“And there I will meet
with you and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are
on the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you
in the commandment for the sons of Israel.”
Ex. 25:22
It may seem odd to start with the Ark of the Covenant and
not the tent and outer court but that is exactly where God started. Man usually starts with a building and
furnishes it later (providing he hasn’t run out of money first!) but God
started his plan with the most important piece of furniture and then designed
the building around it. God works that
way in us as well. He starts with phase
1 which is renovating and creating a new heart within us and then works on the
externals of our lives which is phase 2.
Now, unless you are Indiana Jones,
most of us have no idea what an ark is all about. Arks were a common furnishing in the temples
of Egypt. They were a throne with a covering and
handles on it for the god (represented by its idol) to sit and be ministered to
by his priests and be carried around if he was to be present for an outdoor
function. God wanted Moses to make Him
an ark too but this would be different.
First, there would be no statue of God on the throne, but rather He
actually would be present and visible as the Shekinah (pillar of fire,
protective cloud). Second, He didn’t
need his priests to give Him a hand by carrying Him around. He would move on His own and this would
signal that the ark, the tent, and the whole camp were to follow Him
around. Once again, God’s action in
using the ark in the tabernacle vividly shows us that He is a God who
accommodates our frailty and humanity by using language and earthly things to
help us understand Him. He is a
communicator because He is a God of love and relationship. Next time: The Ark of the Covenant pt. 2
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