Leviticus 16:12-13 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹² And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil ¹³ and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. 

Before we get into the distinctions of the mercy seat please note that before the sprinkling of the blood sacrifice, incense is burnt in order to cover the mercy seat. The burning of the incense is symbolic of prayer.

Revelation 5:8 English Standard Version (ESV) And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Within the ingredients for the incense there was pure frankincense which is one of the gifts of the Magi to the Christ child. It points towards Christ.

Now for the distinction of the mercy seat. This rite was only performed with the mercy seat placed upon the Art of the Covenant. No sacrificial blood would ever touch the ordinances of the covenant. The blood only fell on the mercy seat. The covering never allowed the blood to affect the covenant.

Numbers 7:89 English Standard Version (ESV) And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him.

God speaks to us from a place of mercy. Who is it that speaks to us now from that place of mercy?

Hebrews 1:2a English Standard Version (ESV) but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son

Used of the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins expiated); hence the lid of expiation, the propitiatory. (BLB.ORG Outline of Bible Usages)

Recently I wrote that there was a foreshadowing image of the New Covenant during the wilderness journey identified in Exodus. This is in reference to the use of the Ark of the Covenant.

Propitiatory is an adjective and as we have learned adjectives typically serve as a modifier of a noun to denote a quality of the thing named, to indicate its quantity or extent, or to specify a thing as distinct from something else. In this case that distinction is the Mercy Seat and nothing else about the Ark of the Covenant.

Leviticus 16:12-15 English Standard Version (ESV)

¹² And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil ¹³ and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. ¹⁴ And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.

¹⁵ “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.