Back in the days before the Hebrews had built the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai, Israelite men had the right to be priests in their own household. If some matter of intercession or sacrifice involved more than the immediate family, then the firstborn son as the head of the clan held the privilege of this role.

To be a priest effectively meant to be a mediator between humanity and God; it was a responsible position that entailed offering the proper prayers and appropriate sacrifices. The firstlings of a flock and the firstfruits of a harvest would be taken to an altar. Sometimes these altars were erected out of rough, raw stone in special localities to commemorate significant events—such as Abram’s at Moreh or Isaac’s at Beersheba. However, there was also the home altar. This was located at the doorway or the tent-flap—and was the stone that a person passed over to cross the threshold. It was the cornerstone. It was here that the blood painted on the lintels and doorposts would drip down to collect in a shallow basin carved into the stone.

Now, after the incident with the golden calf, the men of Israel lost the right to be priests in their own household. It might seem like a strange consequence but, in reality, it was a perfectly just outcome. The Lord had invited seventy representatives of the people to a banquet with Him on His sapphire floor atop Mount Sinai. There’s no mention of passing over a cornerstone to reach God’s feasting hall but it’s implicit.

By accepting the invitation and passing over the cornerstone, those representatives agreed to a threshold covenant with God. That is, they promised to defend His name and be loyal only to Him. Seven weeks later, they’ve betrayed that promise and worshipped an idol they’ve made and contributed gold to construct. The incident of the golden calf says that the people of Israel cannot be relied upon to keep the sacred trust that a cornerstone represents. They made covenant, only to break it.

Only those who have demonstrated themselves faithful to the covenantal vows of passing over a cornerstone can be expected to do so in the future. This is why the call of Moses to side with God and oppose the worship of the golden calf is so significant. It’s also why the Levites were rewarded by God—because the rites enacted at cornerstones were not meaningless to them.

Once ordinary men could no longer engage in prayer and sacrifice for their family, they had to rely on Aaron to perform that duty on behalf of the entire nation. The Levites were appointed to assist Aaron and his sons, but the priesthood itself was confined to those who could trace their hereditary lineage back to Aaron.

Now, technically, ordinary men never got back the right to the priesthood. In practice, however, it was a slightly different story. During the first century the number of animals needed to be slaughtered at the Passover was in the millions—far exceeding the ability of the priests to perform the necessary task at the Temple on the day itself, no matter how many shifts were rostered. Therefore a ‘domestic Passover’ was established and the head of a household had special permission, just for this day, to fulfil the ritual of the Passover at home.

Now in the days before the treachery of the golden calf, it was the cornerstone that had central place when it came to priestly activity. It did not simply get dismissed as irrelevant during the millennia thereafter. The cornerstone never went away, but it metamorphosed into something that, to us, looks quite different. Instead of a stone under a doorway where droplets of blood collected, it became a footstool where blood was sprinkled by the high priest once a year.

It was transformed into the mercy seat, the lid that sat atop the Ark of the Covenant and that marked the meeting place of heaven and earth. To emphasise the connection between the ancient cornerstones and the mercy seat, the top of the Ark of the Covenant was called ‘kapporeth’, a name deriving from ‘kaph’, cornerstone.

A cornerstone was at the threshold of a doorway; it marked the transition between the interior of a house and its exterior. Likewise, the mercy seat marked the transition between heaven and earth; it was a portal for humanity to gain access to heaven. 

A cornerstone was an altar where blood collected; the mercy seat was an altar where blood was sprinkled.

A cornerstone was a place where threshold covenant was ratified and atonement (at-one-ment) came to pass; the mercy seat was a place where covenant was re-established after atonement for sin was made.

A cornerstone was also a place watched over by angelic guardians. In Job 38, we hear of the morning stars singing and the angels shouting for joy when the cornerstone of the earth was put in place. In Genesis 3:24, we learn of the cherubim appointed with swords to guard the gateway back into Eden, that portal realm joining heaven and earth. On the Ark of the Covenant, there were similarly cherubim watching over the mercy seat at the place where heaven touched earth. They guarded the entrance so no defilement occurred, not even accidental defilement. We see this in 2 Samuel 6:7 in the story of Uzzah who tried to right the Ark of the Covenant when the oxen stumbled and the cart it was on threatened to topple over. We see it also in 1 Samuel 6:19 when the citizens of Beth Shemesh look into the Ark.

The angelic presence is most significant in the description given in John’s gospel of the tomb where the body of Jesus had lain. Mary Magdalene looks in and sees one angel seated where Jesus’ head would have been and the other where His foot would have rested. These are the angels that have rolled the stone blocking the entrance aside, shocked a unit of soldiers so severely they’ve passed out in terror, and caused an earthquake. Their positions tell us that they are watching over the mercy seat on Ark of the Covenant. And that mercy seat, the place where heaven meets earth, the altar of atonement, the portal between the realms is, in reality, Jesus Himself. These angels are the throne guardians of heaven—they are dangerous and potentially fatal cherubim. They are fulfilling their ancient task of watching over the Ark of the Covenant, now revealed as Jesus of Nazareth. He is readying Himself to ascend to the Father and take His blood as an offering into the heavenly Temple. Just as blood on the mercy seat had been a propitiation for the sins of the nation, so now the blood of Jesus became atonement for the sins of the world.

‘Don’t touch Me,’ Jesus said to Mary Magdalene because, as the True Cornerstone, as the pure Mercy Seat, He wasn’t safe. Not until He’d completed His priestly role.

All that went on in the ages beforehand—the cornerstone, the mercy seat, the Ark of the Covenant—prefigured Jesus as the Door of the Sheep, the Chief Cornerstone of the Temple of the Holy Spirit and our Passover.  

This is Grace Drops and I’m Anne Hamilton. May Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, protect you today.

Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.

For more on a covenant with Death, see God’s Pottery: The Sea of Names and the Pierced Inheritance. Please get in touch through the contact form at Armour Books if you are in the US, UK or Australia and there are unusual availability/price issues at the retailer.