Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the Testimony, which I will give you. The assembly instruction places the mercy seat over the law — the theology of the furniture arrangement is stated in the spatial relationship. The tablets go in the ark, the mercy seat covers the ark. The law is inside, the atonement is on top. Galatians 3:10–13 says all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse — but Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. The spatial arrangement of the ark — law inside, atonement cover outside — is the visual grammar of the redemption Paul explains: the law's demands are real and located within the covenant container; the atonement is what meets them from above.

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