Exodus 25:1-22
In this chapter we have the commencement of the instructions as to worship. The Tabernacle, "example and shadow of heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5) now presents to us in all its details, as a series of different types, the conditions in which
(1) the Holy God can dwell in the midst of His own
(2) we who are sinners can approach this God who is so holy.
These matters concern basic truths of our salvation and of their place in the divine order.
When we wish to describe a house, we do not begin with the furniture. Here, on the contrary, the ark takes the first place because it represents Christ, the centre of all God’s counsels. It was made of shittim wood or acacia (a tree found in areas of arid soil), incorruptible, and a type of Christ’s humanity: (Isaiah 53:2), covered over with gold, the emblem of His deity. The mercy seat, made of pure gold, which served as a cover for the ark, speaks of a God showing favour, propitiated by the blood which has been applied there (read Romans 3:25) and which makes it possible for God to meet the sinner there (v. 22). As to the "cherubim of glory", whose faces were turned towards the mercy seat (Hebrews 9:5), they tell us that there are deep and divine mysteries which "the angels desire to look into" (1 Peter 1:12).