Day 14: The Journey and the End

Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. Revelation 11:19

And the history of the Ark-the centerpiece and main focus of the tabernacle. It was carried by the Kohathites on the journey from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, across the Jordan into the promised land. It led the march around Jericho and sat at Gilgal until the settlement of Israel and taken then to Shiloh, a tell located about 31 km to the north of Jerusalem in Samaria where it stayed for about 300 years. It was here that Hannah will be blessed and dedicates Samuel, and where the boy Samuel will meet God.

Because of apostasy God allows the ark to fall into the hands of the Philistines who-after God broke their fans idol and visited upon them plague-sent the ark back where it stopped and stayed at Beth-shemesh for another 20 years until David had it taken to the house of a gentile, Obed-edom. God so blessed Obed-edom that David then moved it to Jerusalem and placed in a ‘proper tent’ until finally coming to rest at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple about 960 B.C.

The last reference in scripture to it (Old Testament) is found in 2 Chronicles 35 when, in about 621 B.C., King Josiah, one of only 5 of Judah’s kings that followed God ordered that it be placed back in the temple from wherever it had been moved by a former apostate king. 

Historically we know that in 586 B.C. the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and carried away the contents, though in the listing of what they took the ark was not listed (2nd Kings 25). This also is the last cryptic message about the ark, given by Jeremiah in his book, chapter 3 vs. 16. Sometime between Josiah’s rule and the captivity the ark was taken from the Israelites and disappeared from the world’s stage.

Now there are a lot of theories-that Jeremiah himself took It and hid it, that it made it’s way to Ethiopia where it sits with the Holy Grail and the Spear of Longinus and a lot of other relics, that it hides in a cave underneath the temple mount (and has been claimed to have been seen there by modern Levites as late as the 1970’s awaiting the coming of the Messiah) and even some think it’s in a warehouse controlled by the U.S. Government, courtesy of a whip-wielding archaeologist.

There is one more reference in scripture to it, though. It is found in John’s Revelation, when he was taken into heaven and was allowed to see into the future. There, he saw in the REAL temple of God the ark of the covenant. Because it represented a promise-a covenant-and God keeps His promises.

Was the ark that John saw the actual ark? I believe so. Was what Moses had built-like so much of the tabernacle that one, or was it just a type-and-shadow of the real one in the throne room of God? I do not know. Someday, I will. In he meantime though, it is enough for me to know that Christ, who has walked with us through all parts of the tabernacle, is there standing in front of it-our Great High Priest showing the sacrifice He made for atonement and saying ‘he is mine, I sealed him with My blood.’

Scripture reading for today:
Matthew 26:27-28
And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Exodus 25:40
 And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.