The Tabernacle of God: The Ark of the Covenant (part 1)

Exodus 25:10-16

This next piece of furniture appears to be one item, but it is actually two. I am going to address it as such also. There is the box part that makes up most of the ark. Then there is the lid with the two angels on the top of it. This lid is actually called the "mercy seat". To the best I can remember, there are only two deaths recorded with the tabernacle, and one prophet we are told was killed between the Temple and the Altar. One was Joab who was executed by King Solomon for rebellion against the rightful heir to the throne. He was killed while holding onto the altar (I Kings 2). The other was Uzzah who died for touching the ark of the covenant while it was being transported on an ox cart against God's commands (II Samuel 6:6-11). The prophet was Zechariah who Jesus spoke of in Matthew 23:35.

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“And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.

Exodus 25:10-16

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The ark was the box that was hollow and held three items. It was roughly 4.5 feet long and 2.5 feet wide and tall. That is a fairly large box. The contents of the box included the two tables of stone that contained the law (10 Commandments), a bowl of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. The law revealed God's righteousness and justice, the bowl of manna revealed God's provision for His people, and Aaron's rod that budded revealed God's calling on men's lives and His judgment of rebellion.

Many people do not like the Old Testament because this is all they see of God. They see rules, judgment, death, and rigidness. Many claim to love Jesus in the New Testament, but they do not like God of the Old Testament. I tell people "He is the same God in both, and He did not change". God is righteous. He has laws that He expects His creation to abide within. If we do not, there are consequences. Everything about our creation was created with order. From the temperature at which the sun burns, to the relative distance the earth revolves around that sun, to the salt levels of the ocean, and the gravitational pull of the earth, there is order that allows life to exist on this planet. There are laws!

We all like righteousness and judgment when it is ruled in our favor. We only dislike it when it goes against us because we are the one who violated the law. This is why people claim to not like the God of the Old Testament. Isaiah said, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way..." (Isaiah 53:6). Isaiah used a simile to create an image of how we walked away from our God and decided to do that which was right in our own eyes. This is called rebellion.

I mentioned in the introduction that Uzzah died because he touched the Ark. David wanted to bring the ark to Jerusalem because it was his capital. Instead of reading how God ordered for the ark to be transported, David did his own thing. He put the ark on an ox cart and began making the journey. Along the way, the Bible says the oxen stumbled. They probably hit a pothole and the ark shifted. Uzzah had good intentions, but God does not honor good intentions that are disobedient to Him. Uzzah died because he directly violated God's commandments. Ignorance nor intentions were a good excuse.

The ark of the covenant points the worshiper towards the righteousness of God. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil (Habakkuk 1:13). This is what it means for God to be Holy. He is set apart and above all of His creation. This is also why the ark was placed behind the veil in the Tabernacle. Because of sin, man had no access to God. It was only through an intercessor that an offering could be made. We will speak more about that when we consider the second part of this box. It is the righteousness of God that condemns sinful people to Hell. We should not be angry at this. We all want righteousness and justice when someone wrongs us.

I would encourage you to read Numbers 16-17 sometime. It is the story of Korah and a few other leaders who rebelled against Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. In doing so, they rebelled against God. To establish that He had indeed called Moses and Aaron to lead the people, God set up a test. Each tribe of Israel set a rod out in the open. The next day, God made Aaron's rod bud with leaves and flowers. A dead stick was living again. It was resurrected, if you will, to show that God had spoken and established salvation through the man He chose, not who people chose[There might be a message in that ;) ]. This rod established God's will and condemned those who opposed His will. Sin has consequences, and God wants us to be aware of that.

Father, we rebel against You when we think we know better. It is pride, and we are all guilty of it. Help us to know that Your law is good. Your covenants are good. You revealed Your Wit's to us so that we are without excuse. Ignorance is not a defense. Help us to not despise Your law, but rather to love it as the Psalmist did (Psalm 119:165)