"Be thou ... to God-ward"

The text of the title of this post comes from Ex 18:19, but the thought comes from Exodus 25.

It makes sense that, following preparing the people of Israel to come into the presence of the Lord by causing them to receive all his commandments by covenant (see Ex 24:7-8), when Moses went and spoke with the Lord in the mount, the first revelation was for the preparation of a portable temple (the tabernacle).

As part of that revelation came the instructions on the building of the Ark of the Covenant. (I suppose that we could talk about the significance of it being an Ark, and the comparison with the Arks of Noah and the Jaredites in terms of symbols and meanings, but perhaps we can come back to that another time. You'll also find that an approximation of the golden ratio - a symbol of eternity and of life - is involved in the dimensions of the Ark.)

On the top of the Ark was the mercy seat (or atonement-cover - See footnote a here). Two cherubim were to be fashioned to go atop the mercy seat, their faces towards the centre of the mercy seat and each other, and their wings outstretched to encircle it about. This concourse of angels (i.e. the cherubim and their wings form a circle) around God in the centre is a powerful symbol that we find in other holy scenarios, such as in one of Lehi's visions.

I found the thought that their faces and their wings were "to God-ward" (i.e. towards God) to be significant. Their attention, or focus, was with eyes single to God's glory, in the place of which He said, "And there will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat..." That they have turned to God reminded me of one of the Hebrew roots for the word repentance, shuwb (return, turn back); a powerful symbol of atonement. The fact that they also see each other with God in the centre suggested to me the need to see each other from God's perspective (or "through" God), for "...the Lord looketh on the heart".

Their wings, being symbolic of "power, to move, to act...", show that our desires and our actions must be to God-wards, stretched out to His mercy, but also to be used in reaching out to our brothers and sisters (symbolised by the other cherub in the circle). This union with God, being encircled in his love, happens as all in the circle become unified in focus and in desire and in service to God and each other.

These were some of the thoughts I had. One day we shall not only see the Ark, but understand its full meaning.