The Mercy Seat

Let me ask you this. How many of you have seen the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark? Thank you. Even most young people have even seen it. The movie is almost 35 years old.

You sort of get this following even now where people know who Indiana Jones is, right? In Indiana Jones, of course, the whole movie is a ridiculous story. It's modeled after the 1930s adventure movies. So, you know, Indiana Jones fights the Nazis for the Ark of the Covenant. Because the idea is that the Ark of the Covenant would give ultimate power to whoever possessed it, which of course is totally anti-biblical concept.

There is the Ark of the Covenant that was part of Solomon's Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant did have a lot of power associated with it because that power came from God, not because it somehow could be manipulated by people.

So the movie is ridiculous. But there are still people today who look for the Ark of the Covenant. There are books out there. There are television shows every once in a while at the Smithsonian Station. As people find the Ark of the Covenant. Some people think it's in Ethiopia. There is a little temple in Ethiopia where the Ethiopians claim that it's in there. Other people say that it's actually buried. They've seen it. It's buried under the Temple Mount. But nobody will let them go in and excavate it. There's all these ideas of where it is.

If you go back to Jewish history, the Second Maccabees, which was written between the time of Malachi and the time of the first century of Jesus, according to that source, Jeremiah was told to take the Ark of the Covenant and take it up to a cave and bury it. And then seal it up.

And then he never told anybody where it was. Because the Ark of the Covenant will be found when the Messiah comes and he'll go get it. So that's sort of a Jewish belief that it was buried by Jeremiah, although that's not in the Scripture.

And they're waiting for the Messiah to come to bring out the Ark of the Covenant. We know the Ark of the Covenant is actually very important in understanding the meaning of the Day of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant played a very important part in the Old Testament rituals of this day.

And of course, what's very more important is what it teaches us about the reality of what God is actually doing. So, I want to look at the Ark of the Covenant today. Let's start by going to Exodus 25. Exodus 25. If we started in 1st 10 of Exodus 25, you'll see it's called the Ark of the Testimony here. Later it would be called the Ark of the Covenant, but there was a reason why here of what was told to be put in it. But they were told to make an Ark of Acacia wood, and this Ark was basically two and a fourth feet high and about three and three quarters feet long.

So, it's not a very big thing. I have sort of an artist's rendition of it here. If we go down to verse 18 here, we'll get a little more information about it because I want to zero in on a specific part of the Ark. Verse 18. You shall make two caravans, or these were a type of angels of gold, of hammer and work, and you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Now, the very top of this Ark, this is a very common rendition, an artist's rendition of the Ark, and these were poles here.

You can see the poles that they would use. And this Acacia wood was covered with gold. But the top part, with the little, you see the horns here on it? And then angels. They don't know what the angels looked like. They know that their wings were to cover the Ark. This top part here was solid gold. And so, they're told to make these two angels, and this top part, the top part of the Ark, is called the mercy seat.

It is the place of mercy. And on the Day of Atonement, the entire focus of this day was mercy, was God's mercy. Because without God's mercy, there was no hope. That was the whole focus of this day. And this mercy seat was the focus of all the rituals of this day. So, this is the mercy seat. Make one carob at one end, verse 19, at one end, and the other carob at the other end.

And you shall make the carob at the two ends of the one piece with the mercy seat. And the carob beams shall stretch out their wings above covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another. The faces of the carob beams shall be toward the mercy seat. And you shall put the mercy seat on top of the Ark. In the Ark, you shall put the testimony that I will give you. The testimony was the Ten Commandments. So, the two tables of stone went inside this. Verse 22, And there I will speak to you.

Whenever God would come and speak directly to the ancient Israel when they traveled throughout their travels of the wilderness, He would come in a cloud, and He would come into the tabernacle, and that cloud would rest on this. This was God's throne. In fact, the mercy seat is a representation of the throne of God. This was where God came when He came to speak to them.

And I will speak to you from above the mercy seat, from between the two carob beams, which are on the Ark of the testimony of all the things which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. And so, on this day, a cloud would descend into the tabernacle. We see that when the Solomon's Temple was built, the same thing happened. The temple was filled with a cloud, and the people had to leave because there was power in this cloud. It radiated power. It's the very glory of God. And it would come and it would rest on top of here. Now, the two tables of stone were put inside, but also eventually, over time, there were a couple other things put inside. The Ark contained Aaron's rod. Remember Moses' brother, the first high priest. First high priest. And this rod had a budding on it all the time. Now, you know, if you go cut down and make a walking stick or something out of a tree, it's dead. It doesn't bud anymore. Well, this continually to bud even after it was cut. So, it was a miracle. And you have the two tablets with the 10 commandments. But you also had a jar filled with mana. You had these three things ended up being inside this Ark of the Covenant. Now, the Ark of the Covenant, wherever they would go, it would be in this tabernacle, which is a tent. We're going to talk about that tent in a minute. It would be in this tabernacle. And whenever it came time for them to move, when God told them to move, they would pack up the tent. The Ark, as I showed you, there was these two poles. They would have to pick it up on those poles and they would carry it. And the entire nation would follow the mercy seat. They would have to follow it. They just didn't wander around. They had to follow where it took them or where it would take them. Let's go to Numbers. So we'll look at that in Numbers 10.

Numbers 10. Verse 33.

So they departed. This was when they finally left where they had been given the Ten Commandments. So they departed from the Mount of the Lord on the journey of three days. And the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord went with them for the three days journey to search out a resting place for them. And the cloud of the Lord was above them by day and when he went out from the camp. And so it was wherever the Ark set out that Moses would say. So he would make an announcement every time they would pack up the tent. Packing up the tabernacle was a big job. All these Levites were well trained and they would just tear this whole complex down very quickly. And then the ones who were especially trained to carry the Ark would put the poles in there, pick it up, and Moses would declare, Rise up, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you. And then when it rested, he would say, Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel.

So this would go out whenever it would stop. Those who would say, This is where we're supposed to stop. It would stop. And wherever they stopped this Ark, they would set up the tabernacle around it. And then the people would have to come up. And depending on where they were supposed to be, each tribe was supposed to be around that Ark in a certain place, they would set up their tents around the tabernacle. And they would stay there. And that cloud would come to rest on this sea.

And when it picked up, it moved. As soon as it picked up, it moved. All the Levites would run over and tear down the tabernacle, grab the Ark, and start following it. On the piece of trumpets, remember I said how they had to blast the trumpets when it was time to move? Well, when that cloud moved, the trumpets would start blowing. It's time to move. And as they would blow the trumpets, the Levites would start packing up everything. And that Ark of the Covenant was where God said, You follow where that goes. Now, remember, it represented His throne. It's the very mercy seat of God. Now, the tabernacle itself contained two different rooms.

And it's sort of hard to see this in this sort of cartoon way this is set up, but at least you can get the idea here. You know, these tents around here that the Israelites lived in would stretch for thousands of yards. But you're talking about hundreds of thousands of people stretched around and in this rather small area, you have this outer wall here. You have this area right here where you can see this is where they do the sacrifices. So it'd be lots of activity here. They would come through this gate right here, and they would come in and bring the animals, and they would do the sacrifices. So this would go on all the time. Then you have this. This is the actual tabernacle. It's a tent. Now, the first room in this tent contained a number of items, which we won't go through today. And then there's, if you can see, there's supposed to be a wall here. There's a curtain here. This second room is called the Holy of Holies.

The second room is called the Holy of Holies, and it's in this second room that nobody could go into under penalty of death except the high priest on the day of the tunnel. It was the only time he could go into there. So all the wing bites would be working out here. They'd be doing their sacrifices, and there's this representation of the cloud. The cloud is here. Remember, they had that cloud that turned into a pillar of fire at night with them for 40 years.

So for 40 years, this cloud sat here. Nobody dared what went in there because that was the presence of God. God's presence was here on the mercy seat, which represented his throne.

And so once a year, the high priest who had to wear very special garments. Now, I'm not going through all the, maybe one of the feasts or days of the tunnel, we'll go through just the garments he had to wear because all these garments represented something. He had to wear all these special garments on this day, and he would go from this area where there were sacrifices taking place because there were special sacrifices on this day. He would go into this room here where there's work being done by Levites into this special room, past this curtain here into the holding of holies. Let's look at Leviticus 16 now. Leviticus 16. Because I'm just zeroing in on the mercy seat. The Day of Atonement has more rituals than any other of the holding days.

Incredibly detailed, and they all represent something that's very important under the New Covenant. But I'm just zeroing in on the on the mercy seat. So we're not going to cover a lot of these. I'm just going to cover the scriptures that tie to what we're going to talk about today. Leviticus 16. Verse 1 says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, where they offered profane fire before the Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brother not to come and simply any time until the holy place inside the veil. Before the mercy seat, which is on the ark, lest he die, and I will appear the cloud above the mercy seat. Now all of chapter 16 of Leviticus are instructions on preparing for him to go once a year into that holy of all. So the only other time they could go into it is when the cloud left and they could pack it up. When the presence of God left, they could go in and pack it up. But as long as the presence of God was in that holy of holies, nobody could enter it except once a year. Here's what's amazing. And here's what this day was a very solemn day.

The priests went into that holy of holies while the presence of God was still there.

That cloud was there when he went into it.

He would go through that veil and in there, while God was there, they would shut it behind him. Nobody was allowed to follow him in.

During the time of Jesus, there are some records that say that they actually tied a rope to the ankle of the high priest. Because if God killed him, they had to get him out of there. Nobody was going to go in and get him.

Because you see, he had to go in that day to atone for all the sins of Israel. And if God did not accept it, they were rejected as his people.

They all gathered outside here, millions of them, waiting. Because if that high priest did not come out and that cloud left, it meant God had abandoned them. They were no longer the people of God. Their sins were upon their heads.

So they came before the mercy seat, because without that mercy, they had nothing.

Look at verse 11.

And then Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin off. Once again, I'm skipping there. There's the zazzle goat, there's the selecting of the two goats. There's all these different things on this day. But let's just look at a couple up here. And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make a tobit for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as the sin offering, which is for himself. In other words, he had to go present himself before God. He had to go into this holy of holies and present himself to God. Which is a frightening thing.

As I said, the holy place is called the holy of the holies. The covenant resided here. Now, this shekinah, or shekinah, is that cloud, that presence of God that rested upon the mercy seat. So he enters this once a year on the day of atonement. And here we see he first of all had to kill a bull for himself. Verse 13, he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is of the testimony lest he die.

Now, I don't know if you noticed that little caricature of the priest. He had, he was carrying something. That would have been the incense. He had to carry that in here with him.

He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side. And before the mercy seat, he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. So he had to go in, take this blood, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and ask God to forgive him of his sins.

Now, if God didn't accept the high priest, they were in real trouble. See, that's it. Because he had to come out and do something else. Look at verse 15. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering. Remember, let's go back here a minute. Remember, we look at this. Here's where the animals were killed. So he takes the bull, he goes into the first room, he goes in here. He's by himself, in the presence of God, sprinkling the mercy seat with blood, saying, this is my substitute. This is what I deserve. It's my blood, but I'm asking you to accept this blood for me. Now, he comes back out. There must be a huge sigh of relief. Oh, good. We've gone through the first part. He accepted the high priest.

See, the acceptance of the high priest was paramount to this whole thing.

So God has now accepted him as the high priest. God has accepted the substitute for him. He can now kill the goat and take that blood in here. And if you read through the rest of this, he now had to sprinkle the blood of the goat. If he came out the second time, then the people do. God had forgiven them of their sins.

The high priest had gone before the mercy seat. Mercy had been given. This wasn't just an act of legal – this is more than just legal pardon. The governor gives you a legal pardon. You're going before God who is showing mercy. The whole forgiveness here doesn't come just as a legal matter. It comes from inside him. It is a matter of forgiveness. It is a matter of love.

You have to go before not just the ruler to get a pardon, but you have to go get mercy.

And a high priest has to be accepted first.

So this was just a very – these were all very complicated. They took hours to prepare for all these. This was a long day of activities that they would have to do. Now let's think about this in terms of the New Testament. There is more information about the Day of Atonement in the New Testament than any other Holy Day because there's so much information in the book of Hebrews that ties back into this day. Let's go to Hebrews 9 and just look at one part of Hebrews that deals with this. Because when we look at this, we're going to see that everything that was happening here is in a way like a giant play that's showing us what God is actually doing.

You know, you and I don't do this today, do we? You know, we say, well, we don't have a high priest. Actually, we do. He's just not a Levite. Well, we don't have a sacrifice. Actually, we do. It's just not a goat. See, we have all those things, but we have the reality of them. Not the play. Look at Hebrews 9. Verse 1.

Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. So we have the tabernacle. For a tabernacle was prepared, the first part in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. Remember, there's that outer court where they do the sacrifices. Then they go into the sanctuary. There's a lampstand there, and there was the showbread there that was on a table. Now, behind the second veil, that curtain, the second curtain, is that inner room.

And behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, and which were the golden pots that had mana, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the Covenant. And above it were the carobim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat of these things we cannot speak in detail. And we've just gone through them in some detail. So the book of, you know, Paul, in writing Hebrews, is writing to Jews. They understood all this. He says, you know what this is about. You know about these things. You've observed the the the feast or the day of Atollin. You know what this is about. You know, atollin is a very interesting word. I went back to that a little here. Kippur in Hebrew means to cover. In other words, this day was about covering sins so that God would not see them ever again. Kippur, atone, is to cover something. So this is about God can't see the sins anymore. He covers them so he won't see them. So Kippur, atone, atone, this is about what covers the sins.

How does God carry out this mercy, this judgment, and yet retain justice?

Verse 6. Now when these things had been prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle performing the services. They would go from the outside, where they did sacrifices, into the sanctuary, where they did these services. But into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance. So they went in and this way they were accepted. Their sins were covered. And that's why in the Jewish community, the time period between trumpets and atonement is a time of repentance. Because you want your sins to be covered on this day. You want atonement to take place so that you can be in relationship with God. Because if that atonement does not take place, if the high priest doesn't step out of the holy of holies, if he's killed in there by the presence of God, your sins are open. Your sins are there for God to judge.

And you're under complete judgment of God.

That's why the anxiety on this day must have been remarkable. If they understood it. If they understood it, the anxiety must have been remarkable.

We're saying the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

As long as the plague was being carried out, the reality, the people could not see the reality. As long as the plague was being carried out. It says here, the people could not see the reality. Concerning only, well, I'm sorry, personally, it was symbolic. Okay, this play is symbolic. There's important symbols here. We can't throw out these symbols. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. Concerning only with foods and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed into the time of Reformation. In other words, that could not convert a person. It could not convert a person.

You know, if you think about it, the first instructions about the Day of Atonement given to Aaron and all that he would have to do was after his two sons, who were priests, were killed, for what? For not doing their duties properly. They were doing their duties when they were doing it properly. In their heart and mind, they weren't really into what they were doing. So he said there's a problem. You know, Paul says there's a... These symbols could only help people understand. They could not bring them to the reality. Verse 11. Verse 11. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. This is so remarkable. The high priest would kill a bull, take the blood of the bull, take it into the Holy of Holies, and sprinkle it on the Holy Seat with the presence of God there. I can't imagine what that must have felt like.

I mean, that cloud right there.

And he's saying, accept this for me.

Jesus Christ did not need to be accepted because he was sinless.

But remember, the second part of the ritual is he had to take blood in for all the people.

The idea that the high priest himself brings in his blood.

See, the symbolism here is that when Jesus was resurrected, and this is why a toll that had passed over are tied together.

They're absolutely tied together. Because at Passover, it's after his death, his resurrection, when he goes as the wave-sheaf offering, and he goes before the Father.

What blood does he offer for the people?

The high priest brought his own blood?

Sprinkle them with my blood.

So the high priest brings his own blood. And God accepts it.

Because he was a perfect high priest. He was a perfect high priest.

So at the Passover time, we celebrate Jesus Christ as Passover. We celebrate on the day of the Torah, Jesus Christ as high priest.

Who brings himself as the sacrifice. I don't know about you, but I find that it's just an unbelievable concept. I bring their substitute. It's me.

So I sacrifice myself. The high priest says, I sacrifice myself to bring their substitute, to be their substitute. And then I have to present myself to the Father as both a high priest and sacrifice.

You see how the Talmud, it Passover, is tied in. It's also tied into the wave sheet.

That's why it's so important to know these. That's why we're still supposed to keep these days. We don't do the play. We talk about the symbols and what they mean. The reality. Aaron never totally understood the reality, you and I understand. He kept doing the play.

Verse 13. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies the purifying of the flesh, in other words, they were now acceptable to God in this physical sense in their lives, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself, offered himself?

See, he has to do two roles here. Offered himself without spot to God. Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason, he is the mediator of the New Covenant. By means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those were called, they received the promise of eternal inheritance. You know, when Aaron came out of that tabernacle, and the second time, and he was accepted, and all the people could sing because their sins had been covered. It didn't mean they had received eternal life. It meant that they were still able to have a relationship with God as physical human beings. He wasn't going to wipe them off the face of the earth.

When we come together for this day, and Jesus Christ stands there as the high priest, and says, I have presented myself to you as the Passover, and he's now standing there as the high priest. What we receive is eternal salvation.

The play, you see why it was just a play? You see why it was just symbols?

We get the reality of it. God's offering us the reality of it right now.

Verse 24. For Christ is not entered the holy place made with hands, which are copies of the Spirit of God, which is called the mercy seat.

This is a copy of what you see in heaven.

For Christ is not entered the holy place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear the presence of God for us. So that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood of another. Or not that he should do this. He doesn't have to do this all the time. He did it once. That's all he has to do it.

That he should have had to suffer. Then he should have had to suffer all the time. In other words, God doesn't make him do this once a year since he kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden.

He only had him do it once.

He then should have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. So Christ was offered once the bare and the sins of many to those who eagerly wait for him. He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. See, he had to come the first time, not only to be the Passover, but to become the high priest offering himself before God. And this was the core message of the Day of Atonement. This is how we can become at one with God for eternity.

Because of the reality of what this day actually shows us and teaches us and what's actually happening. You know, it's very interesting. Let's show you another link between Passover and Atonement. Something happened in the tabernacle when Jesus died. Remember? Yeah, remember what happened? The veil was ripped. The veil was ripped. And suddenly, everybody could look up on the Temple Mount and they could look into the Holy of Holies. And guess what was there?

Nothing.

The ark of covenant was gone.

The play no longer mattered. At that point, the Temple no longer mattered.

Because it was ripped. They could see nothing was there. And now, as it took a while, but as the disciples or the apostles began to teach and learn and were guided by God's Spirit and again and realized, wait a minute! We go right to God's throne. Every one of us, when we pray now, because there's a high priest there who has offered himself, because of that, you and I enter the real Holy of Holies every time we say God. This is why using God's name and faith is real serious. Every time we call on God, we go right to the mercy seat, not the one made of gold with two little pretend caroms on it. We go to the real mercy seat, which has two real caroms hovering over it, where God the Father sits there and there's the high priest saying, come! That's what this day tells us. That's what Hebrews 9 tells us.

And that's why they're in Passover, when that veil was ripped and there was nothing left in the Holy of Holies, and everybody can look into it. God's message was, you can come to me now. You don't need the play act anymore. You can come right to me.

Because there has been a worthy substitute. Bulls and goats were worthy substitutes for us. There's now been a worthy substitute. There's blood that's more valuable than all of us combined. That blood has now been shed. That blood has now been accepted. And therefore, we can be accepted.

There's so much to the day of Atoa, we get five sermons on this. But I always get excited about the mercy seat. This is it! Without this, our high priest wasn't kidding. Our high priest wasn't killed behind the veil. He was killed and resurrected and accepted. And now is the high priest.

Those who participate in the New Covenant have this new relationship with God. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't give up the law. I mean, we're still keeping the Holy Days. We might make sure you're awake. You always pretend like you do everything on purpose, right?

We still keep the Holy Days because we're commanded to. But we don't keep them at all like they did then. I mean, if Aaron was alive today, he'd say, you people aren't keeping the Holy Days. He'd walk out. He'd say, this isn't the Holy Day.

You're fasting and having a service. No, no, no, no, no. You got to go to the temple. Now, we are the temple.

This is the temple. He wouldn't understand that.

Well, wait a minute. There's a veil. No, it isn't. That veil's been ripped. It doesn't exist anymore. He wouldn't understand that.

He would still do the play. He would still be doing the play.

Look at 2 Corinthians 3.

This is why we throw out the Old Testament at our peril. Because we throw out the Old Testament. We don't understand what God is doing in the New Testament.

If we have the Old Testament, and that's all we have, here's the problem we have.

He's talking here, Paul's writing about the administration of the Old Covenant through the Tabernacle system. God's laws are administered differently. They're still His laws.

In the Old Testament, if someone committed murder, the whole community would stone them to death. Now, we wouldn't do that, would we? Is murder still wrong? Yes. You see what I mean? The laws still exist. It is administered differently. As the church, we don't have the right to go stone somebody.

Now, we have the right to call the police. Civil law is actually given in the Bible to mankind. But we don't have the right to stone them ourselves. Well, he's talking about how the difference of administration of God's law under that Tabernacle system and under the system now with Christ is high praise. Verse 7, but if the ministry, and that word ministry there would be better translated, administration. So if the administration of death, like somebody has a translation that says administration, some translations translate that. I think maybe the NIV, anybody have an NIV or a new American standard? Anyways, if the ministry of death written in a grave on stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing. Remember when he went up to get those tablets, and he came back, his face was glowing. They had to put a veil over his face. Everybody was afraid of him. I mean, he looked like some alien, you know, like from outer space, because they didn't know what an alien from outer space was. But I mean, it looked strange. His face was glowing, and it put a veil over him. So people weren't frightened by him.

He says, now that was glorious. God giving them 10 rules written on two pieces of rock. He said, that was amazing.

How will the administration of the Spirit be more important?

He ties us back into Jeremiah, Ezekiel, where there's prophecies about how there'll be a new covenant, and the laws of God will be written in people's hearts and their minds. There won't be two external pieces of stone. They'll be inside of us. We'll be motivated by that law. We'll love that law. We'll do that law. For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more glory. Now what does he mean by condemnation? Here's a problem when your entire nation is only administered by law. All law can do is tell you where you're wrong. It can't fix the problem. Why do you think Passover and Day of Atonement were so important? Because everybody knew, well, we broke some of the laws along the way.

So here they are in the Day of Atonement. If he doesn't accept us, we're under law, which means we're just under condemnation. So we have to have something other than just law. We're all doomed. Does that make the law bad? Of course not! Without that, I would have no definition of right and wrong.

Now, I sound like Romans 7 and 8, don't I? Without law, I wouldn't have a definition of right and wrong.

But I can't be saved by law either. So I'm in a conundrum here. When I can't keep somebody up wrong, I want to do it. I fail. Now I'm condemned. How do I get out of this? And that's what he says. When the new covenant came through Christ, it wasn't really a different covenant. It's just a different way of doing it.

We move from a physical application with this play going on to the reality of the spiritual application. So in one way, it's the same covenant. It's just doing it differently. And that one had its limitations.

For the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excelled. So there's this, even though that was wonderful, compared to this, wow, this is so much better. Paul had a long... sometimes he could take the most words to say a little thing. And other times he took a few words to say something that you could study for a lifetime.

Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were hardened. For until this day, the same veil remains unlisted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.

The veil is taken away in Christ.

You know, the veil that keeps them from being able to see the reality of Jesus as the Messiah, the veil in the temples, read it also.

So that we get to see God, the reality of who and what God really is. Verse 15, But even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil lays lies on their hearts, on their hearts. They read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the writings of Moses. They read them, but they don't really understand them. You and I read Leviticus 16.

We understand the profound meaning of it, and the reality of Christ as High Priest. And we read it, leading us to the Father.

Nevertheless, verse 16, When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

We can see.

You know, when we look at the Feast of Trumpets that we've just kept, we celebrate it when Christ returns. We celebrate it the day of the Lord, that wrath of God poured out on humanity. Christ comes to save humanity. And of course, we have this time then we celebrate, during the Feast of Tabernacles, His reign on earth. But between the time of His return and the reign on earth, there's this thing that's accomplished.

With the resurrection of the saints, we enter into a oneness with God. And of course, Satan is removed immediately. That's the Zazilgo. So you can't separate a tobit from trumpets, and you can't separate a tobit from the Feast of Tabernacles. All these things represent all these events that are happening.

It is the day when God then begins to bring all humanity into relationship with Him. This oneness, this unique relationship that we can have with God forever. But we only get a little bit now because we have God's Spirit in us. And since it's in us, we get a little bit of it. We understand some of it.

But the profound truth of living at oneness with God forever, that's what this day is all about.

And it's done because of a high priest who offered himself.

It was accepted. I started with the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat. Wouldn't it be great to find the Ark of the Covenant?

Well, there is the real Ark of the Covenant. I don't mean the one of legend, the one that Indiana Jones found.

I mean the real Ark of the Covenant. Let's go to Revelation 11.

Revelation 11.

I've heard people say, well, they try to make the Ark of the Covenant part of prophecy. They're going to discover the Ark of the Covenant, and when they do, that'll be the beginning of the tribulation, or the beast power is going to use the Ark of the Covenant. And these people get fixated on the physical Ark of the Covenant. Remember, the Ark had no power except that God was there. It was made out of wood and gold.

His power was God, not magic. And that's the problem with all these ideas. They make the Ark magic. It's not magic. It was a man-made thing.

He's representing a reality. Look at Revelation 11.

Listen at the sound of the seventh trumpet. Christ is returning. Verse 15. Then the seventh angel sounded. This is Christ returning, which the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Trumpets are tied together.

And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and is Christ. And ye shall reign forever and ever. The twenty-four elders who sat before God in our thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the one who is, who was, and is to come, because you have taken your great power and reign. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should reward your servants, the prophets of the saints, and those who fear you, your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.

Then the temple of God was opened in heaven. And notice that the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings and noises and thunderings and earthquake and great hail.

The real ark of the covenant is in heaven. That's the ark of the covenant. We should be aimed at that.

It's there! When the heavens open and people get a glimpse into the throne of God, the ark of the covenant is there. This ark of the covenant was what? We just read. It was a copy.

It's a symbol. It's a play. These are props. The real one is there. The second Maccabees, where the writers, they're not sure who wrote second Maccabees, but the writer says that Jeremiah was told by God to take the ark and bury it in the cave.

What's interesting is that there's a prophecy they go to to come up with that story. So let's look at the prophecy. Jeremiah chapter 3 So I don't know if they'll ever find the pieces or the old ark of the covenant. I don't know if they'll find it. There's nothing in the Bible that says that they will. If they do, I'm sure it'll be used for propaganda purposes. It'll be used to whoever has it. They'll say, we'll see God's with me or whatever. But you know what? It doesn't matter if they find it or not find it. It doesn't matter who has it or who doesn't have it. It's just a prop.

It's just a prop.

1 Thessalonians 4 He's writing to Israel here, but this extends out to the whole world because we're going to see this prophecy extends to the time when the Messiah is on the earth. 3 Returnal backside children, says the Lord, for I am married to you. I will take you from a city and two from a family and it will bring you to Zion. Zion is where the Messiah will reign. This extends down its messianic prophecy to when the Messiah is on the earth. He says, the Ark of the Covenant will have no meaning, the physical Ark of the Covenant, and the Messiah comes. So the idea that if we can find the Ark, it will cause the Messiah to come, it will have no meaning when the Messiah comes. The real one, the real mercy seat is in heaven. But notice verse 17. At that time, at the time when the Ark of the Covenant has no meaning, at that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. They shall walk no more after the stubbornness of their own evil heart. So Jeremiah, I don't know why he'd go bury or hide the Ark when his prophecy basically says when the Messiah comes, the Ark of the Covenant has no meaning, the physical one, because there's a need for the prop. I don't know. There is a temple that's built. I don't know if they'll have an Ark of the Covenant in the temple that Jesus is in. I would get from this. There's no need to, because he's there. And he's there doing what? Presenting himself to the Father for every one of us. We are here today, humbled by our fasting, not because we're at a physical temple of the physical high priest. Instead, you and I are gathered together as the temple with the spiritual high priest before the literal verse he said.

That's why we're here. We're not just meeting in a building.

You know, what does this look like to God? It's his temple before his verse he said. That's what this is to God. And who's standing there beside him saying, these are the children that I present myself for. It's Christ. And this is what the Father sees. He sees his temple before his verses.

See, this is a whole lot greater than we think. The reality of what we're doing has to be more than just a group of people getting together, not eating for a day, and coming together singing a few songs. It's the reality of what God is actually doing and who we are and why we are here.

There's one thing about this day that I'm very thankful for. I'm thankful that I'm not standing outside of a tabernacle watching this priest kill this bull and take the blood in and hoping he comes back out. And then watching him kill a goat and take the blood in and hope he comes back out. Because if God doesn't accept him, I'm doomed. Because I know as we come on this day before the mercy seat, the high priest has already been accepted. The sacrifice for you and me has already been accepted. It's already happened. And that's why when we come together on this day, all of us, the veil is ripped, all of us stand before the mercy seat of God. Have a good feast of tabernacle.