The Ark of the Covenant

And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. ...And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

The ark was the central figure of the entire sanctuary. The broken law contained in the ark was the only reason for all the sacrificial services, both typical and antitypical. When the Lord gave directions for making the sanctuary, His first instruction was “They shall make an ark of shittim (acacia) wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.” It was overlaid within and without with pure gold, with a crown of gold around the top.

The cover of the ark was called the mercy-seat, and was of pure gold. On either end of the mercy-seat were cherubim of beaten gold, with their wings stretched forth covering the ark, and their faces looking reverently toward the law of God contained therein.

There is great consolation in the fact that the Lord Himself covered the broken law with a mercy-seat; and then He, the merciful God, took His position upon that seat, so that every sinner who comes confessing his sins, may receive mercy, and pardon. That mercy-seat, with the cloud of glory, the visible representation of God’s presence, and its covering cherubim, is a figure, or “shadow,” of the throne of the great God, who proclaims His name as “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”

Within the ark was the Lord’s own copy of that holy law given to mankind in the beginning. “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” “Sin is not imputed when there is no law;” therefore the Lord could never have driven our first parents from the garden of Eden on account of their sin, if they had been ignorant of His holy law. How God proclaimed His law to our first parents He never revealed in His Holy Book; but when it was necessary again to make His law known to His people, after their long servitude in Egypt, He had the account of that awe-inspiring event recorded, so that the generations to come might know that God came from heaven and spoke the ten commandments with an audible voice in the hearing of all Israel.

After God had declared the ten commandments from the top of Mount Sinai, He wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them to Moses, with the instruction, “Thou shalt put them in the ark.” The ark was placed in the most holy apartment of the sanctuary, where no mortal eye, except that of the high priest, could gaze upon it, and he on only one day in the year, when he went in to sprinkle the blood of the Lord’s goat before and upon the mercy-seat to atone for the broken law within the ark.

“The wages of sin is death,” and the broken law demands the death of every sinner. In the typical service the blood was sprinkled above the law to show faith in the blood of Christ, which would free the righteous from the demands, or curse, of the law.

God communed with His people from the cloud of glory which rested above the mercy-seat, between the cherubim. These golden cherubim with outstretched wings were a representation of the covering cherubim that surround the throne of God in heaven.

There can be no government without law. The very suggestion of a kingdom is always connected with law. There could be no judgment without a law as a standard of judgment. God declares that “as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.” All God’s commandments are righteousness. The establishment or foundation, of His throne is righteousness and judgment.

“There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone,” is the divine record. The pot of manna was laid up before the Lord, and Aaron’s rod that budded was laid up “before the testimony.” Paul enumerating all the contents of the most holy place in the order that he has, leads some to suppose that at some time the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod were placed in the ark; but the ark was made for the one purpose of containing God’s holy law.

No profane hands were allowed to touch the ark. Uzzah was smitten for reaching forth his hand to steady it when the oxen which were drawing it stumbled; and thousands of “the men of Bethshemesh” were smitten for looking into it. None but the Levites allowed to carry the sacred chest.

On the occasion of a battle with the Philistines, the wicked sons of Eli, the high priest, carried the ark on to the battle-field, and it was captured by the Philistines; but God impressed their hearts to return it to Israel with a golden trespass-offering. When Solomon’s temple was built, the ark was placed in the holy of holies, where it remained until taken by the prophet Jeremiah and hid in a cave in the mountains before the Babylonian captivity, lest it should fall into the hands of the Gentiles.

The writer of the Apocrypha states that the ark will again be brought forth in the last times. Whether that copy of the law which God gave at Sinai will be brought out again or not, there will be a copy of that same law, traced as with a pen of fire in the heavens, before the wondering gaze of the inhabitants of earth, in connection with the second coming of Christ to the earth.

That holy law is the standard by which all will be judged. That law will condemn the guilty; for “sin is the transgression of the law.” The same law that condemns the sinner will witness to the righteousness of those who, through faith in Christ, have tried to walk in harmony with its holy precepts, humbly seeking forgiveness for every transgression.

The Cross and its Shadow, pgs. 45-49, S.N. Haskell