What Was the Mercy Seat?
Genesis 3:24, “He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” [Note: the word cherub is singular. The word cherubim is plural, meaning there were at least two cherubs guarding the way into paradise.]
Exodus 25:18-22, “And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat.”
Hebrews 9:3-5, “Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.”
If only the author of the letter to the Hebrews had time and space to speak in detail about these things! What exactly was the mercy seat? Functionally, the mercy seat was the lid to the ark of the testimony. Inside were a jar of manna, Aaron’s staff, and the tablets of the 10 Commandments.
But it was more than a mere cover because God said He would meet with His people from above the mercy seat. Blood was sprinkled on it once a year during the high day of atonement (Leviticus 16:14).
The most striking architectural feature of the mercy seat were the two golden cherubs whose faces were turned toward the lid of the ark, looking down upon the sprinkled blood, as it were. The way in which these angels appear elsewhere in Moses’ writings helps inform how we should think about the theological significance of the mercy seat.
The very first two times we hear of cherubim in the Bible are in Genesis 3 and then in Exodus 25, as quoted above. When the details of the construction of the ark were given, the minds of Moses’ readers would have rightly turned to think about how humanity was cast out of paradise. The cherubim prevented Adam and Eve from returning to the garden, the place of God’s presence.
And now two cherubim have appeared again in the story of God’s people—this time as guardians of God’s presence in the tabernacle. Images of cherubim were also woven into the fabric of the curtain that separated the holy place and the Most Holy Place (Exodus 26:31-33).
The way is guarded and dangerous. God’s presence is barred. Our sin prevents us from returning to God.
And yet there was mercy. God had provided a way to have peace with Him. He wanted to dwell among His people. He provided a way for His wrath to not break out against them. Through the sacrificial system, we learn that God’s wrath must be turned away. Their sins must be covered. There had to be a substitute to take their place. The sacrificial system was a reminder of how blood keeps God’s wrath at bay. It was a reminder of their great distance from Him. But it was also a reminder about how the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. What God required from His people He also provided.
We Learn Theology Through Words
The source and definition of the words we use are the life-blood of theology. The very content of our doctrine is comprised of words—a pattern of sound, healthy words that give life (2 Timothy 1:13-14). Learning the depth of certain, significant words of the Bible—words like ransom, redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation—will help us learn the precious doctrines that are contained in such significant words. And this is true also of the mercy seat.
When we examine the mercy seat we see it was a cover. In fact, the word is literally “the covering place” (kapporeth). The root of this noun is the verb kapher, meaning to cover. Historically, some have simply translated ‘mercy seat’ as ‘the cover’—as in the covering lid that covers the ark's contents.
However, this translation is to be rejected, because ‘to cover’ in many other places in the Hebrew Bible meant to hide from the eyes of God. Our sin is ‘covered’ by blood and thus ‘hidden’ from the eyes of justice.
For example, after the incident of the golden calf, we read, “The next day Moses said to the people, ‘You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement [kapporeth; make a covering] for your sin’” (Exodus 32:30). Therefore, “the covering place” [kapporeth, mercy seat] was the place where the high priest made atonement for the whole people, by covering their sin.
For this reason, God instituted the celebration called Yom Kippur: literally, the day of covering (from the same root verb kapher - ‘to cover’). It was on this day, also called the Day of Atonement, that the high priest went into the Holy of Holies to offer blood on behalf of all the people (Leviticus 16:29; 23:26). The place of sprinkled blood between the cherubim was the place where sin was covered, the place of satisfaction for God’s justice.
The Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible completed nearly 200 years before the birth of Christ confirms this understanding. The authors of that work understood the significance of the mercy seat because the Greek word they chose to use for ‘mercy seat’ when translating the book of Exodus was hilasterion, ‘the place of satisfaction’). The root of this word is hilaskomai, to make reconciliation, to be merciful, to make propitiation, to appease, to placate. Even 200 years before Jesus’ birth, the Jewish rabbis who wrote the Septuagint understood how the mercy seat was the place where propitiation was made, the turning away of wrath.
The Apostle Paul picked up on this word in his explanation of the significance of the death of Christ to cover our sins. Paul, who read and understood the Septuagint, wrote this in Romans 3:23-25, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation [hilasterion; mercy seat] 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.”
Paul taught that it was the plan of the Father to put forward the Son to be the mercy seat—the covering of our sins. Jesus is the place of God’s satisfaction. Paul chose to use the same Greek word that also referred to the place between the cherubim where God saw the sprinkled blood, covering sin and satisfying justice. The finished work of the Son on the cross is the place of God’s mercy.
When Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two, the veil woven with images of frightening cherubim who warned of the danger of approaching God’s holy presence. He opened the way and welcomes us in. Jesus Christ has quenched the flaming sword of God’s righteous anger and welcomes us into God’s presence. He has opened the way back into paradise.
But Why “Mercy Seat”?
This still leaves us with the question of where exactly the term ‘mercy seat’ came from. Shouldn’t the word be translated simply as ‘the place of satisfaction?’ Originally, yes, this was how the word was translated in a subsequent translation of the Bible. In the year 382, Jerome wrote the Vulgate, and he chose the word propitiatorium (the place of propitiation; the turning away of wrath) for both Exodus 25 and Romans 3.
It was the German reformer, Martin Luther, who gave us the phrase ‘mercy seat.’ He first translated the book of Romans in the year 1522, and the word he chose was Gnadenstuhl, (“grace chair”) for Romans 3:25 (‘which God hath set forth for a mercy seat through faith in his blood’). In 1534 Luther translated Exodus and chose the same word, taking his cue from the Septuagint and Paul. The English writer William Tyndale followed Luther when making a new English translation, and he chose the word “mercy seate” for Romans 3:25 (‘In Christ Iesu God hath made a seate of mercy thorow faith in his bloud’).
In conclusion, the precious doctrine of God’s satisfaction of His justice through His Son can be seen even in the history of the word ‘mercy seat.’ God has covered our sins. The mercy seat, in addition to being a cover for the ark of the testimony, was also a blood-sprinkled cover of safety for rebels.
Even the objects that were ‘covered’ inside the ark were objects that remind us of God’s mercy toward His people’s sin. Inside the ark of the testimony, there were tokens that preached God’s mercy over man’s sin: a jar of manna (reminding us of their grumbling, but also of God’s provision), the staff of Aaron (reminding us of the rebellion of Korah, but also of God’s provision of a high priest who prayed for the people so that they may not die), and finally the tablets of stone (reminding us of their sin with the golden calf, the smashing of the first tablets, but also of God’s mercy, when He chose to still be in covenant with His people).
The mercy seat covered the reminders of their sin. God covered over the signs of their rebellion. And in the perfect work of Christ, we have the full satisfaction of the demands of justice and a safe place of covering for our sins. The flaming sword at the east of Eden bars our way no more.
Bless'd be the Lamb, my dearest Lord,
Who bought me with his blood,
And quench'd his Father's flaming sword
In his own vital blood.
Isaac Watts, 1766