The Weekly Perspective
by Burke Shade, Associate Pastor
Some Christians might be tempted to think that the details Pastor Joe covered from Exodus 37 last Sunday are unnecessary for Christians today. After all, we don’t have Levites carrying around the ark and other furniture. Yet those articles are steeped in symbolism vital to our understanding of our faith and of Jesus.
For example, the ark had two hammered cherubim on top of it, looking down at the top, which was the mercy seat, or covering, or pure gold. From each end the cherubim are guarding the mercy seat between them, which was also Yahweh’s footstool. It’s where heaven and earth meet, and Yahweh rules from there.
When you get to Solomon’s temple, there are four cherubim in the Holy of Holies: the two on the ark, and two more with their wings spread across the whole room, over the ark. But why four guardian angels? Well, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” so when John goes into heaven in Revelation 4, how many guardian angels does he see around God’s throne? That’s right: four!
But it gets better! When Mary shows up at the tomb on Resurrection morning, what she sees (John 20:11ff) is two angels, “sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.” So here’s a table/burial ledge, with angels on either end of where Jesus had lain. What’s that mean? Well, the two angels were guarding the mercy seat between them, with the tomb being a new “holy of holies.” Additionally, the mercy seat was now Jesus, the covering for our sins. Since the mercy seat is where Yahweh’s feet are set on earth, Jesus is now pictured as Yahweh in the flesh, the now resurrected ruler of the world! Heaven and earth meet in and through him!