What is the mercy seat?

The mercy seat consisted of a slab of pure gold, two and a half cubits long by one and a half cubits broad, which rested upon the ark. It had a distinct significance and designation of its own. It was not part of the ark, though always in conjunction with it. The holy of holies is called “the place of the mercy seat” (see Lev. 16:2 and 1 Chr. 28:11). The Hebrew word for mercy seat is Kapporeth = to cover up, to reconcile, to atone.

This was made of pure gold and covered the ark. Two cherubim were also made of pure gold and were of one piece with the mercy seat. The faces were inwards, towards the covenant that was contained in the ark. God said to Moses, "I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony." The place for the mediator to receive divine communications from God, and for the high priest to approach with the blood of atonement, was the mercy seat. It is typical of Christ, the same word being used in the N.T. for the mercy seat in the tabernacle and for the Lord Himself, "whom God hath set forth to be a mercy seat," ἱλαστήριον. Rom. 3:25; Heb. 9:5.

Blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat once a year on the day of atonement. This Aaron "offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:" typical of Christ entering into heaven, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Heb. 9:7,12. The veil of the temple being rent, God has come out in grace, and man in the person of Christ has gone in, and the Christian is exhorted to come at all times boldly to the throne of grace that he may find grace to help in time of need. Ex. 25:17-22; Ex. 26:34; Ex. 30:6; Ex. 31:7; Ex. 35:12; Ex. 37:6-9; Ex. 39:35; Ex. 40:20; Lev. 16:2-15; Num. 7:89; 1 Chr. 28:11.

The mercy-seat, as already briefly described, was a cover upon the ark, of the same length and breadth; it was of pure gold, and at either end were cherubim beaten out of one piece with it; they were thus a part of the mercy-seat. These symbolic figures had their wings overshadowing the mercy-seat, and their faces looking down upon it.

Within the holy of holies but one sacred vessel was found - that was the Ark of the Covenant - a chest of acacia wood of two cubits and a half in length, a cubit and a half in breadth, and the same in height, overlaid with pure gold within and without, and having a crown or rim of gold upon it round about. Its top, or lid, was the Mercy-Seat, made of pure gold, with two Cherubim of beaten gold, one at either end which had their wings outstretched, and so covering it, and their faces towards it, looking down on it. In this Ark were deposited the two Tables of the Law. And four gold rings at its feet, two on each side, in which the staves of acacia wood covered with gold were to be placed, for it to be carried aloft on the shoulders of the Kohathites, completed this sacred chest. This Ark with the two Tables of the Law was typical of the Lord Jesus with the law within His heart (Ps. 40:8). It was the symbol of God's presence too, as we shall see clearly further on. On, or between the Cherubim, God was said to sit (Ps. 80:1). So the Mercy-Seat was the place of His throne, from which He gave Moses commandments (Ex. 25:22; Numbers 7:89) for the children of Israel. And on the Mercy-Seat the Blood of Atonement was sprinkled once every year, the cloud of glory, the token of Jehovah's presence, shining thereon.

Into this chamber no common priest could enter. Aaron only was permitted to visit it once a year, though probably Moses, as Mediator, had at all times access to it (Ex. 25:22, 34:34-35); for the prohibition in Lev. 16:2, ran in this form, "Speak to Aaron, thy, brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil." Not a word was here said of restriction to Moses. With him, years after God declared, He would speak mouth to mouth, and the similitude (or form) of the Lord he should behold (Num. 12:8). Within that chamber only one voice that we read of was heard by human ears; that was the voice of God (Num. 7:89). Within the veil only one service was conducted, and that on the day of atonement, when Aaron, having entered with the blood of the sin-offering sprinkled it on the Mercy-Seat and before it, and then retraced his steps in silence; for no prayer, that we read of, escaped his lips, nor was any needed; yet a voice, we may say, was heard that day, though not by Aaron. For it was not the voice of God addressing him, or speaking to the Mediator, Moses, but the voice of the blood speaking through the type to God, and speaking better than that of Abel (Heb. 12:24).

The Mercy Seat consisted of a slab of pure gold, stained with the blood of the Sin Offering on the Great Day of Atonement, which rested above upon the Ark. Only on that day, and by the High Priest alone, could entrance be made into the Holiest of All in order to sprinkle the blood once upon the Mercy Seat eastward, and seven times before it. The gold typified Divine righteousness. Without Divine righteousness being satisfied there could not be any flowing out of God's grace to guilty man. The blood of the Sin Offering typified the precious blood of Christ. As it were, the gold demanded righteous satisfaction, the blood met that demand, and so it became a Mercy Seat.

Have we the thought of the Mercy Seat in the New Testament? Yes, for we read, "And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy Seat" [Greek hilasterion] (Heb. 9:5). "Whom [Christ] God has set forth to be a propitiation [Greek hilasterion] through faith in His blood" (Rom. 3:25). "He is the propitiation [Greek hilasmos] for our sins" (1 John 2:2). "God … sent His Son to be the propitiation [Greek hilasmos] for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Thus the New Testament shows clearly that Mercy Seat and propitiation is one and the same word. Thus. the Old and New Testament clasp hands.

PROPITIATION! This is a long word. What does it mean? The same word in other places is translated mercy seat. So we read, “Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth as a propitiation [a mercy Seat] through faith in His blood” (Rom. 3:25). It is set forth typically in the ritual of the tabernacle in the wilderness. There was the ark in the Holiest of All, the ark composed of shittim wood, covered with pure gold. The shittim wood setting forth the humanity of our Lord, the pure gold His deity. God and man, one blessed Person. On the top of the ark lay a slab of pure gold, setting forth divine righteousness. Once a year the High Priest entered the Holiest of All, and sprinkled the blood of the sin-offering on the gold. Typically the gold cried out for its claims to be met. Typically the blood satisfied those claims. Thus it became typically a mercy-seat, a meeting place between God and the sinner, God in all His holiness, the sinner in all his sin and defilement.

Now the point is this. Once a year, on what was called the Day of Atonement, the High Priest of Israel took the blood of a freshly sacrificed animal and sprinkled the blood upon and in front of the lid of the Ark. The lid was called the Mercy Seat. The lesson was this. God was righteous in showing mercy to the people of Israel for another year, because the sacrifice had been offered and applied exactly in accordance with God's detailed instructions. Symbolically, the price that God demanded to cover their sins had been fully paid. This provisional process and transaction was called atonement as far as Israel was concerned.

‘Propitiation’ or ‘atonement’ means ‘covering’ (in Hebrew). In the Old Testament it was used for the lid (‘cover’) of the ark of the covenant. The tables of the law were in the ark (declaring that man was guilty). The cherubim looked down onto the golden lid of the ark which speaks of the immaculate glory of God (so they had to acknowledge that God had to condemn man). But then the lid of the ark was sprinkled with blood (Lev.16), the blood of an innocent victim, shed for a guilty people. So God could spare His people. This is a picture of what Christ has done: He gave his life, His blood was shed, so that God does not have to judge us. We are ‘covered’ by His giving his life for us.

Him has God set forth a propitiatory, through faith, by His blood; this, as the Revised Version has it, is no doubt preferable to the common one, which reads, "through faith in His blood." The word "propitiatory" is that used in the Septuagint for the "mercy-seat," as it is also in the epistle to the Hebrews (9:5), the only place in which it is found again in the New Testament. The mercy seat was the place in Israel in which atonement, or propitiation was "set forth" as the formal basis upon which God dwelt in relation with a sinful people. It was the throne of God, where He dwelt between the cherubim, and was made a "mercy-seat" by the blood sprinkled upon it. Thus "a propitiatory by His blood" is right; faith being that by which it is available to us, who now have such a throne of grace, the antitype of that ancient one, really accessible, as for Israel that ancient one was not. We have boldness to enter into the holy places, (where the mercy-seat stood), and Christ gone in to God is He through whom "grace reigns through righteousness." The rent veil is here implied as the characteristic of Christianity, though the theme in Romans is not worship, as in Hebrews, but that acceptance with God which is fundamental to it. The gospel of the glory (Paul's gospel) is thus in fact here.

Christ a Mercy Seat. — God has set forth Christ a propitiatory, or mercy seat, through faith in His blood. The mention of the mercy seat here, the same word that we have in Heb. 9:5, leaving therefore no real doubt as to what the apostle meant all to understand, carries us back in thought, as it doubtless did the readers of the Septuagint in Paul's day, to the tabernacle in the wilderness, and especially to Lev. 16, in which alone we find the ritual for the day of atonement. On that day Aaron approached the mercy seat, and sprinkled thereon the blood of the bullock, and of the goat, and left it there under the searching eye of the Holy God. Now the mercy seat was the place of God's throne upon earth. From thence He spoke to Moses (Num. 7:89), and there upon the cherubim He was said to sit (1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; 1 Chron. 13:6; Ps. 80:1; Ps. 99:1; Isa. 37:16), His earthly seat, or throne (Ezek. 43:7). The blood of the sin offering sprinkled thereon, and left there, was the abiding witness that God had been glorified, propitiation made, and hence that He could accept before Him, a people who had sinned. By that blood the claims of divine holiness and righteousness had been typically met. So God was righteous in dealing with His people in grace. But now the true sacrifice has been offered up, propitiation for sins has been made, and atonement has been fully effected. God therefore points us to Christ, whom He has set forth a mercy seat through faith in His blood, to declare (lit., for the showing forth of) His righteousness in the past as well as in the present. In the past, inasmuch as He is thereby shown to have been righteous in passing over sins in days anterior to the cross. In the present, since He is also shown to be righteous in justifying those who believe on Jesus. Propitiation has been made, and God points all to His Son as the proof of it, just as the mercy seat with the blood on it attested that it had been typically accomplished. Truly then may we say in the language of the Psalmist, Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.