on the wing but waiting, looking inward toward the mercy seat-
Justice, to know when to act.
Now, see the High Priest as he approaches with the blood of
the atonement sacrifices; will he put it upon the cherubim? No,
neither the Mercy nor the Love of God require the sacrifice; he
need not, therefore, sprinkle the cherubim. It is the Justice of God
that will by no means clear the guilty–It was Justice that said that
the wages of sin is death. When, therefore, the High Priest would
give a ransom for sinners, it is to Justice that it must be paid.
Therefore, we see why he sprinkled the blood upon the Mercy Seat.
Love, led to the whole redemptive plan. It was because God so
loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to redeem it, by
paying to Justice the ransom. So Love has been active, preparing
for the redemption ever since sin entered–yet “from before the
foundation of the world.” (1 Pet. 1: 20)
“Love first contrived the way
To save rebellious man.”
When the sacrifices (bullock and goat) are complete, Love
tarries to see the results of its plan. As the blood is sprinkled,
Justice cries, it is enough. Then must come Mercy’s time to work
for those whom God so loved; and Love and Mercy wing their
flight to bless the ransomed race through the Redeemer–the
“Lord’s anointed.” When Justice is satisfied, Mercy starts out upon
her errand which is co-extensive with that of Love, and uses the
same agency–the Christ.
The relationship and oneness of all of that divine family
[Father, Son and his bride], represented by the Ark and its cover is
shown in the fact that the Mercy Seat was the lid of the Ark, and
hence a part–the top or head of it. As the head of the church is
Christ Jesus, so the head of the entire Christ is God. (1 Cor. 11:3)
This is the oneness for which Jesus prayed, saying: Father “I pray
not for the world, but for those thou has given me”–”that they all
may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also
may be one in us–that the world may [then] believe.” (John 17: 9,
21)
IT IS SIGNIFICANT ALSO,
that any member of the priesthood that had a blemish of eye, hand,
nose, foot, or in any way, could not fill the office of Priest (High
Priest); neither any man having any superfluity, such as an extra
finger, or toe. This seems to each us all of the perfection of every
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