What is the mercy seat?

Of these the highest is the ark. It was the seat of Divine Majesty in Israel; and, as all know, the mercy seat was above all that throne of God — the mercy seat which afterwards we see with blood sprinkled on it and before it. Was this nothing? Was there not comfort for any heart that trusts God, that He should take such a seat as this, and give it such a name, in relationship with a guilty people on the earth?

The mercy seat formed a covering for the ark, and in the ark was the testimony, the law of God on tablets of stone. This was the only seat in the tabernacle, the place where God would meet with Israel, though none of Israel except the high priest, once a year, could enter there. From that place God would communicate His mind and will to Moses for the children of Israel.

The mercy seat was a slab of pure gold, stained with the blood of the sin offering on the Great Day of Atonement, which rested above the ark. Only on that day, and by the high priest alone, could anyone enter the Most Holy Place to sprinkle the blood once on the mercy seat eastward, and seven times before it. The gold pictured divine righteousness. Unless divine righteousness was satisfied, God's grace could not flow out to guilty man. The blood of the sin offering pictured the precious blood of Christ. The gold, as it were, demanded righteous satisfaction; the blood met that demand, and so it became a mercy seat.

The law — the testimony of what God required of man — was in the ark, but thank God it was covered by the mercy seat. Another has well said, "Suppose an ark with no mercy seat. The law would then be uncovered; there would be nothing to hush its thunder, nothing to stop the carrying out of its righteous sentence. Could a nation of law-breakers stand before it? Could a holy and righteous God meet sinners there? Could mercy reign, or grace shine out from such an ark? Impossible! An uncovered ark might provide a throne of judgment, but not a seat of mercy."

The cherubim, who in Scripture are always connected with the judicial power of God, or are the ones who carry out the will of that power, are of gold too, and the direction of their faces is important. Inward, towards the mercy seat. Why? Because they could see there what the moral nature of God demanded must be on the mercy seat, if man, a sinner, is to draw near to a holy God who hates sin and must judge it. And what do they see on the mercy seat? Blood.

The word "propitiatory" is the one used in the Greek Old Testament for the "mercy seat," as it is also in the letter to the Hebrews, the only other place where it is found in the New Testament. The mercy seat was the place in Israel where atonement, or propitiation, was "set forth" as the formal basis on which God dwelt in relationship with a sinful people. It was the throne of God, where He dwelt between the cherubim, and it was made a "mercy seat" by the blood sprinkled on it. So "a propitiatory by His blood" is right; faith is the means by which it becomes available to us, who now have such a throne of grace, the reality behind that ancient one, and really accessible — as for Israel that ancient one was not.

The Israelite was familiar with the thought of the mercy seat, with the cherubim of glory overshadowing it; but it was a strange thought to him that this mercy seat should be a place of free access for him. He thought the cherubim of glory guarded the way into the presence of God, just as effectively as the cherubim with the flaming sword guarded the way to the tree of life at the entrance to the garden of Eden. He thought God was to be kept at a distance. Faith's thought is that through Christ we can draw near with boldness to a throne of grace.