Mercy Seat
Exod 25:17-22 "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.
And you shall make two
cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy
seat. 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. 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. 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. 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.
The word for "mercy seat" is the same root for the word "atonement". It means
to cover, cancel, appease, or cleanse.
The Greek equivelent is the word "propitiation". Jesus is the mercy seat of
God.
Lk 18:13 "And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise
his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me a
sinner!'
The word "seat" speaks of a resting place so the mercy seat was the "place of
mercy or propitiation".