Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 335 · December 1
There I Will Meet
“And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”
You may pray in the car, or while the kettle boils, or at the same table where you pay the bills. Part of you may suspect that this is why your prayers feel thin, and that there ought to be a special place set aside for meeting God.
Israel was given such a place, down to the exact measurements, and at its centre was the mercy seat. By the usual account, the English name "mercy seat" comes from William Tyndale, who was following Luther's German word, and the King James kept it. What it names is the lid of the ark. It was made of pure gold, "two cubits and a half" long and "a cubit and a half" wide. At either end stood "two cherubims of gold, of beaten work," with their wings stretched out over it and their faces turned toward each other, looking down at the lid between them.
Underneath the lid, inside the ark, lay the law God had given. On top of the lid, once a year, the high priest sprinkled blood. God warned Aaron "that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail," "that he die not." Yet in the middle of all the building instructions, God gives the reason for the whole thing: "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat." Numbers records it happening in the plainest words: Moses "heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims." God spoke from above the law His people had broken, over the blood on the gold.
Lord, where do You meet people now? The gold lid is gone, and the temple that once held it was burned long ago. Yet the Greek word for that lid is used of Your Son, whom You set forth "to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." So I am not asking You for a better room. Meet me where I am, at this table, over the things I have broken. Let me come to You without hurry and without fear, because the blood that covers them is Your Son's. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 335 is Slow to Anger (Psalm 103:8).