The Mercy Seat: Tabernacle Series Part 6

Contents Of The Ark.
Hidden inside the Ark were three items: 

#1: The Ten Commandments carved on stones of Sapphire* 

#2: A golden bowl containing manna;

#3:  and Aaron’s rod that budded.

The High Priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice seven times 7️⃣ in front of the mercy seat but only once on top, covering what was inside.  The “One drop” depicts Jesus’ blood, hence only one drop was needed, but why seven 7️⃣ in front? 🤔 I’m glad you asked!

Job 1:6 recounts for us a curious event.  It says, “One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.”

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 Satan??? 😮😮😮 What in the world was he doing there? 🤯 He had come along with all the good heavenly beings and presented himself to God.  Because he is evil, the place where he stood was defiled.  But why was he even allowed to be there at all?  

In case you were unaware, all numbers in the Bible have meanings. 7️⃣ Seven is particularly significant.  The Holy Spirit includes them to add richness and meaning to the text.  Seven 7️⃣ is the number of completeness or perfection.”  Sprinkling blood seven 7️⃣ times covered and sanctified the place in front of the altar so that the priest could come before a Holy God with his sins perfectly covered under the Old Covenant.

Notice their sins were covered, not cleansed.  But when Jesus came and offered His perfect SINLESS blood, He sprinkled it in front of the throne of God and sat down on the Mercy Seat.  HE CLEANSED OUR SINS FOR ALL TIME as well as that place where the devil had heretofore been allowed to stand.  He can NO LONGER come before the throne of God and accuse us! HALLELUJAH!!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Why were these three particular items inside the Ark?  Because they represent the entire scope of man’s rejection:

#1) Of God’s Law, represented by the stone tablets.

#2) Rejection of God’s provision, represented by the golden pot of manna.

#3)  Rejection of God-appointed leadership, represented by Aaron’s rod.

In Exodus 16 and 17, you recall, the people were complaining about Aaron being appointed as their leader.  So God instructed Moses to collect from all 12 tribal leader’s their rod, which was a symbol of leadership.  The name of each tribal head was inscribed on their respective rods…for identification purposes…and all were placed in front of the Mercy Seat before the LORD.

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Let’s follow the story…..

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Exodus 17:8 “Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, THE ROD OF AARON, OF THE HOUSE OF LEVI, HAD SPROUTED AND PUT FORTH BUDS, HAD PRODUCED BLOSSOMS AND YIELDED RIPE ALMONDS. 9 Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod.”

EVERYTHING that represented man’s rebellion against God He wanted to be put UNDER the Mercy Seat so they would be COVERED BY THE BLOOD that was sprinkled on top every year. 

Balak’s Revelation.
When Balak hired the wizard, Balaam, God caused him to say to King Balak in Numbers 23:21  “He (the LORD) has not OBSERVED iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He SEEN wickedness in Israel…”

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How blessed we are under the New Covenant! 💖 We don’t have to deal with all that sacrificing!  HALLELUJAH! 🙌🏻 Our Great High Priest lives FOREVER after the order of Melchizedeck.  JESUS atoned for our sins in His own body, once for all time.  HE IS OUR MERCY SEAT!

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(Green, by the way, is the color of New Covenant.  See the article below about the Dove and the Olive Branch for more on that topic:

https://emmausroadministries.international/2016/04/13/the-dove-and-the-olive-branch-flood-series-part-4/)

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Uh oh!  Remind me again: Why were the tablets were under the Mercy Seat? Oh yeah…..SO THAT WHEN GOD LOOKED DOWN ON THE ARK, HE WOULD SEE ONLY THE BLOOD AND NOT OUR REBELLION.

BUT…..if you insist on taking them out from under the Mercy Seat, let me remind you what happened at Beth Shemesh.

The people of the town were very excited to see the Ark of the Covenant being returned to them.  You see, it had been in the hand of the Philistines for some time.  Why was it with them?  Well, it’s a really long story. If you would like to read the whole sordid tale 😔, you may follow the link below:

https://emmausroadministries.international/2016/03/16/why-did-the-oxen-stumble/

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They were curious, I’m sure, to look inside the ark, to see the three famous items.  Know what happened to them?  GOD BROKE OUT AND KILLED A NUMBER OF THEM.  You can read all about it in 1 Samuel 6 and in the article above.

Ya think He’s serious about leaving those items UNDER the Mercy seat?  DUH!  I’d say so! Well guess what?…….HE HASN’T CHANGED HIS MIND!!

The Letter Kills.

The fact of the matter is, the letter kills……quite literally I might add. The Law killed then and IT STILL DOES; maybe not as quickly…..but ultimately just as physically dead.

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“How’s that,” you ask? Our attempts to be justified to before God by trying to keep the Law brings condemnation.   When played out to its fullest extent, it is ultimately deadly to our physical bodies.

This is why so many in the church fall sick and die before their time to this day.  Many people are trying to please God by their performance, which is the same as trying to keep the law.  IT DOESN’T WORK.  It never has and it never will.  Try as we might, you and I cannot think or be or do good enough.  That’s why we need a Savior!  Salvation is Jesus…..PLUS NOTHING.

But with Jesus as our Eternal Mercy Seat, there is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to those who are in Christ Jesus……HALLELUIA!!!

So remember, pastors:  IF YOU WANT TO TEACH THE TEN COMMANDMENTS YOU HAVE TO PUSH JESUS ASIDE. 😲 Really bad idea!  Why not just stick to preaching  The New Covenant?  Read all about it in Hebrews 10.

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