JESUS HAS BECOME OUR ARK
Exodus 37:1,2 Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood - two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. He overlaid it with pure gold, both inside and out, and made a gold molding around it.
This small box was only 3 ¾ feet long, 2 ¼ wide and high, and yet this box still has the attention of the world. Ever since it was no longer mentioned following the reign of Josiah, it has had the curiosity of the world. In II Chron 35:3 Josiah
says, “He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the Lord: ‘Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel’.” Some say that Jeremiah hid it in a cave on the mountain that Moses had climbed just before the Babylonian invasion as recorded in II Maccabees. The book of II Maccabees is not canonical. Others believe that it was hidden under the Temple Mount. Others claim that it was taken to Ethiopia where it was kept in St Mary’s of Zion’s Church in Aksum an ancient city of Ethiopia. Since it has never been officially located only speculation can be made. We do know one thing and it is if it is ever found and made public there will be a cry from Jews all over the world to build a new temple for it. I personally believe that this will be the reason for the new temple to be built on the Temple Mount. We know that it will be rebuilt as about half way through the time of the tribulation, the antichrist will enter into it. (II Thess 2:4)
The ark of the covenant or testimony, was the symbol of God’s presence for Israel. Inside it was the stone tablets that God wrote his law upon, a golden jar of manna and the staff of Aaron that budded. The tablets of course represented the law of God, the manna being God’s provision and the staff as God rule or leadership over them. The lid was called the mercy seat where the sacrificed animals blood was placed and the cherubim with their wings spread upward toward God look down on the blood and mercy seat symbolized God’s looking down upon it. It was gold inside and out reflecting the kingly presence of God.
Hebrews chapter 9-10:18 tells us how Jesus has become our high priest. Where once a year the high priest would bring the blood of a goat or lamb into the Holy of Holies to be sprinkled on the mercy seat year after year, Jesus has entered the Most Holy Place not built by human hand to bring forth his blood as having obtained eternal redemption for all who would choose to receive it. Jesus has set aside the first covenant of the law to establish a new covenant of grace through his atonement on Calvary’s cross. And by doing this we have been made holy through the sacrifice of Jesus once and for all. At last humanity can come to rejoice in verse 10:17 as it says, “I will remember your sins no more.”
Now as God looks down upon us he no longer sees our sin, but the blood of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Jesus has fulfilled all that the ark represented. He is divine as the gold reflects without sin or limitation. He has lived a perfect sinless life that we were all called to do. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords as Aaron’s staff symboled leadership. He is our manna, our source of food that gives us eternal life. As God looks down on us he sees no lack, because Jesus has become our ark. He has given us a covenant through his blood that is more than what we will ever need.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for becoming our ark. In you we now have peace, reconciliation and hope. You are a wonderful God and Savior! We love you Jesus!
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