“The cherubim spread out their wings above overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces one to another, toward the mercy seat where the faces of the cherubim.”
– Exodus 37:9
So Exodus 37:9 is a verse describing the construction of the Ark. And how this part of the tabernacle, where God’s presence would dwell among his people. And there’s so much we could talk about here in the construction of the Ark. As well as the way specifically the Ark of the Covenant was in the inner most part of the tabernacle, in a place that only the high priest could come once a year. And he would come to make atonement, to offer sacrifices for the people’s sin at this mercy seat. Which is why, so now I want to read from the New Testament because Hebrews 9, it talks specifically about the Ark of the covenant. It talks about what we just read, the cherubim of glory.
Exodus 37:9 Reminds Us Jesus Is Our Sacrafice
Jesus Christ is the perfect, complete, and final sacrifice for our sins.
So Hebrews 9:5, “Above it, where the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.” So this picture that we read about in Exodus 37:9 was foreshadowing what would happen ultimately when Jesus would come and he would make mercy possible for you and I to enter into the presence of God.
Hebrews 9:11 goes on to say, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation,” not like what was happening in Exodus. “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves,” which is what would be sacrificed, their blood and that picture in the tabernacle and the Ark of the covenant there, but by means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption.
Exodus 37:9 Reminds Us of the Blood of Christ
“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh. How much more.” So basically, if that was what God had set up in the Old Testament, how much more now will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
So whenever we read about the Ark and the tabernacle in the Old Testament, we need to see what God was doing there, and we also need to see what was being foreshadowed there and ultimately what is fulfilled in Jesus. And so we pray. And the whole reason we can pray, that we can enter in right now together into the most holy place and commune with God is because of the mercy that we have experienced in Jesus and his blood shed for our sins.
This Verse Leads Us to Praise God
So we pray in the name of Jesus. Oh God. So we pray in the name and by the blood of Jesus, Oh God, we praise you for your mercy in our lives. We praise you in a fresh way today, as we read from Exodus 37:9. And as we read from Hebrews 9. God, we love your word. We love how it all fits together. We love how it points ultimately to Jesus at the center of your word.
Jesus, we praise you. Your the center of the Bible, you’re the center of all history and you’re the center of our lives. God, we praise you for sending your son to shed his blood so that we could enter into your presence right now, and experience communion with you. So that we can pour out our hearts before you. So we can pray to you for all kinds of things in our lives. And so that we might know that we have eternal life with you no matter what happens to us in this world.
This Verse Reminds Us of Eternal Redemption
Jesus, we praise you as the greater, perfect sacrifice who has secured for us an eternal redemption. Oh God, we praise you for those two words. Eternal redemption. We will eternally be made new in your presence. You’re making us new day by day now by your spirit. The blood of Jesus shed for our sins. And ultimately one day we will be with you in a new Heaven and a new Earth for everything will be redeemed, and there will be no more sin, and no more sorrow and no more suffering.
Oh God, we praise you. Not just for your word, how it ties together Old Testament and New Testament. We praise you for the hope we find from it as we walk through all kinds of things we’re walking through today in our lives, and our families and our work. Jesus, we praise you for the eternal redemption you have secured for us on you, in you, we place all of our hope. We find our joy and we find our life. We love you, Jesus. And we pray all of this in your name, by your blood. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
