The Way You Must Go

From the Pastor: Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.

“And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” (Joshua 3:3-5)

This is such a wonderful picture of salvation through Jesus Christ, who is the Covenant of the LORD our God. Why? What is the revelation of the “ark of the covenant”? Notice: “…the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat;” (Heb. 9:4b-5a) The ark, its contents, and the mercyseat were designed to be direct types of Jesus and the way of salvation through him. The only way one must go to be saved!

“Manna” is in reference to Jesus being the bread that gives eternal life by which He said, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.” (Jn. 6:50) The cut off “rod that budded” (“…shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself…” Dan. 9:26)) is pointing to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as the Branch that was cut off, yet he lives forevermore. The “tables of the covenant” reveal Jesus, the Word, as the everlasting covenant of God. “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.”(Heb. 13:20)

Over all of this, one will find the “mercyseat” where the grace of God is gifted through the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb. The ungodly have never passed this way before, but God by direction has shown Jesus to be the only way one must go to reach the mercyseat.