The Mercy Seat

I've been listening to the Gospels little by little each night before bed. A few nights ago I was listening to John 20 when I heard the part of Mary Magdalene weeping by the tomb:

(John 20:11-12) "But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain."

As I was listening it occurred to me that that the two angels sitting at the head and foot of where Jesus had lain was a realization of the mercy seat from the ark of the covenant. Exodus 25 tells us of the two angels that were made of gold seated on both ends of the mercy seat:

(Exodus 25:17-22) "And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. (18) And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. (19) And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. (20) And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. (21) And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. (22) And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."

It is interesting that God told Moses that the mercy seat was the place He would meet with him, and that many years later, we can come and meet with God because of Jesus' death on the cross and the mercy that was bestowed on us--sinners saved by grace.