The Ark of the Covenant held the Covenant Law given to Moses
It traveled with the Jewish People when they were in the wilderness
Uzzah died when he treated The Ark of the Covenant with disrespect
and King David danced when The Ark of the Covenant
came to his kingdom
Only the Priests were able to enter the Holy of Holies
which was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept
Mercy was a part of the Covenant per the Mercy Seat
I find that very interesting that Jesus,
who is the same yesterday, and today and forever,
made sure Mercy was so close to the Covenant Law
The Mercy Seat
It’s a reminder of how much God loves mercy
We are to be merciful to others
For judgment is without mercy
to the one who has shown no mercy.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:13
The Law was given to us to help us,
to give us guidelines and a model to follow
with that in mind, Our Sovereign Lord also allowed for Mercy
and actually built a Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant:
And there I will meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat,
from between the two cherubims
which are upon the ark of the testimony,
of all things which I will give thee in commandment
unto the children of Israel.
Exodus 25:22
Sometimes we forget how Holy God is
Our reverence is lacking
Forgetting the fear of God and His awesomeness
The Ark of the Covenant is a reminder of God’s holiness
God revealed Himself to very few people
The Ark of the Covenant is a demonstration of
His separateness from humans, but that He is available to us,
and that availability includes with Mercy
Here is the full description of the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 37
The following scriptures give us an idea of what it looked like:
And Bezaleel made the ark of shittim wood:
two cubits and a half was the length of it,
and a cubit and a half the breadth of it,
and a cubit and a half the height of it: v 1
And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without,
and made a crown of gold to it round about. v 2
And the cherubims spread out their wings on high,
and covered with their wings over the mercy seat,
with their faces one to another;
even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubims. v 9
In Hebrews, there is a description of how Jesus
became the Ark of the Covenant, He is, after all,
The Living Word, the fulfillment of the Law
Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
By the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins:
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever,
sat down on the right hand of God; Hebrews 10:10-12
The Ark of the Covenant is missing,
nowhere to be found
The Ethiopians claimed they had it, and recently it was stolen from them
It will not be found,
That is written in scripture:
And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land,
in those days, saith the Lord,
they shall say no more,
The ark of the covenant of the Lord:
neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it;
neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.
Jeremiah 3:16
We can see in Revelation it is mentioned, so, of course,
God knows where it is
and since we have His Holy Spirit,
we do not need the Ark of the Covenant
as it was a symbol of God dwelling with the Israelites
And the temple of God was opened in heaven,
and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament:
and there were lightnings,
and voices,
and thunderings,
and an earthquake,
and great hail. Revelation 11:19
Scriptural References:
There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone,
which Moses put there at Horeb,
when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel,
when they came out of the land of Egypt. 1 Kings 8:9
Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service,
and a worldly sanctuary.
For there was a tabernacle made;
the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread;
which is called the sanctuary.
And after the second veil,
the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
Which had the golden censer,
and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold,
wherein was the golden pot that had manna,
and Aaron’s rod that budded,
and the tables of the covenant;
And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat;
of which we cannot now speak particularly. Hebrews 9:1-5
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats,
and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
How much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 9:11-14
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain
from the top to the bottom;
and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Matthew 27:50-51