A Place of Mercy

A Place of Mercy

Exodus 25: ¹⁷ “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. ¹⁸ And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. ¹⁹ Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. ²⁰ And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. ²¹ You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. ²² And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.

 

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GOD gave specific instructions regarding building a mercy seat that would be the top of the Ark of the Testimony. HE also said HE would meet Moses there and any high priest.

 

My Observations:

• GOD planned out HIS mercy.
• GOD had a specific way HE wanted to deal with the mercy of the people.
• GOD was making the children of Israel aware that they needed mercy.

 

Specific instructions required specific skills that would be assigned later in the process. GOD focused on the need for HIS mercy. HE knew humans would try to make up their own rules and would leave HIM out of their plans. HE developed a process that required the admission of sin to receive mercy.

 

GOD still requires us to admit we need JESUS for our salvation and for daily decision making. If we let the world dictate our direction, we would not admit we need GOD. Only one person could fit on the mercy seat. GOD would speak from above to the person sitting on the seat.

 

Challenge:

• Why does GOD remind Moses about the mercy seat that would fit on the Ark of the Testimony?
• Have you learned GOD’s process for receiving mercy?
• Have you asked GOD for mercy before asking for things that may take you away from HIM?

Build an Ark

Build an Ark

Exodus 25: ¹⁰ “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. ¹¹ And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. ¹² You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. ¹³ And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. ¹⁵ The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. ¹⁶ And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.

 

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GOD told Moses to build the ark of the Testimony. HE gave specific instructions on how to build the ark.

 

My Observations:

• Gold is a special metal that GOD instructed them to use.
• This is the third and final ark of the Bible.
• GOD told Moses to build an ark, but did not tell him what to put in it yet.

 

First there was Noah’s ark. Then Jochebed mad an ark to save Moses. Now GOD instructed Moses to build the ark of the Testimony. The first two arks were used for a short-term, highly valuable mission to save one or more people. But this ark would be used for decades.

 

The builders of the ark could touch the wood and the gold without harming themselves. But when the ark was filled with the items GOD wanted in there, the ark would become deadly. This ark was to be handled properly and with holy wisdom.

 

Challenge

• Why does GOD remind Moses about HIS instructions to build the ark of the Testimony?
• Has GOD given you specific instructions?
• What is GOD telling you to build?

Manna Remembered

Manna Remembered

Exodus 16: ³¹ And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

 

³² Then Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ” ³³ And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.” ³⁴ As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. ³⁵ And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. ³⁶ Now an omer is one-tenth of an ephah.

 

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GOD provided food from heaven that humans could not understand. The name Manna means “What?” or “What is it?” Moses describes how it tasted. Then Moses obeyed what the LORD told him by laying up a jar full of manna. This sample lasted forty years.

 

My Observations:

• Moses shows us his writing style by mentioning how long they stayed in the desert, but it was done out of sequence.
• GOD preserved the manna in the jar so the children of Israel would remember HIS provision.
• GOD knew how long HE would keep the people out in the desert, but Moses did not know when he had Aaron collect a sample of manna.

 

This passage of scripture shows us that Moses wrote this book well after the events occurred. GOD had to remind Moses of the events and provide the details HE wanted us to remember. This is a great example of how GOD inspired writers of the Bible to record the exact detail that HE wanted to reveal.

 

The manna did not rot for the full forty years that the children of Israel were in the desert. The jar of manna would eventually end up in the ark of the covenant, otherwise known as the Testimony. Moses did not write in a linear chronological fashion, rather he mentions a little of the end of the journey before it happened. Manna was “bread” from heaven. JESUS is the “bread” of life that we need to remember as often as possible.

 

Challenge

• Why does GOD remind Moses about the jar of manna?
• Has GOD taken you through something and you wrote down the event or kept something to remember what HE brought you through?
• How will you intentionally remember what GOD has done for you during the deliverance?