The Tabernacle 09 Mercy Seat-Cheribum — J. Henry Brown

The Ark and Mercy Seat in Exodus 25

Once again we turn to the book of Exodus, chapter twenty-five, back again to where we made our beginning. Exodus chapter twenty-five, reading from verse ten. And they shall make an ark of acacia wood, two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof.

And two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. And thou shalt make staves of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.

The staves shall be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it. And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. 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.

And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end, even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubim on the two ends thereof.

And the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.

And thou shalt put the mercy seat above, upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

God’s Pattern Begins With His Throne

That is our reading this evening, bringing before us the ark, the mercy seat, the cherubim of one piece with it. Now as you will all realize we are right back at the very beginning, because when we started these talks on the tabernacle, we took particular notice of how God, in dealing with it, called Moses up into the mount, and there gave him to see by way of vision just what he wanted as a dwelling place in the midst of these people.

And having shown him the layout, the fashion of it, then he wanted him to see it in detail so that he would be able to make all these vessels according to the pattern thereof. And we noted that God began not with something outside, but he began with what we find in the holiest of all, and what we have read about this evening.

The ark, the mercy seat, the cherubim. The very throne of God set up in the midst of these people, Israel. Beginning there with his own very throne, you remember he came out and he dealt with the table on the far side, the north side, and then he dealt with the lampstand on this side, the south side, but not a word about the offer of insects.

Then he came down, looked back at the building to speak about it, and then moved past the laver. Inside he didn't say a word about the altar of incense, and outside he doesn't say a word about the laver.

But he comes down to the altar of burnt offering and then looks around at this court of fine twined linen and the gate with its blue purple scarlet, and then decides to bring in the priesthood. And we have been centering our thoughts in this priesthood because it is typical.

As we saw last evening, how that Aaron the high priest is that wonderful type of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then Aaron sums the priests are types of Christians, because every Christian is a priest. And so he was particularly interested in the priesthood.

The Offerings and the Priesthood

Now we saw that as God dealt with the priesthood, he said to Moses, you have to be bathed and clothed with a priestly garment, and then you shall take a sin offering, and a burnt offering, and an offering of consecration.

We saw how that the priests had to press their hands upon the heads of these offerings, and then we find first of all the sin offering being dealt with, and after it had been slain, then the kidneys midriff were burnt in the altar, but the sin offering itself was carried to a clean place outside the camp.

A long way to go, because if you have about two million people encamped, then you probably have an encampment that would be something like thirteen or fourteen miles in circumference. And if the tabernacle was fixed in the midst of that great encampment, then they must have travelled a long way to get from the north side of that altar to the outside of the camp.

But that's where the sin offering was to be burnt with fire. Right away outside the camp, in that place of distance, that place of separation, that place of isolation, right away out there, the sin offering was burnt to ashes.

Not on an altar, the altar was there inside the court, and the fat kidneys midriff were burned in that altar, but the sin offering itself had to go right outside the camp. And then when God had dealt with the sin offering, he came in to deal with the burnt offering, and then the offering of consecration, and in this way the priests were established in the priesthood.

Now having dealt with that, God moved back into the sanctuary to deal with the altar of incense, which he did not deal with when he came out. And then he came outside to deal with the labour that he did not deal with when he came out.

So we've had before us this particular method God used in bringing before Moses his dwelling place, that he began with that which speaks of his own very throne, and came out step by step until he's bringing in the priesthood and he reaches the furthest place from where he made the beginning.

He began with his own very throne, and he reaches the place of the sin offering, and of course it's a place of sin as well, because the same word in the Hebrew and in the Greek stands for sin and for sin offering.

Christ as the Sin Offering

So God comes right away out to that place of sin, and he makes Christ to be a sin offering. God was manifest in flesh, God was in Christ. And there on that cross, Christ was made to be sin, and made to be a sin offering, and God was in Christ.

Making it possible for these priests to make their way into his presence, that they might have that communion with him, that they might serve, that they might have that communion with him in the sanctuary.

So this is the picture we've been following, how God came out, beginning with the throne, till he comes to the place of the sin offering. We began at the place of the sin offering, realizing how we would have to avail ourselves of what God has provided for us in that sin offering, just as these priests avail themselves by pressing their hands upon the head of the sin offering, the burnt offering, the offering of consecration, identified with the offerings in that way, and then we ourselves see that we must need to go to the cross, to Christ, the sin offering, burnt offering, offering of consecration, by faith, our hands pressed upon his head, and all the value of that work of his is made over to us, and we are established in the priesthood.

A work which was perfect and complete, and we thank God for that. No condemnation, no judgment to those who have been brought into all the value of the finished work of Christ, and it's a work that cannot be undone, it's a work that cannot be ruined, it's a work that depended entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ, depended entirely upon what he accomplished at the cross.

In no way does it depend upon us. We receive all this as a free gift by the grace of God. So then with regard to that position that we are brought in, nothing can change it. But we noted that the priests could become defiled, and so God had to put there a laver at which they must wash hands and feet.

So if they became defiled, they did not go back again to be bathed and clothed a second time, nor for the sin offering, a burnt offering, and an offering of consecration a second time. But if they became defiled, they made use of the laver.

Defilement, Confession, and Fellowship

So we also brought into all the value of the finished work of Christ, and established as priests and able to enter the presence of God and offer up our spiritual sacrifices, neither do we ever go back.

That is a work finished once and for all. But if we become defiled, God has provided for us a laver, so that if as the children of God we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, not with God, with the Father.

We are in a relationship, we are his children, and if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. And the moment we sin as the children of God, our advocate pleads on our behalf. Then we have another advocate, the Spirit within, and he convicts us, and then we have to take heed to this, and we have to make use of the laver.

Otherwise, our fellowship and communion is broken, and that's a very serious thing. The priests had to wash hands and feet thereof, that they die not. And it's a very serious thing for a child of God, brought into all the value of the finished work of Christ, should he sin, or should he be found doing sinful things.

Remember, he that is born of God does not practice sin. No true child of God will go on living in sin. For anyone who professes to be a child of God, and yet lives in sin, or practices sin, it would be evidence that he has never truly been born of God.

Well, all this is for us, and we've realized that as God has made all this, and brought it all in according to his own thought, that we realize we have to be brought into all the value of it, not as something in itself, but enables us to go on, as it enabled the priest to go on and into the sanctuary.

So, coming into all the value of that finished work of Christ enables us to go on and in. So we notice the difference down here, all is making known to us Christ and him crucified. But the moment we step through the door into the sanctuary, then we leave all that behind us.

No suffering, agony, bloodshedding, and death in there. That's all down here. That's at the cross. But that cross enables us to go on to something else, as the priest went on and in. All this being sight, and figure, and shadow, and all brought in for our learning, we upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Christ Glorified in the Sanctuary

And so then, the moment we step inside, it isn't Christ down here, Christ suffering, shedding his blood, dying. It's Christ up there, at the right hand of God, Christ glorified, because in there all is glory.

There's no glittering blade doing its deadly work in there, no bloodshedding, no agony, no death, no. That's all down here. Inside is all quiet and calm, all is glory, Christ up there. So he's the altar of incense, he's the table, he's the lampstand, and we try to take all this in.

And I haven't got the time to go into it again. So let us remember, whilst God has opened the way for the priest to enter in to the altar of incense, to bring out that sweet perfume, he wants them also to take in the table and the lampstand.

We too, whilst we have access to that altar of incense, Christ up there, God wants us to take in the table and the lampstand. And we've been trying to do that, and I believe that the Lord has opened our eyes to see some things that have been hidden.

You know, I marvel greatly because as I move around, so many of the Lord's people come to me and say, you know, I never knew that, I've never seen that before, never heard that. And I think, you know, the devil is very subtle, and if he possibly can, he will hide from us truth which is really precious to us and of vital importance to us.

He'll do his best to hide it from us. Well, I trust that this ministry has been an eye-opening ministry, that the Lord has been opening our eyes to see things that perhaps we've never seen before. So then, as we've moved on and into the sanctuary, we realise that we couldn't go very far because there was a veil there.

And the veil plainly said, no way in. And we have realised that there within the sanctuary was the throne of God. There was the very presence of God. He was there, but there was no way in to his presence.

The Veil and the New and Living Way

Once every year, Aaron the high priest made his way into that holiest of all with blood, which he sprinkled on this mercy seat and before it, but he didn't open away. This was only that God might go on with these people for another year.

So once every year, he entered, but no way in. As long as all this is going on, as long as all these sacrifices and offerings brought in by these people of Israel, as long as they were on this probation, there was no way into the presence of God.

They said, when God made clear to them that if they would obey his voice, and if they would keep his covenant, that they would be to him a kingdom of priests, they said, yes we will. And God took them up on that.

And in his own way, his thoughts, his ways, not like our thoughts and our ways, God works in strange ways. And so he took these people up according to their thought. They verily believed that they could do what God said.

And God said, well the best thing is for them to prove this experimentally. And in doing that, it will bring them where I can really and truly bless them. And so when they said, yes we will do it, God said, all right.

So then these people are on probation. They are on probation to produce a righteousness that God can accept. And God made the arrangements for that. He gave them the law. And we remember that the law is not God's thought.

It cannot be God's thought. It's God's law. But it's not God's thought. God's thought was justification on the principle of faith. But the law is not of faith, so the law could not be God's thought. It's really man's thought, because the law is of works.

A man's thought was of works. He verily believed that he could, by his own works, stand before God in a state of being right. And so God says, all right, I'll take you up on that. I will make the arrangements for you to try out your thought.

And the arrangements he made was the law. But he did it because he meant that law to be a schoolmaster that would bring them to Christ that they might be justified on the principle of faith. This is how God was working.

So the veil plainly said, there's no way in. And this had to go on for hundreds of years, until God eventually stepped in. And he produced the righteousness. They failed. The time came when the verdict went forth, there is none righteous, no not one.

Every mouth is stopped. All the world is guilty. That was it. And then God stepped in. And in the cross, he produces a righteousness, a state of being right. They couldn't do it. He did it. He produced a state of being right through Christ and his sufferings on that cross.

And that righteousness could be made over to them, it could be reckoned to them, it could be imputed to them. It can be reckoned to you, it can be imputed to you, you see, on the principle of faith. So God produced that righteousness in the cross.

It can be us through faith. And so when God produced the righteousness, we remember that the veil of the temple, not the tabernacle, we know of course the tabernacle had gone at the time of Christ, but the temple was there, and in the temple there was a veil.

And that veil in the temple was rent from the top to the bottom, a divine act and very significant because it was rent at that time when Christ was on that cross and God in Christ was producing that state of being right, a righteousness, and the veil was rent.

Which means a new and a living way had been opened up right into the very presence of God. So here in the tabernacle, you see, God's making it perfectly clear that in bringing in the priesthood they could move around in the court and they could enter into the sanctuary and they could stand before the altar of incense.

They could take in that bread, they could take in that lunch, but they couldn't go beyond the veil. God was there, and he was there waiting for a righteousness that would enable his people, that would enable man to stand in his presence without fear.

A righteousness that meant they were justified in the sight of God. So there was the veil, and it speaks of Christ. So the new and living way was opened up in the rent veil. That is, through Christ and his sufferings and death on the cross.

Through the veil, that is to say, his flesh which brings before us the thought of that suffering and death of Christ on the cross. So they had no way in, but we have. We have the rent veil. So you'll notice that I've taken the veil down.

I didn't take it down. The veil was never taken down, it was rent, it was still there. But I've taken it down, I've taken the pillows away, and I've also moved the altar of incense to one side, so that if you can see from where you are, you've got a glimpse of that ark and the mercy seat with the cherubim of one piece with it.

Now that's what we've read about this evening. So we have moved on, having availed ourselves of what God's provided for us, we've moved on, entered into the sanctuary, realised the veil was there, and then seen what happened to that, and now we find we're able to go in by this new and living way, and we stand there and we see the very throne of God.

The Ark as a Type of Christ

God set up a throne in the midst of these people, Israel. He said to Moses, you shall make this ark of the case you would, bring it before us, that perfect humanity of Christ, and then you shall overlay within and without with pure gold, and that's bringing before us the deity of Christ.

So God means this ark in some way to be a type of Christ, and as we think of the case you would, his perfect humanity, we think of the gold, his deity, we have before us Christ. Then God said, now Moses, when you've made that ark, and overlaid it within and without with pure gold, then you shall take the testimony and place it within the ark.

The testimony was the law, the ten commandments written on those two tables of stone. These were to be placed within the ark. Now again, we can see how this is brought in to be in some way a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, because when he came into the world, you remember, he said, in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hadst no pleasure.

God couldn't have pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. These never sufficed before God. For the time being, God allowed all this to take place, but these burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin could not put away sin.

They could only cover it for the time being, and that was the meaning of the word atonement, to cover over, and so we have atonement brought in. But these things could not put away sin. And so now, as we are thinking of this ark and mercy seat, he coming into the world and saying, in these burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hadst no pleasure, then say, thy law I come.

In the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God. A body hast thou prepared me. Thy law is within my heart. That is. There you have the ark, the acacia wood, the gold, and now within the ark you have the law.

He says, thy law is within my heart. So there we have that which brings before us the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now God says, I want you to make a throne, make it of pure gold, I have a talent of pure gold, and these cherubim of one piece with it, one cherub on the one end and the other cherub on the other end, and they shall stretch their wings above the mercy seat, their faces shall be towards one another and they shall be looking down upon that very throne of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ was the only one through whom God could possibly set up a throne. And there we have it in the tabernacle. Christ is there before us in the ark with the law within, and now the throne of God is set up on the ark with the cherubim of one piece with it.

Now it all brings before us Christ, but let us remember Christ in all that moral glory with regard to the law was no saviour. Something else had to be done before we could be satisfied, before God could be satisfied.

Something else had to be done. Not simply that Christ came and lived that perfect life and was perfect with regard to the law in all its detail, but more than that. Up to that point he is no saviour. So now we are thinking of the very throne of God and the cherubim of one piece with it.

Cherubim and the Judgment of God

Now we've looked back and we've seen how that when man and woman were driven out of the garden of Eden that God placed cherubim and a flaming sword to keep the way of the tree of life. He tabernacled, that's the word, God tabernacled cherubim right there at the entrance to that garden to keep the way of the tree of life.

That was a primitive tabernacle. That declared there was the very presence of God. Now we turn to the tabernacle and there within the holiest of all screened by the veil we have the very throne of God, the very presence of God and the cherubim of one piece with it.

Now those cherubim always seem to be connected with judicial authority. They are there as part of the very throne of God because they are God's executive. They are there as the guardians of the very throne of God.

They are there to preserve the majesty of that throne of God. Should anyone in any way violate the throne of God, the righteousness of God, the holiness of God, then the cherubim would be the assurance of the judgment of God taking place.

So they are there to preserve the majesty of the very throne of God. Now as we are thinking of this, I want us to remember that God found himself in a very, very difficult position. He had tremendous problems to solve.

Of necessity man was outside. God is a holy God. As a holy God he cannot go on with sin, he cannot ignore sin. God of necessity must show his wrath against sin. And the wrath of God is the necessary expression of God's essential holiness.

He cannot go on with sin, he cannot ignore sin, he must of necessity deal with sin. So then, we think of God himself a holy God. But now God has a people and he brought those people in because he wanted them.

He brought in a race of men because God wanted to have fellowship and communion. God wanted that he as God and they as his people would be able to have that fellowship and communion that they would be together and what God had in his mind was something tremendous and it hasn't yet been seen.

There was the intention on God's part to develop all the resources of the world and to do it in such a way that it would all work out for his glory and for man's good. This is what he intended. But then you see sin came in and it separated the man from God.

So the man is at a distance and of necessity because God is a holy God and he cannot go on with sinners in that way. So they're outside. But then God isn't satisfied. He still wants that fellowship and communion.

God’s Holiness and the Need for Atonement

But in order to have it he has problems. You see as a holy God looks at the creature whom he has created and sees that that creature has become a sinner, God says the penalty is suffering and death. Now there's no way of getting around that.

It's a holy God and according to that holiness sin must suffer. There's no possibility of escape. There can be no mercy where there's sin. No mere forgiveness. God as a holy God has got to deal with that sin.

Now how is he going to deal with it? Remember we are human beings. Is God human? Is God a man? No. Well then we are human beings and we have sinned and therefore having to do with a holy God we must suffer and die for our sins.

Someone else must suffer and die for our sins. But our sins have got to be suffered for and got to be died for. Because God is a holy God. He cannot ignore sin. He must deal with it. And he deals with it in suffering and death.

So now God looks upon a people who are sinners, who must suffer and must die. Or find somebody else to suffer and die. But who can they find? Can someone, some man redeem his brother? Can someone say, well I'll suffer and die on behalf of the others?

No. They're all in the same position and the same condition. All under the sentence of death. So here's God's problem. How then is he going to save these people? How bring them into the fellowship and communion with himself?

There's only one way. God as God cannot suffer. He cannot die. What a problem. So God decides that he himself will solve this problem and he'll solve it in this way. He will send his son who shall come as born of a virgin made in the likeness of man.

Taking a body that God prepared for him that he might acquire the capacity to suffer and die. But God in Christ is going to suffer and die. That man might be able to have that fellowship of communion with God.

This is the problem God had to solve. So he decides then that he will send his only begotten son. That he will come into this world as man, as born of woman, as born of a virgin. How is he going to do it?

I read in my Bible these words. Can anyone bring a clean thing out of an unclean? A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a child. Can you bring a clean thing out of an unclean? God does it. The woman conceives by the Holy Spirit and she brings forth a child, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin.

He does it. But he's still got a problem. He now is going to make that one suffer, the just from the unjust. That is not just. How can you make the just suffer for the unjust and still remain just? That's another problem.

God has all these problems to solve in order that we may have fellowship with him. And he's doing it through the person of his beloved son. And he made him to be sinned. And he made him to bear sins. And he made him suffer.

He didn't show him any mercy. And yet he was just. You see, if God had made Christ to suffer, to bear our sins and to exhaust the wrath of God, and had left him then, as having paid the penalty and been taken down from the cross and buried in the tomb, and left him there, he would not have been just.

But he didn't leave him there. He raised him from among the dead. And he gave him a name which is above every name. And at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth.

So the one that God made to be sinned and to endure and suffer on account of sin, he's going to be glorified. A name above every name. He's going to see the travail of his soul. He's going to be satisfied.

How wonderful God has dealt with this situation. To enable us, alienated from him afar off, to be able to draw nigh. He did it. What a problem. And so there we think of God. He's in the holiest. And something has to be done to enable these people to have that fellowship and communion with him.

Divine Love, Justice, and Reconciliation

And all this a picture, a type, that we may look at it and see how God, in his own wonderful way, has made provision. This is a tremendous problem. God, because he is a God of love, having brought in a people, he loved them.

Because they had sinned, he didn't cast them off forever. They were not driven out of his presence forever. They were not banished eternally. And now God wants to do something about it. And then his great heart of love, because he brought them in as a father bringing in his children in creation, God longs to bring them back.

So now you have this great heart of love, longing to bring them back. But if he just brings them back, he must judge them for their sin, make them suffer and make them die. Now isn't this a problem? He longs to bring them back.

But if he brings them back, he must judge them and put them to death. You know David was in something like that position. He had a son and he loved him with all his heart. And that son of his was guilty of murder and he fled away into exile.

And David's heart was after his son. It was after his son. He loved him as he loved his own soul. And he wanted to bring him back because he loved him. But he knew that if he brought him back, he would have to judge him for that crime and have him put to death.

What can you do? Can you devise means in some way? David, can't you do something? You want to bring that son of yours back? Yes I do. Well just bring him back and forgive him. Ah, says David, if I do that, there are people who will stand and say you're not fit to be a king.

You should never be found sitting on that throne because you are showing mercy to your own flesh and blood. But you're letting others suffer and die. Oh he had a problem and he didn't know how he was going to solve it.

Until a woman came to him and she was a very wise woman and she caught him out. He was caught out. He said you know I had two sons and they started fighting and one killed the other. And now they're saying hand over your son.

The one that remains, you're a poor widow, hand him over. We're going to slay him because he murdered his brother. What am I going to do? And David said no, not on your life. I shall not touch him. You go your way.

I'll give charge concerning you. Caught out. He had exercised his mercy at the expense of Jacob. He should have said to that woman, I'm sorry for you. You're a poor widow woman. You've lost one son. Now they want the other one.

I'm sorry. If that son of yours slew his brother, then he's got to pay the penalty for it. I'm sorry. I'm in the same position myself. I've got a son out there. He murdered his brother. What can I do about it?

No, David was there listening to the woman. His heart went out of the poor soul and he said no. They shall not do it. And she turned around and said to him very nicely, the king does have to distinguish one of his faulty.

Why don't you show mercy to your son, David? You've shown mercy to mine. I'm not yours. And what was the result? The result was dreadful. He exercised mercy at the expense of justice. And the results were terrible.

God will never do that. He will never exercise his mercy at the expense of justice. God must meet the demands made by his own holiness. Now you will probably agree with me when I say when man sinned against God, something happened in the man.

The man became other than he was. He became a sinner. It's not simply that he did something sinful and he was a sinner because he did something sinful. It's more than that. That when he did that which was sinful, he didn't only just become sinful because of what he did, but he became sinful in himself.

His constitution was corrupted. He became other than he was. He became a sinner in himself. And God has to deal with that situation. Not simply what a man does, but what a man is. God's got to deal with that.

And he did deal with it. But when I say to you, not only did something happen in the man when he sinned against God, but something happened in God. Oh, you say, no. I say that when man sinned against God, not only did something happen in God, but something happened in the man.

Not only did something happen in the man, something happened in God. What could have happened in God? Well, I believe that when man sinned against God, the harmony of the Godhead was disturbed. That the attributes of God were set one against another because a man sinned.

What are the attributes of God? Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace. Ah, Mr. Brown, you've left out the greatest of all the attributes of God. What's that? Well, surely the love of God. Well, to me, the love of God is the sum total of all those attributes.