The Mercy Seat
Central Truth: Jesus is the true picture of the Fathers will
Scripture: EXO 25:17 "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width.
18 "And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19 "Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat.
20 "And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
21 "You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.
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, of all things which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
Lesson points:
1. Location: The mercy seat is located in the holy of holies and sets on top of the ark of
the covenant. The holy of holies is the place where God’s presence is. It is the place of
completion and perfection.
2. Dimensions: The mercy seat is three feet eight inches long and two feet four inches
feet wide.
3. Materials: The mercy seat is made of pure gold.
4. Types:
A. The mercy seat of pure gold represents God’s throne in the midst of a sinful people.
B. The mercy seat being placed on top of the ark, shows that God could cover the ark -
which revealed His righteous standard - and still show mercy.
C. This had to be done without lowering His righteous standard.
D. This was done on the day of atonement when the blood of a goat was sprinkled eastward
seven times on the mercy seat. This covered the sins of the people for one year.
E. Compare:
HEB 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image
of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by
year, make those who approach perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purged,
would have had no more consciousness of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not
desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ’Behold, I have come - in the volume of the book it is written of Me - to do
Your will, O God.’ "
8 Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did
not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law),
9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that
He may establish the second.
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all.
11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins.
12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right
hand of God,
13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
F. HEB 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are purged with blood, and
without shedding of blood there is no remission.
G. ROM 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus,
25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were
previously committed,
(Propitiation means mercy seat.)
H. We see mercy triumphing over the law ( which was in the ark ) in Christ’s perfect work.
I. Notice where the cherubim’s eyes are fixed. On the blood
Memory verse: “whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith” Rom 3:25
