The Tabernacle, Part 11 —The Ark of the Covenant
The Lord our God is the Master Designer of all things. He is the Designer of tabernacles and temples. He is also the Designer of the universe and our lives. He has a plan and strategy. He didn’t just tell Moses to build a tent and use whatever you desire. Add a couple of rooms to it and “I will come down and visit you there.” God was specific and detailed about everything Moses was to do. If God is specific and detailed about a Tent of Meeting, you know He is specific and detailed about your life. Your times are completely in His hands. God arranges your affairs down to minute details.
Exodus 25:8–9 NKJV And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
Underneath the coverings of the tabernacle were two rooms.
The first room was the Holy Place and beyond the veil was the Holy of Holies. The shekinah glory of God radiates from this place.
The Levitical Priesthood worked in the Holy Place.
Three pieces of furniture are in the Holy Place: the table of showbread, the candlestick, and the altar of incense. Aaron would tend the lamps morning and evening and burn incense continually on the altar of incense. On the table of showbread was the “bread of the presence” which was changed weekly.
Past the veil was the Holy of Holies.
The direct presence of God dwelt in the Holy of Holies. No human activity took place there. Once a year, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement.
All of the activity in the court and in the Holy Place was done in preparation for entrance into the Holy of Holies.
All of the sacrifices and washings were preparing for this. All of the activity in the Holy Place was for fellowship and worship before God and preparation for entrance into the Holy of Holies.
Every activity in the Tabernacle was done in preparation to enter into the presence of God.
God said: “Let them make me a sanctuary that I might dwell among them.” The whole purpose is fellowship and worship with God. This is the place where humanity and divinity can meet. God wanted to come down and meet with His people in this definite place. It cost them to meet with Him. Relationship always costs something. It cost the people to offer the sacrifice. Ultimately, relationship with God cost the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
By their sacrificial giving, a place was prepared for fellowship with God Almighty.
God wanted them to personally meet with Him. When they saw the Tabernacle, God wanted them to know that they had a part in it.
2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Entrance into fellowship with God was by sacrifice.
God was showing them that redemption costs. Our salvation required the great sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ. Living the Christian life will cost you something. It costs us something to walk with God. Jesus said: “Take up your cross and follow Me.”
Each piece of Tabernacle furniture was made out of articles that the people gave to God.
The innermost piece of furniture in the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant.
Exodus 25:10-15 NKJV “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. (45” long X 27” wide X 27” high). 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.
The first piece of furniture they built for the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant.
Exodus 25:11 NKJV 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.
The Ark of the covenant was made of acacia wood. Acacia wood is hardwood from a gnarled and thorny tree. The wood was so hard that it was referred to as incorruptible wood. The sap of the acacia tree is used in many products (gum, M&M’s, marshmallows, gumdrops, sodas, painting, art, printmaking, glue…) Its sap contains 90% soluble fiber. Historically, it was used to treat: skin wounds such as burns, cuts, leprosy, digestive issues, gonorrhea, coughs, colds and dysentery.
It is a picture of Christ.
The wood refers to Christ’s humanity and the gold His divinity. The wood was covered with the gold. The wood was always wood and the gold was always gold, yet they were presented as one. Those who saw Him did not understand everything about Jesus. He could turn water into wine, heal all manner of sickness, and raise the dead. He hungered but was also able to command fish to fill the nets of the disciples. He was tempted in all ways as we were, yet He did not sin. He wept at the grave of a friend and then commanded Lazarus to come out of the grave. When they looked at the wood (His humanity) they could not understand the gold (His divinity).
John 1:14 NASBAnd the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God had them make the last piece of furniture first.
By building this first, God wanted to make sure that they understood that He wanted to meet with them. God said: “They shall make an ark.” God is leading them into His holy presence. Everything about the Tabernacle was directed to restoring fellowship with God.
Three arks are mentioned in the Bible.
In Genesis 6, Noah built the first ark for the saving of his family.
God commanded Noah to build the ark and gave him specific instructions. He was to use gopher wood and seal it with pitch (asphalt or tar) on the inside and the outside.
Anytime we see an ark, it is sealed with something.
The Ark of the Covenant was sealed with gold.
When Noah built the ark, all who went inside were preserved from the flood. God did not build the ark for Noah. Noah built the ark as God instructed and he was preserved by his effort. As he stepped into what he had built, he was preserved. God had the plan and Noah obeyed the plan.
God always gives a plan for the salvation of His people.
When we obey His plan, we can expect to ride the storm. Noah was preserved through the storm because he did what God told him to do. When we submit ourselves into the hands of the Lord, we are going to come out safe.
When we do what God says, we do not have to be concerned about the storm on the outside.
Moses’ mother built the second ark, in Exodus 2.
When she could no longer hide the child, she made an ark of reeds and covered it with asphalt and pitch within and without. The baby was preserved by what his mother had done. She was able to put him in an adverse situation and on the strength of the ark, her son was preserved. Pharaoh’s daughter came to his rescue on the banks of the Nile River.
Noah and his family were safe because of the Ark. Moses was safe in the Ark.
Isaiah 43:2 NIVWhen you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
Regardless of what you go through, you are safe when you are going with God. It matters what you are traveling in. Neither Noah nor the child Moses could live in the water without the ark.
The design of the ark was to preserve the baby Moses through whatever would come.
When Moses’s mother put him in the ark and then the Nile river, her faith and trust was in God. Don’t trust in your own strength, works or morality. Put your trust in God. When we walk in obedience to God, He takes care of the results. Acts 17:28 NIV ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ You can trust in Christ. He is an Ark of safety for every child of God. There is a name that is above every other name. In the name of Jesus we find strength and comfort.
The third ark is found in Exodus 25.
When we look in the Ark of the Covenant, we are looking at things that God has put out of His sight. The things that were put under the mercy seat had brought death. God intentionally put them under His mercy and removed them from His sight by the blood of the sacrifice.
Psalm 103:12 NKJV As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Three things were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant — the pot of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of stone.
If God continued to look at any of the things He has removed from us, He would destroy us.
The whole tabernacle is a picture of Jesus Christ, but the Ark of the Covenant is the place in Christ where we find mercy.
The tabernacle draws us to this place to meet with God. God provided this place to find mercy and grace to help.
Inside the Ark of the Covenant was a pot of manna.
This was the heavenly bread that God provided. In Numbers 11, the people complained about the manna and tempted God and despised what He had supplied. God told Moses to put a pot of manna as a reminder of God’s mercy when they complained against God’s supply.
Inside the ark was Aaron’s rod that budded.
In Numbers 17, they refused God’s anointed leadership and rebelled against God. 1 Chronicles 16:22 NKJV Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.” Yet, they had refused to accept what God had chosen.
The third thing in the Ark was the tablets of stone.
While God was giving them the Law, they were breaking His commandments in the valley. God said, “You shall have no other god before me,” but they were making a golden calf to worship. The tables of stone were a reminder of their transgressions against God.
The Ark of the Covenant was the place to meet with God.
When the Ark of the Covenant was first constructed, the angels were set to observe the transgressions of the people. When the blood of the sacrifice was appropriately applied, all that could be seen was the mercy of God and the blood covering that shields from sin. The angels of the Lord were looking down with amazement at the things man has done.
Upon the Ark of the Covenant, there was a lid that was called the Mercy Seat.
Leviticus 16:14 tells us, the High Priest would take the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled some of the blood seven times on the Mercy Seat. In this manner, he would make atonement. This was the place where God would come down and meet with man. The glory of God was seen between the angels on the Mercy Seat. The blood of the sacrifice kept judgment from the people. The blood of the sacrifice was a covering.
Without the covering of Christ’s blood, God would behold our sin and judgment would come.
There is no mercy without the covering of the blood. We are given strong encouragement to run to the Mercy Seat or the Throne of Grace so that we may obtain mercy and find grace.
On the four corners of the Ark of the Covenant were rings of gold.
Bars of wood covered with gold were put in the rings so that men could cary the Ark. Do you notice that there are four Gospels? Men have been commissioned to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world.
Hebrews 4:16 NKJVLet us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
There is a place provided through Christ where we may obtain mercy and find grace to help. All of our many transgressions and sins find a place of covering under God’s mercy and the blood of Jesus.
Ephesians 2:13 NKJV But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
If God was dealing with us according to our transgressions, we would have to face judgment, sacrifice, and death at the altar. The Lamb of God took the judgment so that we could go free.
Romans 8:1 NKJV There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Why is there no condemnation?
God did not change the debt. We stand condemned, but Christ paid the debt and stood in for you so that you can be free.
The Lamb of God took the price of sin, so that we could walk in the freedom that He has gained.
The Ark of the Covenant was the only piece of furniture in the Holy of Holies. This one piece of furniture was the crescendo of the Tabernacle. This is the place we have been laboring to come into. This is where God comes down and speaks to His people. This is where mercy and grace are found.
Jesus said:Matthew 18:20 NKJV “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
God wants to dwell in the midst of His people. God will dwell in the midst of His people. This is seen in Israel in the Wilderness. This is seen in the Book of Revelation. He is walking in the midst of the churches. God is not going to interfere with your life; you have to make room for Him.
