There I Will Meet With You

True Worship Requires Christ at the Core

And so, as we come to this, a couple of questions begin to arise in the hearts and minds of individuals. And so, we look at true worship, and we see that true worship requires, ultimately, that Christ be at its core.

The Westminster Catechism begins by asking this question, what is the chief end of man? The answer that it gives is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. In the Baptist Catechism, the 15th question asks, similarly, what special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein He was created?

The answer to that question is, when God created man, He entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

And then, in the 23rd question, it asks this question, did God leave all mankind to perish.

In the estate of sin and misery?

The answer is powerful. God having out of His mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

The answers reveal God's profound desire for humanity, not only to create and to sustain us, but to also establish a lasting relationship with us. The Catechism questions echo a core message spanning Scripture.

God's unchanging desire to dwell with His people, a message that is beautifully foreshadowed in the Tabernacle, and as we will see this morning specifically in the Ark of the Covenant.

In Exodus 25.

In Genesis, we see clearly as God created man, He gave them dominion over all creation. He placed His law in our hearts, and He provided abundantly. We see Him walking in the garden, desiring a close relationship with His creation.

And at the culmination of time, we again see His ultimate desire to reconcile us to Himself in the words of Revelations 21, 1 through 3, which describe the new heaven and the new earth, where the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them.

This is the purpose.

This is the purpose that we find throughout Scripture, that God might dwell with His people. Unfortunately today, many overlook this redemptive ark. They focus on the descriptions that are found in Scripture regarding discipline and correction, and they miss the purpose behind it all of God's desire to be with His people.

Our text today in Exodus 25, verses 10 through 22, will continue to look at the theme of.

This historical narrative.

Last week, as we began our discussion of the tabernacle, we ended with verse 9, which says, according to all that I am going to show you as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall make it.

Here, God's command to build the tabernacle precisely according to His design underscores His intention to dwell among His people in the place that He has chosen and prepared. As we walk through our text today, we will see God's directions for building the ark.

We will see what the ark is to contain, the instructions and specifications for the lid, and we will conclude with the statement of God to Moses regarding that place where He says, there I will meet with you.

As we look at this text, it is important to note that the true message of these words to believers today, as we understand that the ark, the testimony, the lid, the meeting place find their ultimate fulfillment in the work in person of Christ.

We also must recognize, directly directing His people regarding worship, and for us, it means that we must keep as central to our worship, Christ. When we assure that His atoning work is our focal point, we will be continually reminded of the truth contained within God's righteous standard, His gracious provision to us, which are seen in the testimony placed within the ark and the lid placed upon it.

Turn with me, if you will, in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 25 as we begin and stand together as we read verses 10 through 22 in honor of God's holy, infallible, inerrant, authoritative word. The 10th verse of the 25th chapter of the book of Exodus, Moses writes, and they shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high.

You shall overlay it with pure gold. Inside and out, you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it.

You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark with them. The poles shall remain in the ark, not be removed. From it, you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.

You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, a cherubim of gold. Make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at the one end and one cherub at the other end.

From one piece, you shall make the mercy seat with the cherubim at its two ends. The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces towards one another.

The faces of the cherubim are to be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you, and there I will meet with you.

And from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all which I command you for the sons of Israel. Father, we pray to you today for the truth found in your word.

We thank you that we can come together as a body of Christ because of the work of Christ. As we seek your truth in your word this morning, we pray for the Holy Spirit to illuminate this text, that we understand not only its historical significance, but also its implications.

On our lives today.

I will ask all of this in the name of your precious son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

You may be seated.

The Ark of the Covenant and Its Four Elements

As we look at the text, it is important to us that we understand that there are four different elements pictured within the construction of this one piece of furniture. So one of the things that we learned this week was that as we received the instructions, or as the Israelites received the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle, it began in the innermost parts and worked its way to the exterior.

And later, when we come back to the construction, you will see that it is written in the innermost parts, working towards the interior. And so God begins with the most precious and most essential piece of all of these things,.

The Ark of the Covenant.

Typically, when we discuss the Ark or we mention the Ark of the Covenant, we are, in fact, including all four elements and lumping them into one big category. But it is important for us to recognize that each of these four things has a very different and very specific purpose, even as they join together in one purpose to represent God amongst his people.

So as we look at the Ark, there has been much in history and media regarding the Ark. There are some who say Indiana Jones found it back in the mid-'80s. There are others who think that it sits in a temple in Ethiopia.

And there are even some who have replicas in their very homes. However, the truth about the Ark is something much greater than the fantastical displays that we see in media and in film. It is significance.

It is the centerpiece of worship of God, of the people of Israel. As God begins to outline his pattern and plan for the sanctuary, he begins not like an earthly architect would do. So an earthly architect is going to get the layout of the building, then they're going to separate all the rooms out.

And one of the last things that you ever worry about as an architect or a designer is going to be the furniture. In fact, normally they bring somebody else in to kind of handle those things because that's just less than them.

But God starts not at the exterior as men would do, but with the interior, with the very focus, with the furniture that's contained. And there is no more important piece in the entirety of all that is contained within the.

Tabernacle than that of the Ark of the Covenant.

So much so is the importance of the Ark of the Covenant that it is the only piece of the tabernacle that is later transferred into the temple as Solomon builds it. So in verses 10 through 15, we saw that God commanded them to make an ark.

He commanded them to form it of acacia wood. He gave them specific size requirements regarding how many cubits it should be long, how many cubits it should be wide, how many cubits it should be tall. And for those of you that may be interested, a cubit was simply the measurement between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger.

And so as you can imagine, a cubit could change from person to person. However, typically what we see is that a cubit averages around 18 inches long, making the couple of feet in width and height. It's not a big box.

It's not a massive box. It is a box, however, that is built out of wood and then overlaid with gold. Now, one of the interesting things about the materials with which the Ark is to be constructed that God commands us to be constructing, that God commands the Israelites to construct the Ark out of, is that first of all, is the type of wood that is used.

Now, early Christians didn't actually name the type of wood simply because they used a little bit different language. In fact, if you look at the Greek version of the Old Testament, it was literally translated as incorruptible wood.

And so the idea being that the wood itself that the Ark was built of could never rot, could never deteriorate, could never go anywhere or go away. But the reality is, as we know, that it is a thing of this world.

And as a thing of this world, as a non-living entity, as something that is part of this broken world, it will ultimately fade away. However, it is an extremely resilient wood. It resists rot very well.

It holds up very well. It is very hard. In fact, it is harder than oak. And on the outside of this wood, both on the outside of the Ark and the inside of the Ark, so that the entirety of the wood is covered.

By the way, if you've never seen acacia wood, acacia wood is a beautiful wood. Acacia wood is covered in gold. And it's completely covered. Now, there are obviously people who argue about the thickness of the gold and the manner in which the gold was applied to the Ark.

I'm just going to be honest with you.

I'm sure God gave us those details, but we obviously didn't need them.

Because if we'd have needed them, he'd have given them to us.

What's important here is the born nature of the construction. We're going to come back to that in a few moments. But after the basic construction, the basic box of the Ark was completed, God instructs them to place four feet on the four corners and to the four feet attached poles of acacia wood that's also covered in gold.

These poles would be used to transport it. And the command that God gives is that the poles never be removed, which is an interesting statement. But we know that they didn't abide by this command. The only time that they were specifically told that they could remove the poles was in preparation for transport of the Ark, because it had to be wrapped.

And where that's described for us in scripture, it literally talks about wrapping the Ark in the veil. And then once the veil has been replaced, and then it can be moved. But if you think about when David moves the Ark back, remember Uzzah, everybody remembers Uzzah, right?

Uzzah who sought to prevent the Ark from touching the dirty ground and was immediately struck dead because he placed his hand on the Ark, disobeying the command of God. The reason that he put his hand on the Ark was because they weren't toting the Ark with the poles that they were going to tote the Ark with.

They had put the Ark on a trailer, on a cart, and it had tipped when they got to the threshing.

Floor.

And so the whole purpose of leaving the poles in the Ark was so that it could be moved and so that the people would not place their hands on the actual body of the Ark itself.

Then we get to the 16th verse.

So in the 16th verse, Moses simply is commanded by God to put into the Ark the testimony which.

I shall give you.

Now, we already know what the testimony is. In fact, the people already have a copy of the testimony that was written down by Moses. Go back up to chapter 24. You'll see writing out the commands of God for the people and then reading them to the people.

But the testimony that God is specifically referring to here, we will not see until later in the book of Exodus when the finger of God literally writes the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone. And if you remember at the culmination of those events, Moses takes the two tablets down off the mountain.

When he gets down from the mountain, he comes across the people worshiping the golden calf that they had created because they thought that God had killed Moses. And so instead of waiting and being patient and obedient to God, they immediately turned.

Their back on him.

And so Moses throws down the original tablets, destroys them, and then keeps out two additional tablets so that God can rewrite the Ten Commandments on them. Now, in ancient times, it was customary for a copy of a covenant agreement to have been placed in a box for protection and access.

But what I want you to understand, because a lot of times we get caught up in this trap of that was just custom at the time, or that was just custom in the ancient world. For example, when you study the construction of the tabernacle, one of the things that many people will say is, well, it was just after Egyptian construction.

I'm sorry, no.

It may have looked in some ways like that, but it was construction, God planned, patterned design. And as soon as we give credit to anything, the value of the thing which we are discussing. And so placing this agreement within the Ark to later go in the tabernacle, where God will ultimately have Moses place the tabernacle, within the tabernacle, within the Holy of Holies is where the Ark would have ultimately reside.

And it would become the central focus point of all worship for the people of God, not in an idolatrous sense that the calf that I mentioned earlier, but in a sense of an understanding of the significance of the writer of the covenant, the securer of the covenant, the ratifier of the covenant, and later for us, the one that would reconcile.

All of his elect to himself.

Ultimately, the Ark would go before the people as it moved from place to place, and as it moved from place to place, it would continue to serve as a reminder of them, of the instructions that are contained within the law of God, of their covenantal responsibility to be obedient to those instructions.

Quite literally, it is to be their sustenance and comfort in all things, because the word of God should be the sustenance and comfort in all things for believers today. And once we have the instruction for the construction of the Ark, the command to place within the Ark the testimony, then God moves on to the next element.

The mercy seat. Now, the instructions for the fabrication of the wheel of the Ark of the covenant are contained in Exodus 17 through 21, and we're going to reread that entire section because it contains some important truths.

You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat, make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end.

From one peak, you shall make the mercy seat with the cherubim at its two ends, and the cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings. The two cherubim will have their faces towards one another, bowed toward the mercy seat, and you shall put the mercy seat on top of the Ark and in the Ark, you should put the testimony, which I give to you.

Now, I want to note here that God repeats the command to Moses regarding the placement of the testimony of God within the Ark. It is significant that God repeats the command to Moses that the word of God, the law of God, that the testimony of God, that the testament of God be placed at the central point of worship for the people of God, the very article within the tabernacle that represents the presence.

Of God among his people.

That is the centrality of the word of God among the people of God, and it is a principle that never goes away. Today, in our churches, in our gatherings, in our comings, in our goings, in our standing up and in our sittings down, the word of the living God should be the central focus of our worship.

Now, although the box and the lid come together and form a piece of furniture, there are two separate elements. They have two separate functions. They denote separate types. We'll get there in a few minutes of Christ.

First, we will note that the lid is made of pure gold. Different than the construction of the Ark itself, which had a durable structure of its construction and wood overlaid with gold, the lid of the Ark of the Covenant was to be made out of pure gold.

Not just pure gold, but the entire lid, including the core of them, is to be one solid piece. Now, on the top of the lid, these two cherubim that God commands to be there are not described.

For us, at least not here.

Now, what's interesting to note about cherubim is that cherubim first appear in Scripture very early. In fact, in Genesis 3, verse 24, we read,. So he drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword, which turned in every direction, to guard the way to the tree of.

Life.

The first instance we see of a cherubim mentioned in Scripture is specifically related to the exercise of the judicial authority of God. But what's interesting to note is that as we move through Scripture, their role doesn't.

Change, at least not much.

The best description we have of a cherubim is from Ezekiel. If you've ever read that passage, you'll know that saying the best description is kind of tongue-in-cheek. If you haven't read that passage, great, listen.

Now, it happened in the 30th year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, that the heavens were open, and I saw the visions of God. On the fifth month, on the fifth of the month, in the fifth year of King Jehoakim's exile, the word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar, and there the hand of Yahweh came upon him.

And so we get the vision of Ezekiel. Now, I want you to hear, before I start reading this, this is the best description that Ezekiel, a cherubim, can do to help us see what these cherubim look like. In fact, when he first begins, he doesn't even know what he's looking at.

He says, then I looked, and behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually, and a bright light all around it. In its midst, something like a gleam of glowing metal in the midst of the fire.

And within it, there were figures with the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance. They had the likeness of man. And each one had four faces and four wings. And their legs were straight, and their feet were like a castle, and they sparkled like the gleam of burnished bronze.

Under their wings on the four sides were hands of man. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, the wings touched one another. Their faces did not turn as they went.

Each went straight forward.

As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man. All four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bear on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle.

As such were their faces.

Their wings spread out above. Each had two touching another being and two covering their bodies.

And each went straight forward.

Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go without turning as they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures.

The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing from the fire. And the living creatures ran to and fro with the appearance of lightning. Then I looked at the living creatures, and behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures for each of the four of them.

The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like the gleam of a barrel. And all four of them had the same likeness, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another.

Wherever they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. As for their rims, they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes all around.

And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. And when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose also. Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction where the spirit was about to go, and the wheels rose alongside of them for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

What an interesting description.

I think if we were to sit down and try to sketch that out, it would probably blow our minds. Now, can you imagine for just a minute having to be the craftsman that had to put two of those things on the Ark of the Covenant, one piece with the entire lid?

One of my favorite pieces of the description comes actually a little bit later in Ezekiel in the 10th chapter. And in the 10th chapter, Ezekiel finally realizes that the creatures that he had seen.

Are two of them.

And he kind of gives us a lot of the same description that he gives us in chapter one, but he adds a little bit. And it says, as they went, they went in any of the four directions without turning as they went, but they went in the direction which they faced without turning as they went, and their whole body, their backs, the hands, the wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around.

Now, picture this. Whatever picture you had in your mind a few moments ago of this being, understand that now the entire being is covered with eyes.

In all directions, at all times, these are the four living creatures.

In fact, if you continue studying a little bit, this is a sidebar. You may recall that in the book of Revelations, there are also four creatures mentioned. I'll leave that for you to study on your own.

So we have this description, this picture of this lid that was to be created. So God describes this lid in perfect detail, but then he gives us something regarding the posture of these, as these beings of either end of the lid,.

Were facing the Spirit, and the will of the Spirit created the perfect seat or throne.

For the living God, and yet their faces were bound.

Because as majestic as these creatures are, they are still creatures who serve and honor the living God, which brings us to the final element. And this element is actually not an element that is constructed of human hands, but is constructed in the negative.

In other words, it is what is remaining after the construction of the ark has been done, and that is the space above the mercy seat. It's that space, which in verse 22, God describes as there I will meet with you.

And I will give you my instruction. The empty space above the mercy seat and the cherubim, is the meeting place between God and the mediator man, Moses. Later on in the book of Numbers, 7th chapter, the 89th verse we read, that when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with him, 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.

So he spoke to him. Can you imagine standing before this magnificent creation.

And the creator of the universe speaking with his people.

As great and magnificent and wonderful as the descriptions of the construction of the ark of the covenant are? Simply reading them leaves the reader questioning. It gives us an understanding of the prominence of the place of the ark in the people of Israel.

But if you remember, we talked about last week, one, that we are not ancient Israel. Therefore, it means something different to us today. Listen, we're not called to go out and construct an ark. We're not called to build an ark and to fabricate these tables of the law and place them in here.

But it does have application to our life. Listen, not only are we not ancient Israel, we're not even the first century church anymore. In fact, quite honestly, and unfortunately, for many places that call themselves churches,.

They aren't even churches any longer.

Then there's obviously some basic imagery that any reader that has had a minute of Sunday school or small group exposure or whatever type of training session that you may have been involved with as a child or a young person, you will begin to see certain things.

And probably the most prominent of those is the understanding of the link between the mercy seat and Christ. And it's easy to acknowledge that God dwelling among his people today is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

But there are even greater and deeper truths that we need to see here.

And so let's take them element by element.

Christ as the True Ark, Testimony, and Mercy Seat

And first we begin with the art itself is a type of Christ. It's dual construction created out of and made out of wood and gold, two materials that never, never combined or changed. Just like Christ who is very man of very man, God of very God.

His dual nature that never mixes, never mingles. That neither of those natures are ever diminished. This is a picture of what we see in the construction of the Ark of the Covenant. The gold in the Ark reminds us of the incorruptible nature, mirrors Christ sinless and nature and his divinity.

And the poles never being removed keeps us reminded of the continual presence of God in the life of a believer. They were there, the Ark before the people of God, just as God is there to keep his, him before us in all things.

As important as it is, as important of a piece that was out the testimony being placed inside of it. The testimony, the very word of God, a type of Christ, the true word of God. In John's gospel, it is written, a gospel that was written so that we may know Jesus and believe the word takes up flesh and dwells among us.

Christ is the very preservation of the word of God. The testimony was put to preserve it, to protect it, to keep it, so that the people of God had the word of God at all times. Christ continues to preserve the word of God.

If the word of God had that much significance in the life of first century Israel, how much significance do you believe it should have in our lives today?

This is how much, listen to me very carefully.

The word of God has so much significance in your life that God literally wrote it on your, that he placed it at the very core of your being. Hebrews 8 verse 10 states, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds and upon their hearts. I will write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Listen, where God's word is, is where God dwells.

In the absence of the word of God is a great indicator that God himself is not present in that place. This is a statement that carries weight. Unfortunately for many places today, I absolutely deny the sufficiency and the authority and the inerrancy and the infallibility and the centrality of scripture.

This is their position.

They don't want the word of God. Just as the ark of the testimony went everywhere that the people went, so too does our faith, our belief. And through the indwelling of the spirit, we are emboldened to proclaim that truth, not being ashamed, but making known the great and wonderful mysteries of our God.

But here's what I want you to do.

This is, I really think we miss it a lot of times.

Itself, together with the testimony, becomes the foundation for the throne of the living God.

Think about it this way.

When the testimony was placed into the ark, the mercy seat or the propitiary was placed on top of the ark. The propitiary containing the cherubim whose wings formed the throne of God, over which and above which we're told multiple times in script, God meets with his people.

This makes, if you follow my logic for a moment, the ark of the covenant, the footstool of God. The mercy seat is between the ark's contents and God's throne. We see a foreshadowing of the atoning work of Christ that bridges the gap between God's holiness and our desperate need.

This changes the dynamic a little bit.

And the reason it changes the dynamic a little bit is because once the ark is introduced, once the lid is introduced to the ark, like I said, it becomes the footstool. It becomes that place. It becomes that place where atonement is made.

In fact, the translation mercy seat is actually not technically accurate. A better translation would be a place of atonement or atonement place or propitiary, a place where the wrath of God is pacified and the righteous demands of the law are satisfied.

In Romans 3 .25, Paul writing to the church at Rome, writes this,. Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith for a demonstration of his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed.

That word propitiation in Romans 3 .25 is the exact same Greek word that is used to describe the mercy seat or the atonement place in Exodus 25. This gives us immediate recognition that Paul is linking Christ to the mercy seat.

Now, here's why that is significant. It is significant because if you continue, the ark, once constructed, is in place in the Holy of Holies and the only time the ark is actually accessed for a normal worship, not in the sense of moving it and taking it from place to place,.

But for the purpose that it was created.

The worship of the people of God was one time of year on the day of atonement. But listen, the priest couldn't just be back strolling through the outer courtyard, roll up into the tent, and pop into the Holy of Holies and be good.

Listen to what Leviticus 16 verses 2 through 15 have to say. These are God's instructions for him to instruct Aaron.

Regarding the approach to the ark of the covenant.

Listen, tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat, which is on the ark, so that he will not die. For I will appear in a cloud over the mercy seat.

Aaron shall enter the holy place with this. So, in other words, he can't come in here in any way, shape, or form, or he shall die. If he performs this, if he goes through this that I'm fixing to give you, Moses, then he can approach.

He can approach with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. It's not just that simple, though. There's some other things he must do first. He shall put on the holy linen tunic and the linen undergarments shall be next to his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen turban.

These are holy garments. Then he shall bathe his body in water and put them on, and he shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

Then Aaron shall bring near the bull for the sin offering, which is for himself. Then he make atonement for himself and for his household. Now, I want you to understand at this point, Aaron is not doing anything for anybody of any of the people of Israel, except for him and his household.

This first sacrifice, nothing to do with the rest of the people. And he shall take the two goats and present them before Yahweh at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one for Yahweh and one lot for the scapegoat.

Then Aaron shall bring near the goat on which the lot for Yahweh fell, and he shall offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell, it shall be presented alive before Yahweh to make atonement upon it and to send it out into the wilderness as a scapegoat to take the sin away.