This wasn’t an actual seat but a “mercy place” for atonement purposes. God told them to lay a mercy seat over the Ark. What put me in a state of awe is one of the items God instructed His people to place over the Ark of the Covenant, which was behind the veil in the Most Holy Place. These holy commands I have often transgressed. This perfect law condemns humankind and points to the holiness of our Creator. The law we, the sons and daughters of Adam, cannot keep. The Ark housed the two tablets that had the law of God written on them. While they were traveling from Mount Sinai to Canaan, God told them to build a tabernacle, where the “ark of the testimony” was kept. They had been delivered from slavery, but they had not yet reached the promised land. The Israelites, like us, were living in the in-between.

In Exodus, Moses wrote about the Israelites' experience in the desert. “ I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony I will speak with you from there about all that I command you regarding the Israelites” (Exodus 25:22, emphasis my own). This scripture reminded me of my only hope to meet with God and hear Him speak: The discouraging thing is, the more we stay away from the constant nourishment of the Lord, the harder it is to hear His voice when He calls us out of our dry place.īut recently I came across a passage that felt like an oasis amid my desert. A wilderness where spiritual disciplines, which are meant to bring you closer to God, feel like warfare rather than joy. It's like you’re in a spiritual desert, trudging through heavy sand. I've felt stuck in a season of spiritual dryness. Some days I don’t want to read the Bible, and I’ve gone periods without prayer that make me ashamed that I think I can be so independent. Now, it feels like my attention span is the length of a succinct YouTube video. When I reflect on my almost 20 years as a believer, I know there are times when I seemed much more engaged with God than I have been lately. 'I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony I will speak with you from there about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.' Exodus 25:22 (CSB)

Finding my father blair linne