Passage Overview · Free · Exodus 25:18–22
The Ark of the Covenant – Mercy Above the Law
God began His instructions for the tabernacle by describing the most sacred object first: the Ark of the Covenant. This gold-covered chest, made of acacia wood and overlaid with pure gold, was to be placed in the innermost part of the sanctuary—the Holy of Holies. Inside the Ark, God commanded that Moses place the stone tablets of the covenant law, the very commandments He had written.
But what crowned the Ark was even more significant: the atonement cover, or “mercy seat,” made of pure gold, with two cherubim on either end, their wings overshadowing the cover and their faces turned inward. From between these cherubim, above the mercy seat, God declared, “I will meet with you and give you all My commands for the Israelites.”