The Mercy Seat

The Ark of the Covenant has a covering called "the mercy seat." It is a lid that has 2 cherubim facing each other on top of it. In Exodus 25:22, God said“There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”

In 1 Sam 6:19, seventy Bethshemesh people (most likely Levites) died, as they looked into the Ark Covenant. "And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD" (KJV). Why did God smite the men? It's because they open the seat of mercy and looked inside the ark, where the tablets of the ten commandments are. 

God told them that he will meet them on top of the mercy seat; but instead, they remove the mercy seat and looked inside, and they were judged and died according to the law.  If God had said we meet at the law tablets, then all of us would have died, because we all fall short of his glory and of his law. 

So why is the mercy seat important and significant? 

Romans 3:25 says "whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins."

The word "propitiation" in Greek is "hilasterion".  The mercy seat in Hebrew is "kapporeth" meaning to "to cover" or "to atone". Septuagint (Greek OT) translate kapporeth as hilasterion. The two words meant the same thing - literally the “place of propitiation or atonement.”

Paul deliberately connects Christ to the mercy seat. Just as God’s presence was above the mercy seat and blood was sprinkled there for atonement, Christ Himself is now the true mercy seat, with His own blood for our atonement. 

But people do not want to meet God through Jesus. Rather they want to meet him through their good works, through their own kindness, through their generosity, through their ministry, through their prayers. Romans 10:3-4: "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."

Jesus level the playing ground - whether you are a good citizen or you are a criminal, the standard is the same. But many people do not agree with that, as they have worked very hard to gain acceptance from God. But Hislasterion levels everything and everybody receive the same grace and the same mercy. 

Romans 3:22-23 "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

God told us clearly, He will meet us trough His mercy seat, Jesus Christ. Jesus said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Everyone who try to go to the Father by their own works will be judge by the law, and all who does this will die like the Bethshemesh people.