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THE GOSPEL OBSERVER
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching
them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20).
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July 30, 1995
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"Snapshots" of the Ark of God
by Tom Edwards
The ark of God was unquestionably a very sacred
object, kept apart from even many of the other holy articles
in the tabernacle--and, later, temple--by being placed in the
``Most Holy Place,'' also called the ``Holy of Holies.'' This was
a place so sacred that only the high priest could enter on
just one day out of the entire year--the Day of Atonement.
The ark's sacredness is also seen in the fact that if ever a
person would touch it, he would immediately incur the wrath
of God and lose his very life as a fatal consequence (Num.
4:15).
The ark of God is also referred to by other terms in
the Scriptures. ``ark of the Covenant,'' for example,
because it was in the ark that the Ten Commandments had
been kept--commandments for God's people that would
enable them to enjoy a covenant relationship with Him, if
they would abide by the stipulations in that covenant.
Another name for it is ``the ark of the Testimony,'' for
the commandments that were to be kept in it are spoken of
as having been God's ``testimony'' (Exo. 25:16).
As the ``ark of God,'' it had also become a symbol of
God's presence, for Moses would hear the Lord's voice from
above it (Num. 7:89). As God instructed him in Exodus 25:22,
``And there I will meet with you; and from above the mercy
seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the
ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I
will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.''
Going back to its beginning, we find that the making
of the ark of God had been not only commanded, but also
``blueprinted'' by the Lord Himself: ``And they shall
construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long,
and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits
high. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and
out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding
around it. And you shall cast four gold rings for it, and
fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one
side of it and two rings on the other side of it'' (Exod.
25:1--12). Through these rings were to be placed poles, also
made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold, and which were
never to be removed; they would be used for carrying the
ark, so that the carrier would not be in danger of touching
it and incurring God's wrath (Exod. 25:13-15).
The following are various ``snapshots'' of the ark of
the Covenant, highlighting many of the events that
surrounded it:
In Joshua 3:14-17, the priests with the ark of the
Covenant were the first to begin crossing the Jordan River
as they entered into the Promised Land. When their feet
dipped into the water's edge, the river dried up; and the
priests crossed to the middle of the dry river bed and
waited until all of Israel crossed over before they
themselves completed their crossing. After they did, the
waters overflowed the banks once again.
In Joshua 6, Jericho was the first city Israel
conquered after having crossed the Jordan River to begin
their conquest of the land of Canaan. The ark of God was
carried behind seven priests, as they marched around the
city with the fighting men of Israel, once each day for six
days, and seven times on the seventh day. The ark of God
symbolizing the Lord's presence with them as they defeated
this heathen city by the help of God's powerful hand.
Unfortunately, as we see in Joshua 7:6, because Achan
had disobeyed the Lord by taking for himself coveted booty
from Jericho (Josh. 6:17-19; 7:1), Israel was defeated when
attacking the next city, Ai (Josh. 7:2-5). Though it looked
as an easy victory because the city was not even as great
as Jericho, Israel was defeated because the Lord was no
longer on their side. It's interesting to note that while in
grief of Israel's defeat, it was before the ark of the Lord
that Joshua prostrated himself--along with all the elders of
Israel.
A few hundred years later, after Israel had been
defeated by the Philistines they presumed that if they took
the ark of the Covenant with them, they would triumph over
their enemies. Tragically, they had misconceived. On top of
their defeat, the ark of God was also snatched from them;
and during this time, the two sons of Eli, Hopni and
Phinehas, died (1 Samuel 4:1-3, 10, 11). Perhaps Israel was
at fault for viewing the ark ``superstitiously.'' It had
formerly symbolized God's presence and power, but just
having the mere ark would not guarantee God's power on
their side; that, rather, was conditioned on their
faithfulness.
What a seize this was for the Philistines--at least they
probably thought this initially. To them, the ark of the
Covenant was a god of Israel--and one of the gods who
``smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the
wilderness'' (1 Sam. 4:5-10). They were well aware of many
of God's miraculous interventions for His people, and
perhaps they now thought they would have this same power
working on their side.
Prior to its being taken into this battle with the
Philistines, the ark had been kept in Shiloh, which at that
time was an early sanctuary of Israel, with its tabernacle
and services, and where the ark had remained during the
whole period of the Judges, which was a few hundred years.
To Shiloh, the ark was never returned.
When Eli the priest heard about the death of his sons
and that the ark of God had been taken, he fell from his
seat backwards, broke his neck, and died; he was
ninety-eight years old (1 Samuel 15:18).
Eli's daughter-in-law (Phinehas' wife) kneeled down
and gave birth when she heard that the ark of God had
been taken and her husband had been killed. She soon also
died; but before she did, she named her son ``Ichabod,''
which means, ``The glory has departed from Israel'' because
the ark of God had been taken from the Israelites (1 Samuel
4:19-22).
The Philistines first took the ark of God to Ashdod
and set it up next to Dagon (their idol). For two days in a
row, Dagon was found fallen on its face before the
ark--thus, indicating that the God of the Israelites was, by
far, superior to the god of the Philistines. On the second
day, Dagon's head and both palms of his hands had been
``cut off on the threshold''--with only the trunk of Dagon
remaining. As a result, the record shows that ``neither the
priests of Dagon nor all who enter Dagon's house tread on
the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day'' (1 Sam.
5:1-5).
Furthermore, the Lord had ``ravaged them and smote
them with tumors,'' so the ark of God was next taken to
Gath--the city of the Philistine giant, Goliath (1 Sam. 5:6-8).
In Gath, the people were also afflicted for having the
ark of the Covenant, so they sent it to Ekron, where people
were either killed or smitten with tumors as a consequence
(1 Samuel 5:9-12).
The Philistines had finally decided it best to send the
ark of God back to the Israelites; and this they were going
to do, while in addition, including a guilt offering, which
consisted of five golden tumors and five golden mice (one
golden tumor for each of the five cities: Ashdod, Gaza,
Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron). The golden mice were according
to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging
to the five lords (1 Samuel 6:2-18).
All in all, the ark of the Covenant had remained in
the country of Philistia for seven months (1 Sam. 6:1).
In order to rid themselves of it, the Philistines had
sent the ark of God to Beth-shemesh, a Levitical city; but
there the Lord destroyed 50,070 men because they had
looked into it. They, therefore, sent messengers to
Kiriath-jearim to have someone from there come take the ark
away (1 Samuel 6:19-21). Kiriath-jearim was located about 10
miles west of Jerusalem.
In response to their request, some men of
Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark from Beth-shemesh,
which the Philistines had returned, and brought it into the
house of Abinadab who was also a Levite. Eleazar his son
was consecrated in order to ``keep the ark of the Lord'' (1
Samuel 7:1-2).
While the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim there was a
time when Saul ordered that it be brought to him at Gibeah
temporarily. Apparently, he believed that it would help him
in winning the battle (1 Sam. 14:18). Whether this order
was actually carried out or not, I am uncertain. The
Septuagint renders this as ``ephod'' instead of ``ark''; and it
has been pointed out that ```Bring hither' is never used of
the ark, but only of the ephod.''
About twenty years later after the ark was first taken
to Kiriath-jearim (also spoken of as ``Baale-judah'' in 2
Samuel 6:2), David began moving the ark of the covenant
from the house of Abinadab to Jerusalem. It was during this
time that Uzzah reached out to stabilize it from toppling out
of the ox-cart, but God destroyed him for touching it. This
made David afraid and unwilling to move the ark into
Jerusalem; instead, he took it aside to the house of
Obed-edom the Gittite; and there it stayed for three months
(2 Samuel 6:1-11).
David heard that Obed-edom, and all that was his, was
being blessed by the Lord on account of the ark. David,
therefore, had it brought into the city of Jerusalem, where
it was kept in a tent that he had prepared for it (2 Samuel
6:12-19).
As David's men brought the ark into Jerusalem, it was
a day of great gladness and rejoicing. David ``was dancing
before the Lord with all his might''; but his wife despised
him for this because he had ``uncovered himself'' in ``the
eyes of the servants' maids as one of the foolish ones
shamelessly uncovers himself!'' (2 Sam. 6:20)
Later in David's history, when his son Absalom rose
up in revolt against him, David, along with some of his loyal
followers fled from Jerusalem. Zadok and the Levites had
taken the ark of the Covenant with them; but David,
however, ordered them to return it to the city; and they
did so (2 Samuel 15:24,29).
When Solomon built the first temple, which replaced
the tent-like structure of the tabernacle, the ark was
brought into the Most Holy Place--the Holy of Holies--where
it was kept (1 Kings 6:19; 8:1,6-8).
By this time, however, there was nothing in the ark
except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb.
Aaron's rod that had budded and the manna were gone (1
Kings 8:9). Whatever became of them would be mere
speculation on our part.
In addition, we find that the ark had been moved for
some reason during the time of Manasseh. 2 Chronicles 35:3
speaks of instruction to the Levites to return the ark of
God back to the temple. It's been suggested that it was
probably removed during the time of Manasseh's reign to
keep it from being defiled, for he had introduced many
corrupt practices to Judah: ``he rebuilt the high
places...erected altars for the Baals and Asherim, and
worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he
built altars in the house of the Lord...'' (2 Chron. 33:3,4).
He ''...practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced
sorcery, and dealt with mediums and spiritists,'' and made
his sons ``pass through the fire'' (v. 6); He ``built altars for
all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the
Lord'' (v. 5), and he also placed in the temple a ``carved
image of the idol which he had made'' (2 Chron. 37:7).
The charge to put the ark back was given by King
Josiah who is noted as being a great religious reformer for
Judah. He had ``purge(d) Judah and Jerusalem of the high
places, the Asherim, the carved images, and the molten
images. And they tore down the altars of the Baals in his
presence....'' Also, he broke in pieces ''...the Asherim, the
carved images, and the molten images'' (2 Chron. 34:3-7). He
``set the priests in their offices and encouraged them in
their service of the house of the Lord....'' (2 Chron. 35:2). It
was in this setting that he told the Levites to ``Put the holy
ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of
Israel built; it will be a burden on your shoulders no
longer....'' (2 Chron. 35:3).
So whatever became of the ark?
When the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians,
the ark, too, could have either been destroyed along with it
or taken as plunder. Though I can't cite it as gospel truth,
2 Esdras 10:21,22 (part of the Apocrypha) states: ``You see
how our sanctuary has been laid waste, our altar
demolished, and our temple destroyed. Our harps are
unstrung, our hymns silenced, our shouts of joy cut short;
the light of the sacred lamp is out, and the ark of our
covenant has been taken as spoil....''
Of course, there is also a Hebrew tradition that the
ark had secretly been taken by the prophet Jeremiah and
hidden in a cavern at the time of the Babylonian capture of
Jerusalem--and that this hiding place has never been
found.... Ironically--and pointing out an inconsistency in
it--this, too, is spoken of in the Apocrypha (2 Maccabees
2:4-6), and mentions the mountain ``of which Moses saw
God's promised land,'' as being the place that Jeremiah
found the cave where presumably he hid not only the ark
of the Covenant, but also the Tent of Meeting, and the
incense altar. It is said that the front of this cave he then
blocked and later said that ``The place shall remain
unknown.''
In addition, there are also similar rabbinical tales of
whatever became of the ark of God.
Actually, I don't know where it is now, but I do know
that it was a special object--ordained by God--and a major
reminder to the Israelites of God's presence during that
time of their history.
Today, as children of God, we have a ``greater and
more perfect tabernacle'' through Christ; and one that has
not been ``made with hands'' (Heb. 9:11); and one which the
old tabernacle and all its items merely served as ``a copy
and a shadow of the heavenly things'' (Heb. 8:5).
The ark of God symbolized God's presence, but only
the high priest could go into the Most Holy Place one day
out of the entire year where the ark of God rested. Now,
however, we who are in Jesus can come boldly before the
throne of God's grace to receive mercy and find grace to
help in needy times (Heb. 4:6). When Jesus died, the veil of
the temple--which separated the Holy Place from the Most
Holy--was torn in two. Graphically, this illustrates the
access we can now have to God's presence through the
death of Jesus Christ. As the Hebrew writer expresses this:
``Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the
holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way
which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His
flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of
God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance
of faith....'' (Heb. 10:19-22).
According to Scripture, the last citing of the ark of
the Covenant's location is seen in 2 Chronicles 35:3. What
really happened to it after this is mere speculation.
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Only those who are truly BOUND to Christ are truly
FREE (selected).
A good angle to approach any problem is the
TRY-ANGLE (selected)
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Tri-State
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1314 Montgomery Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky 41101
Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class
10:50 A.M. Worship
6:30 P.M. Worship
Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742
e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net
Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go
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