Exodus 25:17-22 And you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof… Our mercy-seat, our reconciliation-residence is Jesus, the Divine Saviour, the God-man mediator. And all the typical teachings of this branch of our subject may be drawn out in the attempt to answer one question, viz.: What sort of a mercy-seat have we in Christ? I. In replying to this inquiry, I desire to show that we have in Christ, in the first place, AN AUTHORIZED MERCY-SEAT. He who occupies this mercy-seat is "a just God and a Saviour." No violence is done to any principle of honour, or of justice in the government of the universe by the dispensing of grace from this mercy-seat. The Divine law is magnified and made honourable. Every attribute of the Divine character is vindicated. II. But I observe secondly of the mercy-seat which we are bidden to approach in Christ that it is an ENCOURAGING MERCY-SEAT. Christ, in the glory of His finished righteousness, is the medium through which God looks at all His believing children. He sees them only "in the face of His anointed." Hence it is said of believers in Christ that "they are righteous" in God's sight, "even as He," etc. Christ "is righteous." III. But thirdly I observe respecting this mercy-seat that it is FULL OF PRIVILEGE FOE THE PRESENT. Suppose you were travelling in a foreign land. You are cut off from intercourse with all whom you most love on earth. There is only one channel through which you can hear from home, and obtain the supply of all that is necessary to meet your daily wants. How precious that channel of communication would be to you! How you would prize it! How anxious and careful you would be to keep it open! The thought of having it interrupted, or cut off, would be insupportable to you. Yet this is but a faint image of the Christian's position here in the world, and of the relation of the mercy-seat to Him. IV. There is only one other point of view from which we may glance at the mercy-seat, and thus contemplated it shines before us as BRIGHT WITH HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. Hitherto it has always been true of Jehovah that, "verily He is a God that hideth Himself." But the time cometh, when of all that pertains to the character and work of God, it may be said, "There hath been nothing hid that will not be made manifest." "What we know not now we shall know hereafter." The true Shekinah upon the mercy-seat will have no single dark point connected with it. Over all its outspread surface the cloud will be lighted up with the splendours of Divinity. You have often seen a mass of clouds in the western sky, unillumined by the sun's rays, as the day was drawing to a close. You know how dark and unattractive that mass appeared. But presently you see the sun pass behind it, and what a wondrous transformation is wrought in its appearance! How radiant the whole mass becomes! How every point in it glows and sparkles with the splendours of the sun that shines through it! So will it be with the cloud upon our mercy-seat. When Jesus was on earth the coarse garments of humanity were upon Him. Then the shekinah cloud was dark. But the redeemed shall look upon that cloud again amidst the glory of the heavenly kingdom. Then all darkness will have passed away. The sun of uncreated Deity will be pouring all its brightness through it. (R. Newton, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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