Tabernacle Truths
The Ark of the Covenant
Exodus 25:10-16
 
We are pursuing our study on the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the Tabernacle of Moses, as it is sometimes called.  It was this tabernacle where God's people, the Children of Israel worshipped in the Old Testament time. In the New Testament time, the Tabernacle had been replaced by a temple—a more permanent building.
 
Today, we understand that worship is not a place. Worship is a person. But the Old Testament Tabernacle is a beautiful picture to us of the ABCs of salvation. It provides us a beautiful picture of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
At the sacred center of the Tabernacle, in the innermost recess of the Tabernacle called the holy of holies, at the central place, sat a beautiful golden box. It is referred to as the Ark, and the word, "ark", means box.
 
Now this golden box had a lid and that lid was a slab of solid gold adorned with two angels.  It was called the Mercy Seat and together they formed this one piece of furnishing in the Holy of Holies. 
 
They are referred to together, but they are actually  separate and distinct in design and function.  So next week, we'll take a look at the mercy seat that covered the ark, and today we're going to isolate the ark and talk specifically about the meaning of this beautiful golden ark located in the holy of holies.
 
Its description is found in Exodus 25 and we'll being this morning by looking at the instructions Moses was given for its construction.
 
The ark is referred to 180 times in the Bible. It is one of the most prominent pieces of furniture recorded in Holy Scripture. Sometimes it is referred to as the ark of the testimony. Other times it is called the Ark of the Covenant. It's called the Holy Ark.  Sometimes it is called the ark of God.
 
And just like everything else in and surrounding this tabernacle, there is amazing symbolism and teaching in the ark. For the early Israelites, this box represented God Himself, and from a New Testament perspective it is full of pictures of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
In fact, more than any other item of furniture in the Tabernacle, the ark shows us Jesus.  For instance, first of all, it tells us about
 
1. The Person of Christ
 
This ark is a beautiful lesson about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, as we've seen several times already with the table for the showbread and the walls of the tabernacle, there is this mixture of wood and gold.  Two substances form this ark. 
 
We saw the same thing outside in the courtyard with the brazen altar.  There we had a wooden structure covered with brass.  But inside, we have wooden structures covered with gold. 
 
So what?  As I've mentioned before, that is symbolic of his dual nature as God and man.  
Outside, the mixture of brass or bronze and wood refers to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But inside, and with the ark in particular, the picture is not of His work, but of His person and nature.
 
And that's what I specifically want us to see regarding the ark.  It is all about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is the person of Jesus which makes His work so significant. 
 
In fact, the value of anything a person does for you is greatly dependent upon who that person is. It is because of who Jesus is that what Jesus did is so important.
 
Jesus wasn't the only person to ever die on a cross, far from it.  It's hard to know exact numbers, but historians estimate that multiplied thousands were crucified by Rome. 
 
But from a New Testament standpoint, we know about only three of them, and only one by name.  All the others did nothing to do anybody any eternal good.   
 
It is the person who died on the cross that makes the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ so noteworthy.  That's why you will very often hear me use the phrase "the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ."  I never say the work and person of the Lord.  It's always the other way around.  Why?  It is because the value of who Jesus is determines the value of what Jesus did.
 
Now with that in mind, let's look at what this beautiful ark teaches us about the person of Jesus Christ.
The first thing it teaches us is that Jesus Christ in His person is
 
- first
 
What do I mean by that?  Well, when we started this study we started outside the fence, and we have  worked our way in. We began at the gate, and piece by piece, we have moved inward to the Holy of Holies.
 
But when you read what the Bible has to say about the Tabernacle in the book of Exodus,  God reveals these items in the opposite order.  Instead of starting on the outside, God starts on the inside and works out, and He begins with this ark.
 
Look at it again:  In Exodus 25, the first 9 verses are general instructions  where God says to Moses, "You are to build this Tabernacle according to the pattern that I show you."  And then, boom, the very first thing he describes in verse 10 is the ark.
 
That's how different God is from us. We build a house and then we think about the furniture later. God thought about the furniture first and then the house. 
 
What does that teach us?  It is teaching us about the centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is teaching us that Jesus is first. We'll come back to that in a moment, but before we do, I want to keep our thoughts on the person of Christ and see how He is revealed in the material used to construct this ark. 
 
 
As I mentioned, two materials were used.  Acacia wood and gold. Acacia wood was known in the Greek version of the Old Testament as incorruptible wood. It was a wood that was grown in the Sinai Desert. It was a very hard, tight-grained wood. The incorruptible wood is a picture to us of the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ—the incorruptible humanity of Jesus.
 
When Jesus was born, He was born sinless and He lived a sinless life, In fact, Isaiah described the life of Jesus by saying, "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground"
 
And this tender plant called Jesus, in His sinless humanity, came into this sinful world and the Bible says of Him, that He was tempted in all points just like you and I are, yet without sin. He faced all of the temptations of the devil, yet He never sinned.
 
That means when Jesus died on the cross, He was just as pure and spotless and sinless and He was the day He was born. Nobody else has ever lived like that. The perfect, sinless, incorruptible humanity of Jesus.
 
And there sits this ark, bearing witness to Jesus and it was made of Acacia wood.  The incorruptible humanity of Christ. 
 
Then Scripture says they overlaid that Acacia wood with pure gold.
 
verse 11
 
Again, we are talking about the person of Christ and here we find reference to His indisputable deity.
Gold is a symbol for deity. When Jesus was born it is no accident that the wise men came bringing Him gifts including gold. Gold is not only a symbol of deity, it is a fitting gift for deity.
 
I find it interesting that verse 11 tells us this ark was to be overlaid with pure gold on the inside and the outside.  That means Jesus Christ was God in His inward person as well as His outward person. That's another way of saying He was totally and absolutely God.
 
Colossians 2:9 says, "It pleased the Father that in Him, (Jesus Christ) all the fullness of the godhead bodily should dwell." He was God!
 
On the inside, He never had a sinful thought or motive and on the outside He never had a sinful action or response. He was God on the inside and He was God on the outside and you find indisputable evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ any way you want to examine Him.
 
At His very birth He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. No other man was ever born that way.
 
Those who watched His earthly ministry and listened to His teaching said, "We've never seen anyone like this!"  He healed people who were sick. He raised people who were dead
 
And even at His own death, a Roman soldier testified to His deity as the Son of God!  By the way, you do realize that Jesus decided to die?  Now, you don't just decide whether or not you're going to die!
You may say, but I can commit suicide!  You may decide when you die, but you don’t decide if you’ll die.  But Jesus did.
 
In fact, Jesus said one time, "No man takes my life, I lay it down." When Jesus died on the cross the Bible says He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. That is, He gave up His Spirit.
 
Almost without exception, when people are dying, instead of bowing their heads, they raise their heads, reaching for that last gasp of air. But when Jesus died, He died as God, so He bowed His head and He dismissed His spirit and only God could die like that.
 
And these two materials were perfectly blended together so that they were perfectly fused and yet neither lost its substance or nature. The wood was still wood and the gold was still gold. Yet, they were fused together in this beautiful box.
 
And that's what we see in the perfect blending of the humanity and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was very God of very God, and yet He was very man of very man. He was the God man and He was the man God, and neither one intruded on the other.
 
As a man He was born of Mary. As God He was born of the Holy Spirit. As a man, He went to sleep in the ship. As God, He awoke from sleep and calmed the storm and spoke to the winds and the waves and said, "Hush, be still." And they laid down like whipped puppies at His feet.
 
This beautiful box teaches us about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it wonderful how God teaches such profound truth in such a simple way?
Here God has taught us the profound truth of the humanity and the deity—the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in a beautiful, simple box. No wonder the Bible says that God confounds the wise.
 
So, this beautiful box, the ark, teaches us about the person of Christ. The second truth this box teaches us is about
 
2. The Position of Christ
 
Now, I told you a moment ago that this ark was the first article of furniture that God instructed Moses to make.  Let's return to that thought for a moment. 
 
You will notice it says in verse 14 that this ark was to be carried with them. In other words, this ark was always out in front.  It was first article that was mentioned and it was first as they traveled. That tells us about the centrality of Jesus.
 
This ark was central to the life of the children Israel.  Everything about their relationship with God depended on the Ark.  It was in first place.
 
In the same way, Jesus Christ is central and essential to Christianity. If you take Jesus out of the  Christian faith, you don't have anything left. If you take Jesus out of the gospel, you don't have any gospel. 
 
But let's make it even more personal. In every Christian, Jesus is present and permanent; in some Christians Jesus is prominent; and in every Christian, God wants to be pre-eminent. He wants to be absolutely first in your life.  Is Jesus first in your life?
The position of Christ is He's first, and the ark teaches us about that, but that's not all.  From the ark, we also learn that Jesus is
 
- foremost
 
The Ark was significant in that when the children of Israel traveled, it led the way.  Not only was it first, it was foremost. 
 
For instance, notice
 
Numbers 10:33
 
The Levites would bear this beautiful box with those poles up on to their shoulders and they would take off. The ark would be foremost—it would go before them.
 
When they were getting ready to cross over
the Jordan into the Promised Land, the Bible says the priests took this beautiful box and started off into the river and God just parted the waters and they walked through the bed of the Jordan River to the other side.
 
That tells there's not a problem you have that the Lord Jesus Christ can't handle. That testifies to us that Jesus can part the waters for you.
 
Jesus Christ is our ark. He's foremost, and if you'll let Him, He'll go before you and help you with your problems.
 
 
 
Then they got in the Promised Land and they came right up against Jericho. The Lord told them to march around the city and blow their trumpets.  One of the forgotten details in the story is they were to march with the Ark out in front.
 
And that's what they did.  For seven days, they marched and blew and followed that little golden box. Then, on the seventh day the Lord said, "March, but don't blow!"
 
Then after they'd made seven laps, God said, "Blow!"  And when they did,  the walls of the great city of Jericho came tumbling down.
 
That tells me if you will be obedient, Jesus will fight your battles for you. He's our beautiful Savior. He's our beautiful box. And if you'll put Him first and foremost in your life, He'll go before you!
 
Do you remember the story of Dagon the pagan Philistine god?   The Philistines captured this ark and they thought they would get real cute.  The placed  the ark in the temple of their false god, Dagon.  He was the fish god.
 
They put the ark there as if that ark was going to bow down and do reverence to Dagon.  The next day when they came in there, Dagon had tumbled over in front of that ark. They said, "Let's get this thing out of here."
 
That says to me if you'll put Jesus Christ foremost in your life, He'll topple every god in your life. The secret of the Christian life is just not you giving up stuff.
A lot of Christians think if they are going to be a good Christian they have to give this and give up that.  No, you don't have to give up anything to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. You just put Him first and foremost in your life and when Jesus becomes number one in your life, automatically all these other gods you have been worshiping will topple in your life.
 
Now, eventually this ark was lost. They don't know where it is. Harrison Ford and a bunch of others made a lot of money trying to find it a few years ago.  The movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was designed around the disappearance of the ark. 
 
But nobody knows what happened to it. And as you can imagine, there are a lot of theories.  Some feel like it was buried at the temple sight.  Others say it was carried over to Ethiopia. In fact, there's a group there who built a shrine and claim the ark is in there.
 
The truth is nobody knows where the ark is. And to be honest, I don't really care where that old ark is because we don't need a box anymore.  We don't need a beautiful box because we have a beautiful Savior.  We don't need the shadow anymore. We have the substance.  We don't need the relic. We have the reality.
 
Our beautiful Savior is in heaven and He's all the ark we need.
 
This beautiful box teaches us about the person of the Lord Jesus. It teaches us about the position of the Lord Jesus. He's first and foremost.  And this beautiful box teaches us about
 
3.   The Provision of Christ
 
Exodus 25:16
 
That is a reverence to the tablets of stone that Moses brought off of Mt. Sinai.  According to Hebrews 9:4, there were two other items in the box along with the 10 Commandments and they were a golden pot containing manna and Aaron's rod that had miraculously budded.
 
Now remember, this ark and what it contains is telling us about Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him.
 
First, let's think about
 
- the tablets   
 
Those tablets of stone, the testimony, contained God's law.  And in so many words, they represent our sinfulness. 
 
Think about that:  Moses is up there on the top of the mountain meeting with God while the Israelites are down at the bottom of the hill breaking the very thing God engraved on the list!
 
The law was broken before he even showed it to them!  They had fashioned a golden calf, stripped off buck naked, and were dancing around an idol.  And it wasn't some rebellious faction among the tribes.  It was Aaron, the high priest that led the movement!
 
That is a very blatant reminder of the nature and condition of humanity.  We're sinners.  All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You say, "But I haven't broken all the commandments. Chances are you have, but let's take your word for it.  Let's say you've only broken one of the 10 commandments. If that is true, then you are in a desperate need of a Savior because the Bible says to be guilty of one is to be guilty of all. 
 
Let's just think about why that's true:  Let's suppose you are hanging over a cliff, holding to a 10-link chain. Much to your dismay, you look up and realize that one of those links is weak and it starts opening up.
 
There you are hanging on that chain, your life depending on the strength and integrity of the chain,  and that link starts opening up. In a little while, that weak link cracks open, the chain breaks and you go down, falling to destruction. And as you go down, you say, "Hallelujah! Nine of them are holding strong." 
 
All it takes is one link and you're a goner. If you have ever broken one of the Ten Commandments of God, that ark says to you that you are a sinner and you need a Savior.  And that is a very dangerous place to live. 
 
But I want you to notice something:  Look again at
 
verse 16
 
Put the testimony where?  Into the ark.  That means, once the lid went on the box, the Testimony was  completed surrounded and covered by the Ark.  So what? 
 
 
Two things: 
 
First, when Jesus Christ came in the flesh, He perfectly fulfilled the Law.  In fact, in Matthew 5:17, that's exactly what He said He came to do. 
 
And in His life, Jesus fulfilled every moral law. In His death on the cross, He fulfilled every detail of the ceremonial law, Jesus perfectly kept and fulfilled the law of God.  So, in that ark, God says I've made provision for you in the perfect Son of God, the Lord Jesus.
 
So Jesus pictures the ark and He completely covers or fulfills the Law of God. 
 
Second, the Testimony being covered by the Ark shows us that our sin is covered by God's grace.  We are in Christ, He satisfies the law, takes our place and covers us with grace and forgiveness before a Holy God.
 
The Lord Jesus Christ laid aside His righteousness and took our sins at the cross. When we are saved, we are safely and securely placed in the Ark and there, His grace covers our sin.
 
The second item was the golden pot that had the manna on the inside. That was the food the Children of Israel ate in the wilderness.  Every day, when they woke up, the manna was waiting.
 
It is a picture of Jesus, the bread of life. It means that Jesus Christ, like that manna was to them, is totally sufficient for us. You will find all you need in Jesus.
 
That manna lasted for 40 years. It had all of the nutrients, all of the vitamins, all of the minerals, it had everything you needed. It was totally sufficient. It totally satisfied.
 
Listen:  whatever you need to satisfy you, Jesus can provide. He is sufficient. Jesus Christ is satisfying. Jesus Christ is totally sufficient. He totally satisfies. He's everything you’ll ever need.  Jesus Christ is all there is and the hidden manna that is in that ark in the Lord Jesus Christ, this world knows nothing about. Our job is to go out and tell them.
 
The third item is Aaron's rod that budded. And to understand it's significance, we need to know about the rod and what happened. 
 
As I mentioned a moment ago, Aaron and Moses were brothers, and while Moses was the leader, Aaron served as the high priest.  And as is often the case with people, there was a rebellion that arose against the leadership of Aaron and Moses and you can read about it in Numbers 17. 
 
The leaders of the rebellion basically said, "You guys aren't the only ones who get to make decisions and be in charge.  We have just as much right to run things as you do."
 
So God instructed them to take some dead, dry sticks and write the name of the leader of each of the twelve tribes on one of those sticks.  Now Aaron was of the tribe of Levi and his name was the one put on the stick for that tribe.
 
Then God said, "Place the sticks in front of the Ark of the Covenant inside the tent", and Moses did that.
They were to leave them overnight, and God said, "The stick of my appointed leader will bud and bloom overnight."
 
Sure enough, the next morning, Moses retrieved the sticks, and eleven of them were still just as dead and dry as they were when they placed them in there, but Aaron's rod, had not only budded, it had bloomed and produced fully ripe almonds!
 
By the way, the almond was the first thing to bear fruit in the spring. It's beautiful white blossoms were the first to appear. It is a picture of the beautiful resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
And Moses said, "Keep Aaron's rod in the box because it is a reminder to the tribes about God's faithfulness and their griping and complaining." 
 
And the rod inside the box is a message to us about how Christ has not only provided for our failures, He has provided for our future.   What do I mean by that?  What future? 
 
Listen to what we read in
 
Numbers 17:10
 
"And the Lord said to Moses, 'Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.'”
 
That means the presence of the rod that budded and bloomed prevented them from dying under God's judgment. 
 
Did you realize the Bible says, "It is appointed unto man, once to die, and after that the judgment."
 
So what will get you through the judgment?  They escaped judgment by the presence of the evidence of new, God-given life.  And only Jesus, by His death, burial and resurrection, can take the deadness and dryness that is found in you and bring forth new life that will live forever.
 
God has promised the believer the beautiful springtime of resurrection.  And you can have a glorious future if you come to the beautiful Savior. He'll take care of your past. He'll take care of your present. He'll take care of your future.
 
What this beautiful golden box says to us is there is  a beautiful Savior who wants to come into your life.  He provides for our past, present and future.
 
Let's pray.