Between the AngelsSample

Day 4: Where God Wants to Meet You

“And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat…” Exodus 25:21-22 (ESV)

When the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek (the Septuagint translation), the word for mercy seat, kappōret (כַּפֹּרֶת), was translated as hilastērion (ἱλαστήριον), which means place of propitiation, place of grace, or seat of mercy.

Two cherubim spread their wings over the hilastērion, forming a canopy, covering the space between the cover of the Ark of the Covenant and what was under it, the blood of the sacrifice.

The Ark of the Covenant contained sacred things: the two stone tablets, Aaron's rod, and the manna from the desert.

God said that He would meet with the people at that place and speak to them from above the mercy seat, that space above the lid where the blood of sacrifice was sprinkled.

Note the location: Not inside the Ark. Not next to the tablets. Above the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Very precise!

"Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people..." 1 Samuel 6:19 (NKJV)

The men of Beth-shemesh opened the Ark and looked inside. The consequence was disastrous. People actually died. Why? In Numbers 4:20, it says that no one could look inside the Ark, under penalty of death. Only specific Levites were allowed to carry it. No one was allowed to look at the uncovered Ark of the Covenant, otherwise they would die.

Was God showing the pattern of how the Law needed a covering?

Would the men of Beth-Shemesh, upon looking inside the Ark of the Covenant, ignore the mercy seat and fix their eyes on the Law? As Paul later says, the law kills. The Law should never be the meeting place.

This is the pattern that permeates the Scriptures. God offers mercy, and people go beyond it, trying to find Him through obedience, effort, and proving their own righteousness. But the meeting place was never the commandments. It was always the covering above them.

Paul understood this. In Romans 3:25, he writes that God presented Christ as the hilastērion. The word is the same one used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for mercy seat or place of mercy.

Paul is not simply saying that Jesus made atonement possible. He is saying that Jesus is the place where atonement happens. He is the mercy seat. He is the place of grace and mercy!

When God said, "I will meet you there," He was pointing to His Son. That is why Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. Not through commandments, through performance, nor through many good works. It can only be through Him, Jesus.

And that is what grace does. It levels everyone. The one who worked hard and the one who failed completely are in the same place. Both need mercy. Both receive it in the same way. There is no hierarchy or vainglory. There is only the place of grace, and that place is a Person.

Those who want to find God through their own righteousness will always resist it. It offends the ego. It throws the scoreboard off. But those who come to the mercy seat find what the Law could never give them. They find fellowship and rest. They find the God who always wanted to meet them.

The Ark contained the Law, but God never asked anyone to meet Him there. He is waiting for us at the hilastērion, in the mercy seat. And the mercy seat is Jesus.

For Reflection:

• Where have you been trying to find God? Have you been drawing near to Him through your own efforts, obedience, or good works, or through the place of mercy He has provided in Christ?