The Mercy Seat

In the ancient tabernacle, this day, the Day of Atonement, was the most complex of the ceremonies they did all year long. There were more things that happened on this day than any other day. And there were things that were unique in their relationship with God. One of the things that was important on this day was the Ark of the Covenant.

They've been looking for the Ark of the Covenant for about 2,000 years. It's in Ethiopia. It's under the Temple in Jerusalem. It's all over the place. People claim to have found it. It's been moved. Others think it's been destroyed. No one's quite sure what happened to the Ark of the Covenant, except if you're Indiana Jones.

Some of you are old enough to remember that. So, the Ark of the Covenant was an important object in the Day of Atonement. A number of years ago, I started a series of sermons in which I went through five aspects of the Day of Atonement. It took me five sermons. Well, I looked at it and said, well, we haven't done number one for a long time now. We're going back through the series.

Over the next five years, we'll be going through the five major aspects of the Day of Atonement. And one, of course, was touched on in the earlier message. Satan is part of this day in the Azazel goat, and we'll go through that as we go through all the different aspects of this. But today, we're just going to deal with the Ark of the Covenant, and why that's important, and what it means to us as Christians. So we go back to the ancient tabernacle, and we have...let's see if I can get this to work. No, I didn't want to do that.

Okay, I thought this would make a little circle on there. It doesn't do it. Okay. Well, I'll just point. No, you'll just have to look at it here. I don't know why it's doing that. There we go. The tabernacle wasn't all that big in the wilderness. You know, you see how small it was? You can see there were people around it. This is to scale, so I like this...they're sort of to scale. This particular illustration. And outside, you see there is a rounded...they had a fence made of cloth, and inside there's some objects we'll talk about. And then you had the actual tent, which it's cut out here so we can look into it, because we're going to look into this tent.

And this was the part that was very important on this day. There were two rooms inside this tent. And what they have here, it's interesting, is that cloud, you know, the glory of God would come down into this tabernacle. And it would come into this inner room where the Ark of the Covenant was. And on this day, it was very, very important.

So this tabernacle, which seems, you know, it's strange to us, we're not involved in this, and yet we are. Because this tabernacle represented something much, much greater. Much, much greater. And it actually tells us about our relationship with God and Christ today. They didn't understand entirely what this meant. They only knew that on this day, if God did not bless them on this day, they were rejected as His people.

That's what they knew. That's why this day was so important. That's why it was the most holy day of all holy days. Because if God rejected them on this day, because there was an acceptance of them as a people on this day, and it had to do with the mercy seat. And if it didn't happen, then they were rejected. And you see a representation of the high priest there. Next year, we'll go through the whole role of the high priest on this day. Because the high priest, there were certain clothing that the high priest wore only on this day. It wasn't worn any other time of the year.

And it has a very important lesson that we're supposed to learn today. Now, in this outside court, you have an altar, and this is where they would sacrifice animals. It was big enough to throw a bull on there. It wasn't huge. This whole complex wasn't that big. It wasn't like the temple that ended up being built by Solomon, and then rebuilt by Zerubbabel, and then remodeled by Herod.

This was a very small complex, because it was portable. Every place they went, they packed this thing up and carried it to the next place as they moved through the wilderness. So for 40 years, this tent was moved constantly, this complex. It was reestablished when they got into the Promised Land, and for hundreds of years, this was set up there, where sacrifices were done every day. So this is on the outside, where the actual lambs, bulls, goats, and doves were killed, and also there was a laver for ceremonial washings. So these two large objects set out in that open area, and this is where the priests did most of their work.

As they sacrificed the animals, people could see this happening. They could see the sacrifice. They could see the smoke. And at times, this complex would be filled with animals, as they would be killing multiple animals. I mean, they had a morning sacrifice, an evening sacrifice. During the Feast of Tabernacles, they did multiple sacrifices in this area. So this is where the work took place. This is where the people would have been able to see what was going on. The people never went into the tent itself. So you have this tent, and it's amazing the instructions given, even the material used for the tent, the material used and how big this outside fence was supposed to be, was all meticulously explained.

And they built this exactly to the specifications that God had given to them. Now, inside this tent, with the cutaway you can see, there were two chambers. And the first chamber had just three objects in it. It had a candlestick, it had a table for showbread, and it had an incense table, in which incense was burned constantly. And these have meanings, too, but we're not going to go through that today, because we're basically dealing with what's inside the inner part of this tent.

Because you have a wall that separates what was called the Holy Place, or the sanctuary, and the most holy place. Sometimes it's called the Holy of Holies. So in all of this complex, there is this little room inside the tent, at the back of the tent, in which there is a singular object. And this object was the center of their worship towards God, as far as the priesthood was concerned.

This was the center of everything. And into this inner room, only the high priest went once a year. And inside that inner room was the Ark of the Covenant. And the ceremonies that they went through are enormous. The washings they had to do, how the high priest had to put on his special clothing.

Every piece of clothing had an important message. Like I said, we'll cover that next time, next day of the Tobin. As he went into this place where the presence of God came into, this is where, for those 40 years, they would see the pillar of smoke. That's what they call it, smoke. It was just a pillar of, I guess smoke is the best way to explain it. That's what they saw. And the pillar of fire came into and settled into this room, because this top part of the Ark of the Covenant is very important, because it was made and had a very specific name to it.

Now the Ark itself isn't that big. You think it'd be a huge thing. It's about, it's less than four feet long. And it's just a little over two feet tall. Not very big. But sitting on top of that is something else that sits on top of this. It took poles, you see the poles here? That's how they would carry it. Because every time they moved, this had to be carried. And it had to be carried by priests. They weren't to put it on a wagon. They weren't to have it pulled by horses or oxen. It was to be carried by the priests. So they would have priests carry this. And all 40 years they wandered.

Every time they moved, the priests had to go in, pick this up, as they dismantled this whole complex. Dismantled it and carried it to the next place where they had to set it up again. In fact, it's interesting, all the tribes of Israel had specific places where they camped around this. This was the center of the camp. So wherever you were, no matter which tribe you were part of, when you got up in the morning, if you looked towards the center of where all the people were, this is what you would have seen.

And you would have seen this pillar of smoke or pillar of fire that came into this room. That's right, nobody went into that room. In fact, it was except on this day, it was the death penalty to go into this room. God would kill a priest who went into this room except on the day of atonement. Because that was the place of the presence of God among them so they could see it. So here we have the Ark of the Covenant. Let's go to Exodus 25 because there's instructions here on how to build this Ark, but I just want to...I'm not going to read all of it.

It's pretty extensive. The type of wood it's made of, it's just amazing, all the details that are given. And let's go to verse 17. Because he gave them specific instructions on how to create the lid that sits on top of it. This was made of wood covered in pure gold. A specific kind of wood covered with pure gold except the lid. The lid was different. And he says, you shall make a mercy seat. Verse 17.

You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit shall have its width. So this is set on top then of the Ark. And you shall make two caribim of gold of hammered work and you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. So that's what you see here.

Two representations of caribim. Caribim were the angels that sit around the throne of God. So you can see the symbolism here. God comes here in his special presence. God never left his throne, but he came here so they could see a representation of him in this pillar of fire. Because God's everywhere at the same time. But they could actually physically witness the presence of God. So they could physically see that. And he came to what represented his very throne where these angels were.

This is one of the few places where God actually has a type of image created. It wasn't to be worshipped, but it was just a representation of his throne. So there was a representation of these two angels.

Verse 19, Make one carib at one end, the other carib at the other end. You shall make the caribim of the two ends of it, of one piece, with the mercy seat. So this was all to be made out of one piece of solid gold. So the craftsmen had to make this in here. And the caribim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings. And they shall face one another. And the faces of the caribim shall be towards the mercy seat. So they were looking downward, as you can see here. And this is just a representation. We don't know exactly what these caribim looked like. So we're certain people are guessing here. But you can see their wings are spread out. They're on top of this mercy seat, and they're looking downward at the mercy seat. And you shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. And it shall be woven with an artistic design of caribim. And you shall hang it upon the four pillars of Acacia wood overlaid with gold. And their hook shall be of gold. And then it goes on and talks about how they are to build this curtain, this between the outer holy place and the inner of holy and holies. So you can see it here. See that? That's what he just described. On the other side of this is simply this chest. And this is where they would see the very presence of God.

So this arc of the covenant contained a couple of things. It contained the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. So I sometimes call this the arc of testimony. It was the testimony from God to them. Here's the Ten Commandments. The core basic laws of the covenant God made with them on Mount Sinai. But it also contained a couple of other things. It contained Aaron's rod. When Aaron died, he had a rod. Remember he went before the Pharaoh of Egypt and he had a rod. Well, when he died, that rod, a dead piece of wood, continued to grow buds and leaves on it. So it was put in there. A jar was also put in there filled with manna because that was God's gift to them. Six days out of the week, all those years, they just went out and gathered their food. There was manna. So there was a jar of manna. So these three things ended up inside the arc. Aaron's rod, the tablets of the Ten Commandments, and a jar of manna. And so those things were placed in there as remembrance of the covenant God had made with them. He had given them a covenant containing these laws. He also had taken care of them. And that priesthood, that high priest, was an integral part of their worship of God. There was an entire tribe who were dedicated and sanctified as priests. And there was one among them who was the high priest. And he's the only one who could do the ceremonies on this day. So let's go to Leviticus 16. I'm not going to go through all the ceremonies.

Leviticus 16.

Because there's extensive instructions. I mean, we have the slaying of bulls, we have sprinkling of blood, we have the two goats that are separated in this ceremony. And you have the high priest who goes into this holy place to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat to atone for the sins of the people.

At the time of the first century, there are some writings of first century Jews that say that when the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies there at that temple, they would tie a little rope around his foot. Because if he went in and God didn't accept the sacrifice, he would die. And no one was going to go get him so they would pull him out.

But you have to understand the enormity of that. If the high priest goes into that room, nobody can go into that room the rest of the year or they die. Except when they tear it down because the presence would leave. When the presence of God was there, nobody could go in. He could go in once a year, and when he walked out, that meant God had accepted them and forgiven them of their sins.

And so they would now celebrate for the rest of the year and then have this dramatic ceremony the next day atone. We don't think of that in quite those terms. We tend to think of God's setting Christ as a sacrifice only in terms of the Passover.

But the Passover and the Day of Atonement are linked together in some very fascinating ways.

There had to be a sacrifice and there had to be a high priest. Passover tells us who our sacrifice is. This day tells us who our high priest is. And that's why we'll spend next year going through just who the high priest is and what he did and the clothes he had to wear and all those things. Verse 30 of Leviticus 16. For on that day, talking about the Day of Atonement, the priest shall make atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be cleaned from all your sins before the Lord. Atoned in Hebrew literally means to cover it. In other words, when he went in here and walked out and he sprinkled blood on this mercy seat, he walked out, he was still alive, it meant God no longer sees your sins. They're covered.

So this is why this is... This in the Jewish world, even today, is considered the most solemn of all days. Because without it, you have no acceptance from God. You have no forgiveness. It's interesting. They can't do these things today. They have no temple. They have no holy of holies. This is why there's always a movement, and it's going to happen before the end times. There is going to be a temple of some kind, again, in Jerusalem, so they can do these things. Why are they so motivated? Because this is how they know God has forgiven them of their sins. They need that temple. They can't worship God under the Old Covenant without the temple. They can't do what they're supposed to do. They can't fulfill their commandments.

And since they don't understand what we know about the New Covenant and what these things represent, there's a desperation. There's a desperation to be able to go back and worship God the way He's supposed to be worshiped so that they will be accepted by Him. And so they look forward to the day when this will happen, when the high priest will go in and sprinkle the mercy seat. The Ark of the Covenant.

Verse 31 says, This is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls is a statute forever. This is why we're fasting. We don't do all these other things because we have a high priest that does it today. But we still afflict our souls. We still fast. Why? Because it's a humbling experience to remind us of the atonement. It's to remind us what this day really is all about.

Verse 32, And the priest who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father's place, the place of Aaron when he died, shall make atonement and put on the linen clothes and holy garments.

And those are explained in detail in other places. And then he shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar. And he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. There are special ceremonies at the altar. There are special ceremonies inside that holy place, the tent. And finally, when all that was done, there was a lot of blood on this day. A lot of blood. A lot of just spreading blood, throwing blood out. That symbolized, God has accepted the sacrifice that should be you, but He's accepted this substitute. And then He would go into here and He would throw blood on the Ark of the Covenant. Verse 34, This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins, once a year, as He did as the Lord commanded Moses.

So, you read these things, you begin to understand how absolutely vital it is to Orthodox Jews. You know, average Jews are not much more religious than the average Presbyterian today, right? But, to the Orthodox, this has to happen in their relationship with God. This is happening in your relationship with God. We don't need this, because this represents a reality. This represents a reality. This was a play that was carried out, representing a reality. And we understand that because of the New Testament. It is interesting when we go to Hebrews, which was a letter written to Jewish Christians. Hebrews covers things in detail, that Paul doesn't cover in quite as much detail, although I do believe Paul wrote Hebrews. It's always debated, but I believe he did. It's like Paul thinks. Sometimes Paul is thinking like a Greek, and sometimes he's thinking like a Jew. But he's always under the inspiration of God. And in Hebrews, it takes everything that this day. There's more information about the Day of Atonement in Hebrews than any other place but Leviticus. So it's in the New Testament. All this information about what this really means, what this play really means. So let's go to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9.

That's why we are not to ignore the tabernacle, the priesthood, all those things. There's a lot of things in the Old Covenant that we don't do exactly like they did. That doesn't mean we're not supposed to know what they did and ignore it because it tells us what God is doing.

What God is doing now.

You know, when they rebuild that temple before the end times, that temple won't mean anything to us, except prophetically.

In other words, we won't say, oh, you need to go to the Jerusalem temple to worship. No, we won't say that. Why? Because we do what this says. So let's start here in verse 1 of Hebrews 9. Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. So he's taking us back to this, right? He's taking us back to this, the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared, and the first part, in which was the lampstick and the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. We've already looked at that. So now he says, this is very important for us to understand. Which had the golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, and which were the golden pot that had the manna and Aaron's rod that butted 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 death. Well, we've already looked at them here. So we understand exactly what is being written here to the church in the book of Hebrews. Now, when these things had thus been prepared, the priest always went into the first part of the tabernacle performing with the services. They always killed the animals outside, had the special washings, and then they would go into that first room where there were ceremonies that they did as a regular worship of God representing the people to God.

But in 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 at ignorance. Now, it's interesting. The high priest actually had to go in and sprinkle blood for himself. I must be forgiven to even come before this, into this inner room, and the people must be forgiven.

The Holy Spirit indicating this. In other words, God was working with those people. What we have here in the Shekhana or Shekinah glory is, you know, the Spirit of God had come down there to interact with them. So that's why he says Holy Spirit here. God sends out his Spirit. And it was there.

He said, the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest of all, that holy of holies, was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

There was the relationship of the Israelites to God was personal, but in its corporate worship, and it's worship as a group of people, it went through the tabernacle and through the priest and through the high priest and to God.

Now you have to understand, and what this day is all about is, that is not how you and I approach God. It is still through the high priest, but it's totally different than this physical things that they were doing. He says it was symbolic, okay? This was all symbolic. This was all, like I said, it's a play. It was a good way, you know, plays are a good way to learn things. You know, sometimes we have the little children do a play of Moses coming out of, you know, leading them out of Egypt or different things. Plays are good learning tools. This was a play, but it was very, very serious. The high priest took his life into his own hands every time he went in there. Okay, this is a serious play because it's representing God, and the presence of God is there. The presence of God is there. 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 of the conscience. In other words, this could justify them. We talked about justification. This could give them the right to have a relationship with God. It could not change who they were. It could not change their nature. It forgave them of sins, but there's a difference between being forgiven of a sin and having your nature changed, having your conscience changed, having your character changed. And so their sins are forgiven. They're allowed to have a relationship with God. But they're not, in what we call in the church age, they're not converted. The people converted in the Old Testament was just a handful of people. They're not converted because God's Spirit is still where? It's still something they see. It's not something that's in them. It's there. They see it, but it's not in them. And so, that's why Israel continued to fail all the time. God could be there, but until we accept God's Spirit innocence, submit to that, we can't truly be converted. And that's what he says. It couldn't change their conscience. It couldn't make them converted. They tried and tried and tried to keep the letter of the law.

And never really could understand what is called the Spirit of the law.

We cannot steal and still not be virtuous.

The virtues of God, which come through His Spirit, is developed in us by His Spirit. Now, that doesn't mean we can steal. That means that we actually grow beyond that, until we get to the point where stealing is inconceivable to us.

He says, concerning only with foods and drinks, various washings and fleshy ordinances, imposed until the time of Reformation. They did this until there was a time when Christ came. The high priest actually came. But remember, He didn't come first as the high priest. What did He come first as? The Lamb, the sacrifice.

That's why we celebrate that at the beginning of every, you know, the sacred calendar. We begin that with the Passover. But today we're here to begin to understand the play and to begin to understand the role He plays now, not just as the Passover, but as the high priest. Verse 11 says, But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation. Beyond the physical creation, there is a... I don't know what to call it... place? Dimension? There is a place or dimension where God and His throne exists. It's there.

And He came into this world and said, I'm here... Remember when He said, the kingdom of God is among you? He broke through into this physical creation of ours and said, I'm here to really explain to you about what's outside of here, where God is. And so we see Him coming, or He is now, in that Holy of Holies. Verse 12, After His resurrection, He went to... His ascension was what? To go to the Holy of Holies, the real Holy of Holies, the actual place where God dwells, which this was just a representation of. He went there, presented Himself as the sacrifice. I have... I sacrificed myself, and now is accepted as not only the sacrifice for all of us, but He takes His place as the High Priest. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, in other words, they were allowed to have a relation with God, but it was still on a physical level. It was still within this world. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from the dead works to serve the living God? Cleanse our minds, cleanse our spirit so that we now literally can become like Christ and be the very children of God? This isn't a play. You and I are in it right now. It's a reality that today reminds us of. We're in this. When you get on your knees, you don't have to go to the sanctuary and ask them to do a sacrifice for you. People would bring a lamb. People would bring their sacrifices to this place to say, have God please forgive me for my sins so I can go before Him. You don't do that. I don't do that. We're not supposed to do that. Because we're living in the reality that that pictured. I don't think we always grasp that. I know I can't. When I do get a little understanding of it, I'm overwhelmed by it. We're living in this reality of going before the throne of God, who is a high priest there who says, my sacrifice is for this person. Not on the Day of Atonement, every day of our lives. We're here to commemorate that it actually happened. Verse 15, The reality that this day tells us that you and I go directly before the very throne of God, before His mercy seat.

It's interesting. He could have called it the seat of judgment. He could have called it a lot of things. He said, it's the mercy seat. You come here because I want you to come here. But you can't come before me the way you are. You must be cleansed to come before me.

That's hard for...that is a really difficult thing for people to believe. One of the things that keep people from truly coming to God and having a form of religion that has no substance to it, they won't accept that God doesn't accept them the way they are. They just won't accept that. Oh no, God loves me. Yes! God wants me. Yes! God accepts me the way I am. No! This day tells us this. And the reality is, you and I go not because God accepts us the way we are. He accepts us because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And He accepts us because of what He's making us into. And therefore, He accepts us. But we can't stay the way we are. That was the problem with this day in ancient Israel. When they all went home, it affected their lives for a while. And then they just returned to the way they were. And never changed the way they were. And so they had to keep doing these things all the time to try to have some kind of change in their lives. You and I live in this every day. It's a privilege we have to go before the mercy seat. But to come before the mercy seat and given that justification is... There's a responsibility that goes with that. And that goes with we have to be sanctified. We have to become holy. Aaron's sons were killed simply because they didn't honor being holy as priests and God killed them. There's a lesson in that for us. How much more does God take? How much more serious He is about those who have received His Spirit, not have it as an outside force that they can see. But have actually received His Spirit. And we're not talking about some lamb that was killed. We're talking about the Son of God. But it's the mercy seat because He's constantly saying, I love you. I want to forgive you. I want to help you. It's the mercy seat. That to me is real important.

Because even in our failures, we can remember, we get to go before the mercy seat.

Verse 23.

And by the way, He says that in present tense because the temple hadn't been destroyed yet. They were still doing this when He wrote this. He then would 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 has offered once to bear the sins of many to those who eagerly wait for Him. He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. You know, if He didn't come the first time, we should all fear the second coming. Because it means we're all going to be judged.

If He didn't come the first time to, as an offering for our sins, and to make way for the Holy Spirit to be given to us, He's coming the second time to do what? There is no salvation if there isn't a first coming.

But He says here, the second time, it isn't just for, oh, I'm going to come and destroy the world. It's to save and to harvest. Because the mercy seat, what's actually happened, what this play showed us is real. And that motivation has to be a driving force. What's interesting, we know in Mark 15 that when Jesus died, that veil between those two rooms, that veil was ripped from top to bottom. No human being did it. It just was ripped. This big, heavy curtain is ripped from top to bottom, showing that the way into the Holy, the real Holy of Holies was now opened. The veil between humanity and God has been ripped. It's open. There it is, the mercy seat. Although it seems that when it was ripped, they didn't see anything in there because the ark wasn't there anymore. The Bible doesn't say that, but what we put together historically, it wasn't there anymore. But the Holy of Holies is open. It's open to us. And at the death of Jesus Christ, God ripped that curtain open to say, the play's over, folks. The play's over. Now the reality has started. We are humbled before God today, and it is a day of humbling because we are to be brought back to this reality of what God is doing in your life. And the seriousness of it, the seriousness of it.

You know, it's interesting in Revelation. Let's go to Revelation. What's happened to the ark of the covenant? Every, I don't know, every, at least once a year, I get some news story from some place that they found it. They know where it is. It's under the Mount of Olives. It's under the Temple Mount. And, you know, of course for years it's been in Ethiopia, but the Ethiopian church won't let anybody see it. So it's in there someplace, but nobody can look at it. It's in Africa. It's all, you know, everybody seems to find it, but nobody actually finds it. But it's interesting here in Revelation 11, verse 15, the seventh angel sounds. So this is the end of the day of the Lord, which we just commemorated on the Feast of Trumpets. That time when God intervenes in human history, when God says enough is enough, and the dominion of Satan is removed, and humanity is brought, you know, just at the point where they're about to destroy each other, now Christ comes, reigns on earth, and begins to heal the earth and heal humanity. It's going to take, who knows how long that millennium is spent just getting things put back together.

And then there's these ten days in between. In the Jewish world, they celebrate these ten days as repentance. It's a time of repentance. You know, there's judgment, and they look at, of course, trumpets as judgment, but they also look at atonement as judgment, because they were judged for hundreds and hundreds of years. Their history is the high priest going in there, and they're being judged. You and I don't see this as much as judgment. We're repenting. We should be. This should be a season of repentance. That's why we're fasting. It is God has accepted us, and we must realize how important that truly is.

We must understand how much we must hate sin. We must understand how much the price that was paid for us. So this is supposed to be a humbling time. So here we have a time after the, during the seventh trumpet. So it's the time of, pictured by the Feast of Trumpets. Then the seventh angel sounded, there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and of His reign, He shall reign for ever and ever.

And the twenty-four elders who sat before God, on their thrones, fell down on their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give thanks, we give you thanks, O Lord, God Almighty, the one who is and who was and is to come, because you have taken your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and in time of the dead that they should be judged, and that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.

So here's the resurrection taking place, Christ is coming back, humanity tries to stop Him, and He actually does kill a large amount of people. Verse 19, Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple, and there were lightnings and noises and thunderings and earthquake and a great hail. There is here this imagery in Revelation where you can now see into the very throne of God, you can see the holy of holies. Now, the ark of the covenant may actually be there, I don't know.

I have no idea where it is. Well, according to India, it's in a warehouse in Washington, D.C. someplace, but you know. How many have seen the Indiana Jones movie? Okay. Half of you. You haven't seen it. Your parents will have to give you permission to see that. But it may be there. But we know spiritually it's there, because all this represents things that are there. And God sits on that throne. It is interesting, we have, and I'll just sort of start wrapping this up with this, we do have a prophecy about the messianic rain on earth in Jeremiah.

And he talks about the ark of the covenant in a very interesting way. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 3. It's in the middle of a, actually it's a prophecy about, it's a prophecy to Israel, but it sort of expands out to the world. Which of course, what we understand, that Jesus Christ sacrificed the true meaning of the Day of Atonement is not for Israel, it's for the world, it's for everybody.

It's for everyone. But he says here in verse 14, this is Jeremiah chapter, I'm in the wrong place, that doesn't make sense. Verse 14. Chapter 3, Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 14. Return, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you, I will take you, one from a city, two and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

So this is looking ahead when he says, you know, as a people you're going to be destroyed, but I will bring some to Zion. That's where Christ rules from. That's actually where David ruled from. And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and I will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Then it shall come to pass, that when you are multiplied, and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord, that they will say to you no more, the ark of the covenant of the Lord. It shall not even come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made any more. He says there's going to come a time when the ark, that physical ark of the covenant has no meaning, because the reality will have come. The reality will have come. And at that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem.

And no more shall they follow, that dictates, or their own evil hearts. Once again, there's a glimpse. This happens all through the Bible. A glimpse of the Messianic rule. The glimpse of when God takes over the earth and Satan is removed. And he says, at that point, you won't need a physical ark anymore. Because the reality will be happening, and all the nations will come, because the throne of God will be there.

And we know, ultimately, as we keep the eighth day, right? At the Feast of Tambourine, that eighth day is what? It is when the very throne of God comes to earth. People don't go to heaven forever, God comes to earth forever. That's what happens. It is the throne of God, the new Jerusalem comes. This is a far-reaching concept here. And all nations will come, and they won't need the physical ark of the covenant anymore.

They won't have any meaning. The real mercy seat, the real temple, will be here with God's people. We are here today, humbled by our fasting. But we're not here in a physical temple. Those who have God's Spirit make up the temple of God. And we then go into the Holy of Holies, where our High Priest is, where the offering has been made for us.

The wonderful truth of this time is so much greater than what ancient Israel understood in the keeping of the Day of Atoa. So is all the Holy Days. Our understanding of the Holy Days is way beyond anything they understood, because we see it through the lens of the New Testament. That's why the concept of keeping the Holy Days as bondage is bizarre.

It's just a total lack of insight or spiritual understanding. The Holy Days tell us exactly what God is doing. This should be the Christian calendar for all Christianity these days, not Christmases in an Easter, which have no biblical basis. Come from paganism and pretended to be Christian. These days are the most Christian days you can imagine. This day is Christian. It lets us know that the plays of the Old Covenant are teaching us the reality that you and I live in today.

Today we know that Jesus Christ was the sacrifice, and that we just read what it said in Hebrews. He presented Himself. This day symbolizes when He presented Himself to God on our behalf. And now we are truly justified, and we have a true relationship with God Almighty.