Numbers 7:89 – Access to God, our priceless privilege

The Tabernacle, we have established, was the representation of the visible presence of the invisible God. It was the place of divine transaction. The cover of the ark was known as the mercy seat.  This was where God would speak from. On the mercy seat was the two golden cherubim made of one piece of hammered gold together with the cover. The cherubim were located at both ends of the mercy seat. Each at one end. They were made facing each other inward with their wings spreading upward, touching each other’s and overshadowing the cover.

Here this last verse of Numbers 7 reads,  “And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him.” This last verse was written not as an afterthought. It was intentionally written to show us that God speaks to His people. In fact in the construction of the Tabernacle, God already instructed how the mercy seat was to be made and for what purpose. He told Moses in Exodus 25:22 saying, “There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.” 

Notice it was only after the offerings were made by the various tribes that Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord. The holy God could not be approached casually. Atonement had to be made for sin to restore man’s relationship with Him. Without the atonement, man’s relationship with Him remained broken. It would be impossible to hear from Him with a broken relationship. Just as God had the mercy seat constructed for the purpose of communicating with His people, He had sent Jesus Christ as our atoning sacrifice to restore our relationship with Him. God’s desire to commune with us is made possible through the finished works of Christ at Calvary, our atoning sacrifice. Christ is our mercy seat through whom God would connect with us and speak to us. We have the priceless privilege of access to God through Christ, so let’s draw near to hear from Him. What a privilege to be forfeited if we don’t!