The Mercy Seat, Cherubim, and Shekinah Glory

   

    

 

    

The cherubim were bearers of the divine glory, whence, perhaps, they derive their name. The Shekinah, or cloud of glory, in which Jehovah appeared between the cherubim over the mercy seat, the lid of the ark, is doubtless the reference. Tholuck thinks the twelve loaves of the showbread represent the twelve tribes of the nation, presented as a community before God consecrated to Him (just as in the Lord's Supper believers, the spiritual Israel, all partaking of the one bread, and becoming one bread and one body, present themselves before the Lord as consecrated to Him, 1Co 10:16, 17); the oil and light, the pure knowledge of the Lord, in which the covenant people are to shine (the seven (lights), implying perfection); the ark of the covenant, the symbol of God's kingdom in the old covenant, and representing God dwelling among His own; the ten commandments in the ark, the law as the basis of union between God and man; the mercy seat covering the law and sprinkled with the blood of atonement for the collective sin of the people, God's mercy [in Christ] stronger than the law; the cherubim, the personified [redeemed] creation, looking down on the mercy seat, where God's mercy, and God's law, are set forth as the basis of creation.

Shekinah glory represents the very presence of God, and the cloud veiled His presence.  This cloud led His people to Israel, and the Holy Spirit similarly leads His people today.

Exodus 25:17 "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.

Exodus 25:18 "You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat.

Exodus 25:20 "The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat.

(Exodus 25:22)  "I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony."      

Leviticus 16:2 The LORD said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.

1 Kings 8:7 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles from above.

 

 

 

              

               

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