The Eternal Priest Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat Hebrews 9:16-28 Pastor Dan Matasovsky Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Anoka, MN Dear Friends in Christ Jesus, Today we will be taking a trip with Aaron the High Priest behind the Curtain into the Holy of Holies. It was a trip for Aaron that must have caused a great deal of anxious expectations for a couple of reasons. First, Aaron was going into the very present of the Lord. Also this was a scene that had to be repeated every year on the Day of Atonement. And finally Aaron had to serve alone on that day God required all the other priests to remain in their tents until the Lord was satisfied with the results of Aaron s entering the Holy of Holies. LETS BEGIN WITH A DIFFERENT QUESTION TO YOU. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING ALONE WITH GOD? TO BE: Alone with God! Would that cause you to be filled with fear or with great peace. Alone with God! I suppose if we are talking about the love of God in sending Jesus Christ and that gives you eternal life. I'm sure you look forward to that moment of being alone with God. But if you have just done something that causes you to feel guilty, afraid, or fearful of God, then the words Alone with God would cause a great deal of frustration. Look at some of the Biblical characters who spent time Alone with God. How about Jonah-- in the belly of the great fish... All alone... for three days and nights... being kept alive by God.. How do you think Jonah felt? Or how about David at the time of his encounter with the Giant Goliath when he was alone with God! Was He confidence? Think of the Apostle Peter in the courtyard... after denying the Lord Jesus Christ... and the Lord turns and looks at Peter... and he goes out and wept.. How do you think He felt? ALONE WITH GOD: Think of The Thief on the Cross.. The one says... LORD IF YOU ARE THE CHRIST DO SOMETHING...BEFORE WE DIE... The Other... says: Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus says TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE... How do you think each of them felt? THINK OF Jesus on the Cross. "My God My God Why have You forsaken me!" Jesus went to the cross for your sins and mine. His being alone was worse then all the others. For Jesus was forsaken by mankind and also by God.. because He had die for the sins of the whole world. Lev. 16:17 On the Day of Atonement Aaron, the High Priest, is to carry on all of the duties of the priests by himself, offering the proper sacrifices and doing all the work ALONE. No one is 1 P a g e
to be outside of their tents not even any of the other priests. Aaron Himself must go into the Holy of Holies twice and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat to make atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel. How do you think He felt.. when he had to do this year after year as the High Priest? FACT OF THE MATTER IS THIS: No one not even Aaron the High Priest is to go into the Holy of Holies on any other day other then the DAY OF ATONEMENT. Furthermore on the day of Atonement a special mixture of coals from the Brazen Altar are to be place into the Holy of Holies before Aaron goes in. For if a cloud does not cover the presence of the Lord over the mercy seat, Aaron would die immediately? Talk about being ALONE WITH GOD. This had to be on his mind since two of his sons had died offering a bad offering to the Lord. It is also for this reason that the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat are the most complete type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ to be found anywhere in the Bible.. It points to our Lord Jesus Christ, who went alone, forsaken by men and forsaken by God, to hang for six hours upon the Cross to provide our reconciliation. Let's look for a moment at the Ark of the Covenant. It was a small piece of furniture about 3.5 feet long, 2.5 feet high and wide. It was constructed of Acacia wood overlaid with pure gold on the outside and within. The hollow box was to eventually contain three item, 1) the two tables of stone with the commandments... 2) the golden jars of manna.., 3) Aaron's rod These 3 items were in the Ark and were a symbol of the authority of God over Israel. MERCYSEAT A provision, therefore, must be made whereby sin can be removed before man can escape the condemnation of death and the judgment of the Law. And this is the wonderful provision that God made when He instructed Moses to construct a Mercy Seat above the Ark of the Covenant. The Mercy Seat was constructed of pure Gold the same size as the top of the Ark. Two angels called Cherubim s touching wings. The symbolism goes something like this: Aaron would sprinkle the blood on the horns of the altar AARON WOULD THEN SPRINKLE THE BLOOD 7 TIMES ON THE MERCYSEAT.. A SYMBOL OF COMPLETENESS.. The Mercy Seat, therefore is a perfect picture of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ... In Romans 3:25 God presented him as a Sacrifice of Atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed before hand unpunished. Christ became our Mercy Seat by his willingness to take our place in Gethsemane and Calvary and shed his blood to reconcile us to God by meeting the demands and the penalty of the broken law and demand the Holiness of God. PROCEDURE FOR AARON Let's look at the procedure that Aaron went through before, during, and after he enters the Holy of Holies.. 2 P a g e
ITEMS HE NEEDS FOR THE OFFERINGS:: A bull for a sin offering for himself and his household and A ram for a burnt offering for himself Two male goats- one for a sin offering for the people and the other as the scapegoat A ram for a burnt offering for the people. First washes at the LAVER CHANGES CLOTHES THEN He is to offer the bull as a sin offering to remove sins from himself and his family. He takes some of the blood and the sweet incense ground into powder with ambers from the Altar of Burnt Offering and places it inside the Holy of Holies to form a cloud that will hide the full glory of the Mercy-Seat. Then he take blood from the bull and sprinkle it first on the horns of the Mercy-seat, then with his finger on the front of the lid... with his finger he will drip the blood seven times on the Mercy Seat first for Himself. Then he leaves the Holy of Holies having purified the Holy of Holies for himself as High Priest. Remember because of the blood of Jesus, the Bible promises God s mercy and grace to you and me. Jesus does not have to offer a sacrifice for himself.. He is the Son of God the sinless Son of God. Next Aaron takes two goats near entrance of tent of meeting... He draws lots... one to be sacrificed as an offering to the Lord..... the other to be sent to the wilderness removing the sins of the people. Then kills the one goat for sin offering for the people and bring some of its blood into the Holy of Holies to offer a sacrifice for the people. First sprinkle blood on the horns of the Mercy-Seat, Then sprinkle the blood 7 times on the mercy-seat to atone for the sins of the people. All of this is done by Aaron to make the Holy of Holies ready for service to the Lord. Then he does the same thing with the Holy Place... The candlestick.. the table of Shewbread.. altar of incense... the same procedure as in Holy of Holies but no smoke to cover the vessels.. Then he goes to the outer court... sprinkle blood on the Great Altar...7 times... After he has finished... the Holy of Holies... the Holy Place... the Outer Court... THEN BRING THE OTHER GOAT... lay his hands on it... signifying the transfer of sins of all of Israel, the people, priests, etc. and then an appointed person will take the goat into the wilderness.. who carries the sins of the people away from the camp... and the goat will be let loose in a lonely place... to live out it's life. Aaron takes off his linen clothes, bathes, and leaves them in the Holy Place... He comes out and offers a WHOLE BURNT OFFERING TO THE LORD. The person who led the goat out, bathes himself before he comes back... leaving those clothes there... and changing before he comes back to the camp... 3 P a g e
AT THIS POINT ISRAEL IS TOTALLY CLEAN... EVERY SIN REMOVED... EVERY ELEMENT OF SIN REMOVED... GOD ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT IS STARTING OVER WITH ISRAEL.. Each year on the Day of Atonement...GOD CLEANSES ISRAEL... SO THEY ARE RENEWED IN THE COVENANT WITH HIM.. ISN'T THAT WHAT JESUS CHRIST CAME TO DO FOR YOU AND ME???? ONLY A SHADOW OF THINGS TO COME All of this, of course, was only a type of the work of Him who was still to come. This sprinkling of blood on the Mercy Seat, was to be repeated every year by the high priest on the Day of atonement. But this blood of bulls and goats could not pay the price of sins, it could only atone for the present, it could only cover sins, but never take them away. But Christ the Perfect lamb, by his precious blood, would sacrifice Himself for the Sins of all. WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN? There was a dual need for atonement. ONE showing what atonement did in relation to God... and the other what it did for person to person. The claims of God were met... by the death of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world... The needs of man were met in taking away his sins, removing them... as far as the east is from the west... Surely it brings to mind such Bible passages as Is. 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor. 5:20 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2 John 1:29 John the Baptist points to Jesus coming to the Jordon River and says: Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world... Jesus Christ is both the Holy Priest and the Offering. The only difference is that Jesus Christ did not have to offer a sacrifice for Himself. He was and is the perfect son of God and Savior of the world. He did have to offer a sacrifice for every person on this earth and He did that. For Christ our High Priest offered Himself on the Cross for the sins of the whole world. The problem we have today is many refuse to believe that God has done this for them. He has made HIMSELF APPROACHABLE BY THIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION. When we look at the laws that God had put into place in the Old Testament time after the people came out of Egypt, there were 3 kinds of laws. The Ceremonial Laws which had to do with the offerings and the way of worship the Civil Laws which had to do with how people in a Theocracy treated one another. Today we live under Civil Rules so they are given to us by the state and country in which we live. But the Moral Laws have been expanded. For instance in Matthew it says: You have heard that you should not murder but whosoever hates his brother is a murder Jesus expanded them with the disciples and the people. But Christ has freed us to live under Him in His Kingdom. Hold on to your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen as the Lord challenges you and me by saying: Therefore since we have a great 4 P a g e
high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. Heb. 4:14 Let me go back to our original statement: What would it be like to BE ALONE WITH GOD? Our approach to God is ALWAYS THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. You and I don t have to worry about that do we? What Jesus has done for you and me by His death and Resurrection on the cross gives us direct access to God through Jesus Christ! He tore down the veil of separation between you and the Lord. Today we have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior who has done all of this for us. But even more: He has sent His Holy Spirit to live in your heart and mine to guide us as we live on the face of this earth. GOD ASSOCIATES HIMSELF WITH YOU AND ME Next week in our final message around the Tabernacle we will look at the Abiding Christ who came that we might know that He will be with us forever until He calls us to be with Him in Glory. We will catch a glimpse of this ABIDING CHRIST who has come for you and me. Amen 5 P a g e