exodus 25 to 40 · Atonement

The mercy seat was the solid gold lid of the ark, overshadowed by two cherubim, the place where God met his people and where the high priest sprinkled atoning blood on the Day of Atonement. The New Testament uses the very same word of Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation, our mercy seat, so that the place where wrath was covered by blood is fulfilled in Christ crucified.

And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.Exodus 25:17 (KJV)

What the mercy seat was

And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. It was a lid of solid gold, the exact measure of the ark it covered, and from its two ends rose two cherubim of beaten gold, facing each other with wings outstretched over it. There, between the cherubim, above the covered law, was the appointed dwelling of God's presence.

God said of it, And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony. The name in Hebrew means a place of covering or of atonement; the older English mercy seat and the newer atonement cover both try to catch it. It was the one spot on earth where the holy God promised to meet sinful people, and he met them there over blood.

What it meant for Israel

Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest carried the blood of the sin offering behind the veil and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat: he shall sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. Beneath the lid lay the broken law that condemned the nation; upon the lid was placed the blood that answered for their sin. God looked down not on the accusing law but on the atoning blood, and in mercy dwelt with his people another year.

This is the heart of the whole tabernacle. Everything in the court and the holy place led here, to the moment when blood covered the law and a holy God stayed among sinners without destroying them. The mercy seat was where justice and mercy met: the law was not set aside, it was still there under the gold, but its demand was covered by a life laid down in the sinner's place.

How it is fulfilled in Christ

Here the New Testament is remarkably direct. Writing in Greek, Paul says that God set forth Jesus to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. The word translated propitiation is the very word the Greek Old Testament uses for the mercy seat, and Hebrews uses it plainly of the golden lid, the mercyseat. Paul is saying that Christ is the true mercy seat, the place where God and sinners meet, where atoning blood covers the broken law, where wrath is turned away and mercy given.

What was hidden in the dark most holy place, seen by one man once a year, was set forth, displayed openly, at the cross for all the world to see. The blood is no longer an animal's, sprinkled in secret, but Christ's own, poured out in the sight of all. In him God can be just, upholding his holy law, and the justifier of the one who believes, showing mercy to the guilty. The two cherubim who gazed down upon the blood are answered by all heaven gazing upon the Lamb who was slain.

So the mercy seat is not a quaint relic; it is the gospel in gold. It tells us that God will meet us, but only over blood, and that the blood we need has been given. The place of atonement is a person. To come to Christ is to come to the mercy seat, where the law that condemns us is covered forever, and to hear the God who dwells between the cherubim say, I will meet with thee.

Set forth openly for all to see

The old mercy seat was hidden. It sat in the innermost room, in the dark beyond the veil, seen by one man on one day of the year, and even he veiled it further with a cloud of incense lest he look on it and die. The blood was sprinkled in secret; the people outside only knew the work was done when the high priest came out alive. Grace, under the old covenant, was real but concealed.

Paul chooses a word that turns this inside out. God set forth Christ, he says, to be a propitiation, and set forth means displayed openly, put on public view. The mercy seat that was hidden in the dark has been carried out into the daylight of the whole world and lifted up at the cross for every eye to see. The blood is no longer sprinkled behind a curtain by a trembling priest; it was poured out on a hill outside the city gate, in the sight of soldiers and mockers and passers-by and the whole watching world.

This means the meeting place of God and sinners is no longer a secret reserved for one man once a year. It is Christ crucified, held up openly, offered to all. Anyone may come to this mercy seat, at any hour, from any distance, and find the God who said, I will meet with thee, waiting there in grace. The law is covered, the blood has been given, the way is open, and the invitation is to come and be met by God at the place where his justice and his mercy kiss.

This is explicit: Romans 3:25 calls Jesus our propitiation using the same Greek word (hilasterion) that the Septuagint and Hebrews 9:5 use for the mercy seat, and the Day of Atonement ritual (Leviticus 16:14-15) is applied to Christ throughout Hebrews. The fulfillment is stated in Scripture, not merely inferred.

Related: The ark of the covenant · The bronze altar · Who is Jesus? · The whole tabernacle