Mercy Seat: What Is It?

Mercy Seat Prayer Ministry | Mercy Seat Song




The Mercy Seat was the lid of The Ark of the Covenant which contained The Ten Commandments. The original Hebrew word translated as Mercy Seat is pronounced kap-po-reth, and means to cover. It can be a noun, meaning a lid, or a top, but also, based on the Hebrew root from which it was derived, as a verb meaning to pardon, or to atone for, as in to cover a debt. The Hebrew word kap-po-reth is used exclusively in the Scriptures for the Mercy Seat.

The instructions for constructing The Ark of the Covenant, including the Mercy Seat, were given to Moses. Exodus 25:17-22 "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide. You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat.  Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends.  The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you.  There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel." Exodus 26:34 "You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the holy of holies."

After it was completed, the High Priest, Aaron (and later, his successors, one at a time) was the only person permitted to enter The Most Holy Place where the Mercy Seat was, and even then, only once per year, on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) with the blood of the sacrifice which was sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat. Leviticus 16:2; Leviticus 16:12-17 

The Lord spoke to Moses from the Mercy Seat, within the Most Holy Place. Numbers 7:89 "Now when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him, 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, so He spoke to him."

1 Chronicles 28:11-12,19 "Then David gave to his son Solomon the plan of the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms and the room for the mercy seat; and the plan of all that he had in mind, for the courts of the house of the LORD, and for all the surrounding rooms, for the storehouses of the house of God and for the storehouses of the dedicated things; All this," said David, "the LORD made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the details of this pattern." "

By the time of the New Testament, the symbolic meaning and purpose of the Mercy Seat was made clear. Jesus Christ, the ultimate High Priest appearing before the Throne of God after His making Atonement, or covering, the sins of humanity.

Hebrews 9:3-5,11-12. "Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."