Scripture Reading: Exo. 25:10-22
Exodus 25:22 says, "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." Here two things are clearly mentioned: fellowship and the receiving of light. "There I will meet with thee." This is fellowship. "I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." This is the receiving of light.
The one thing that occupied God's mind the most in the Old Testament was His tabernacle, which later became the temple. God has a great expectation, a great goal, which is to dwell with His people. God's desire is to tabernacle among men. The greatest item in God's eternal plan is God dwelling among men. God desires to have a meeting place between Himself and man. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus became flesh, He tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth. His purpose was to dwell among us (John 1:14). The word Emmanuel shows that God dwells among men. But the Lord Jesus was only one man. This could not satisfy God's heart. He desires to build us up through His own Spirit to be the dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:22).
The center of the tabernacle and the temple was the ark. Whenever the ark left the tabernacle, the tabernacle was rejected. Whenever the ark was captured and taken away from the temple, the temple could no longer be God's dwelling place. God dwelt with man upon the ark, and man fellowshipped with God through the ark. We will not cover everything about the ark, because that is too great a subject. We will only concentrate on the mercy seat upon the ark and the two cherubim wrought of gold which were upon the mercy seat. God intended to speak and to commune with Moses from the midst of the two cherubim on the mercy seat. We need to realize that God fellowships with man from the midst of the two cherubim on the mercy seat; He speaks to man and man receives light from Him from the midst of the two cherubim on the mercy seat.
The mercy seat is the place where God bestows His grace. On the day of propitiation, the tenth day of the seventh month, the blood of the sin offering was brought to the mercy seat (Lev. 16:14-15). The mercy seat is the place for the propitiation of sins. God's grace comes to man only after the propitiation of sin. If man is not propitiated for, he can never receive mercy from God. On the golden mercy seat, there must be the sprinkling of the blood of the sin offering before God can bestow grace to man. There is a human thought that since God has the authority to bestow grace, he can bestow grace any time He wants and grant mercy any time He wants. God does have the goal of bestowing grace. This is the reason He set up the mercy seat. But we must realize that without the day of propitiation every year, in which the high priest sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat, God could not forgive anyone's sin.
On the two ends of the mercy seat were the cherubim, and God's glory was on the cherubim (Ezek. 9:3; Heb. 9:5). One touches God's mercy on the mercy seat, and one touches God's glory in the midst of the cherubim. God must bestow His grace in such a way that it matches His glory. God cannot have the mercy seat without the cherubim; He cannot bestow grace from the mercy seat without passing through the cherubim. God can be gracious to us, and He desires to deal with us in grace. However, He cannot deal with us through the mercy seat alone; He must also deal with us through the cherubim. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Man can no longer come up to the standard of God's glory. If God dealt with us according to His glory, none of us would be eligible to receive His grace. We would only be qualified to be cursed; we could not receive mercy. Therefore, the blood of propitiation must be the sprinkling of the blood of propitiation upon the mercy seat before God can deal with us in glory and upon the mercy seat.
This shows us that our fellowship with God is based on our compatibility with His glory; it is based on our matching the glory of God. This compatibility comes from the blood. Because of the blood, God is able to bestow grace without sacrificing His glory. God's children need to remember that those who come to God must not fall short of His glory. If you come to God and what you bring in falls short of God's glory, you will not be able to fellowship with Him, and you will not be able to stand up before Him. Since the basis of fellowship is the glory of God, if anyone has a problem with God, it means that he has fallen short of the glory of God. Many brothers and sisters often say that the basis of fellowship is the blood. But we have to remember that the blood is the basis of fellowship because the basis of fellowship is God's glory. Without God's glory, there would be no need for the blood. We need the blood when we fellowship with God because He is a God of glory.
Romans 3 says that man has fallen short of the glory of God because of his sins (v. 23). At the same time, it says that the blood of Jesus justifies us (vv. 25-26). God is a God of glory. Therefore, all those who come to God must remember that their fellowship with God depends on their relationship with God's glory. Anything that does not give glory to God is a sin, and anything that falls short of God's glory is also sin. Sin takes away our fellowship with God. We do not have to sin consciously to lose our fellowship with God, and we do not have to commit gross sins before our fellowship with God is cut off. As long as we do not actively glorify God in a matter, our fellowship with God is damaged. We must remember that the basis of our fellowship with God is His glory. We must also note that man's fellowship with God is based on glory and also on the blood. God's glory demands that there be the blood. If we had not fallen short of God's glory, we would not need the blood. The reason we need the blood is because we have fallen short of God's glory. Glory is the basis of fellowship, and the blood is there to make up our lack.
We must realize that fellowship is frustrated when there is sin. But sin is still the negative reason; it has not touched the crux of the issue. The crux of the issue is the glory of God. Whenever we fall short of God's glory, and whenever we cannot attain to God's glory, fellowship is frustrated. Thank the Lord that there is the blood of the cross upon God's mercy seat today. Through the blood, we can look up to God's glory and live in His glory. Thank the Lord that His propitiation has put us in a position where we can behold God's glory with unveiled face. This is the meaning of fellowship. Fellowship is not spending half an hour to an hour studying the Bible or praying. Fellowship is beholding God's glory through the blood and having a life that is totally for His glory.
Second, we have God's speaking, His shining, or His revelation. God spoke to Moses from the midst of the two cherubim. In the matter of fellowship, God stressed the fact that fellowship and communion with Moses was based on the mercy seat. However, He has no intention that we forget the cherubim; He has no intention that we forget His glory. In His shining, God spoke with Moses from the midst of the two cherubim. His emphasis is on His glory. If man can fellowship with Him upon the mercy seat, he is able to hear God's word from the midst of the cherubim. Of course, God has no intention that we forget the mercy seat either.
God spoke to Moses from the midst of the two cherubim; He led His children according to His glory. Wherever God's glory resides, there is His leading also. God's leading came in the form of the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Through the pillar of cloud, man sees God's glory, and through the pillar of fire, man also sees God's glory. The place of God's glory is the place of His leading.
God speaks and leads according to His glory. When God speaks to us personally concerning a certain matter, that is the time we know that we are glorifying Him. If we see God's glory in a certain matter, we know that we have His leading in that matter. With many of God's children, leading and glory are two different things. But before God, glorifying God and being led by God are not two things but one. Wherever we find God's glory, we find His leading concerning certain matters for us. As soon as we see God's glory, we know that we are in the right place.
God spoke from the midst of the two cherubim. All those who have seen God's glory have heard His speaking. We do not have to see His glory first and then wait for His speaking. Once we see God's glory in the way of life, this seeing will give us a more profound knowledge than we previously had. Whenever we see God's glory, we understand and know.
What is right? What is wrong? What is the right way? What is the wrong way? What has spiritual value, and what does not have spiritual value? It all depends on whether or not God's glory is there. Some matters may be small and may not be worth much in man's eyes, but the minute you touch it, you know that you have touched God's glory. Once you touch God's glory, you know that you have the leading, and there is no need to wait for more leading. With some work, the more you engage yourself in it, the more you feel that it is cheap and wrong. With some other work, the more you engage yourself in it, the more shining you become, and the more light there is. You feel that such work is worthwhile and right. It is not a question of a great or a small work but a question of whether or not God's glory is there. If God's glory is not there, it is worthless; if God's glory is there, it is worthwhile.
When Moses preached God's word, he became a minister of the word in the eyes of the Lord. He ministered to God's people with God's word. All the words which God spoke to Moses and which He commanded Moses to convey to the Israelites were given to him from the midst of the two cherubim. Hence, when Moses spoke for God, he touched the glory of God. In the same way, if we touch the glory of God and see His glory, we will have something to say. Sometimes we feel very good about what we have said, and the arguments seem sound. Yet we feel that it is very superficial and shallow. There is no testimony of the word in our speaking, and there is no ministry of the word. If a matter is of God, we will immediately sense that it comes from the midst of the two cherubim and will know that the glory of God is there. God's glory is not only something objective but something among us and something we can know.
Many times in our daily life, we touch the glory of God, and we find that there is something that glorifies God. Such a glory becomes our leading. In our work we often touch the glory of God; we find glory in our work. At these times we can say that the glory brings us the leading. If we touch the glory of God while we are ministering a word to the church, we know that we have ministered God's word. Every time we receive a revelation from God, we touch the glory of God. When God speaks from the midst of the two cherubim, we do not merely have words, but we have glory as well. Whenever we have only words without glory, we know that we only have doctrine. Whenever there are words as well as glory, we know that we have revelation. It is strange that every time we see God's glory, our mouth may not be able to articulate it, but we know it deep within us. If anyone asks us how we see, we may not be able to tell him, but the result of the seeing is there. The greatest manifestation of glory is for us to prostrate ourselves on the ground. When we prostrate ourselves on the ground, we do not know what has happened, yet we know that we have touched God.
The basis of our fellowship with God and of receiving light from Him is this touch of God's glory. If we do not have this basis, everything we have is just doctrine and theory. May the Lord be gracious to us, so that day by day as we live on earth, we may touch God's glory.
