Exodus 25:10-22: a reflection

10“They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its width a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height. 11You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall overlay it inside and outside, and you shall make a gold molding around it. 12You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark. 15The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it. 16You shall put the covenant which I shall give you into the ark. 17You 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. 18You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat. 20The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. 21You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I will give you. 22There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the covenant, all that I command you for the children of Israel.

God gives Moses the design for the ark of the covenant, and for its cover, the mercy seat, a lid of pure gold with two cherubim facing each other, their wings spread over it. Inside the ark would rest the covenant law; over it, the mercy seat. And God says of this place: There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, I will speak with you. The mercy seat, over the broken law, was the appointed place where God would meet his people.

Notice where God chose to meet his people: at the mercy seat. The law they had broken lay within the ark; but God met them at the cover, the mercy seat, the place of atonement, where the blood was sprinkled on the day of atonement. God did not meet his people on the bare ground of the law they had failed to keep, but at the place of mercy, over the broken law, through atonement. Mercy covered the law, and there God met them.

That points forward to how God meets us still. The New Testament calls Christ our mercy seat, the place of atonement, where God and sinners meet. We do not come to God on the ground of a law we have kept, for we have not kept it; we come through Christ, our mercy seat, whose atoning death covers our broken law and opens the way to God. When you come to meet God, do not come trusting in your own record, your keeping of the law, for it is broken. Come through Christ, the mercy seat, where atonement covers your failure and God meets you in mercy. God meets us at the place of mercy; draw near through Christ, and meet him there.

Lord, over the ark that held your broken law, you set the mercy seat, and there, at the place of atonement, you promised to meet your people. Thank you that you did not meet them on the bare ground of the law they had failed to keep, but at the place of mercy. And thank you that Christ is our mercy seat, the place of atonement where you meet sinners still. When I come to meet you, keep me from trusting in my own record, my keeping of your law, for it is broken. Help me come through Christ, whose atoning death covers my failure and opens the way to you. You meet us at the place of mercy; help me draw near through Christ, and meet you there. Thank you that the broken law is covered, and that in mercy you meet me.