The Ark of the Covenant

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. I'm so glad to be with you today. Why don't we have some coffee?
We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to get to come to your word, to hear from you. Father, we pray that we would know that you are holy and that your spirit would impress on us, not just the truth of these things, but also how they are to apply to our lives. Reform us, Lord. Let us live before you with fear, love, and reverence, and obedience. In Jesus' name, amen.
All right, here we go. So we are at Exodus 25. Exodus chapter 25. We're beginning at verse 10. So we picked up last time, last week, with this... you know, the getting of stuff, the gathering of stuff together for the tabernacle they're going to build. Well, now we get into the blueprint of these things, right? So let's talk about the first thing and possibly one of the most important, right? The only thing in the Holy of Holies.
And they shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. and shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four corners. Two shall be on one side and two rings on the other side. And he shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
And you should put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark. The ark may be carried by them. The pole shall be in the rings of the ark and they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put the ark into the ark, the testimony which I will give you.
You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. And you shall make two cherubim of gold of hammered work. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end. and the other cherub at the other end. And you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat.
And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another. The face of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark and in the ark you shall put the testimony that i will give you and there i will meet with you and i will speak with you from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony about everything which i will give you in commandment to the children of israel well We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about?
B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do, right? How does this teach us Christ and how does this impact our lives? So what's this about? God is making a chest. It's called an ark, right? It's not like Noah's ark in Genesis three through nine, right? It's not lifting them up above the seas, but it's a chest.
It's a chest of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold. Gold rings on the corner fastened to each of the corners, a pole of acacia wood on each side, overlaid with gold. The poles never leave. And then there's a top and on the top of the chest is its cover also of acacia wood with pure gold. And on top of that are cherubim. Now the cherubim people debate what, what these are, right? We don't have this arc anymore. It's long gone. Maybe the Nazis stole it, or it's hiding in Area 51 at Indiana Jones. Doubtful, right? But the point is these cherubim are most likely something like a sphinx, right? A lion man type thing.
The point is that it's this angelic, heavenly being. Right, as you come into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, in this most holy of place, this is where the mercy seat is. Right, this is where the presence of God is. This is the throne room of God.
And inside that Ark of the Covenant of the Testimony is going to be the tablets that God is going to give to Moses. And these tablets that he's giving to Moses are to go inside of it. Now we find in the book of Hebrews and later that God's also going to command a jar, a gold jar of manna to be put in there, as well as Aaron's rod that had budded to be put in there also. The point is that the covenant is there. The cherubim are there.
And this is meant to show that this is God's throne room, this God's presence in his sanctuary with his people. But this is filled with royal language and royal imagery and covenant between a superior and their vassals, right? This is filled with this ancient Near Eastern idea, not just of a God, but of a king. This is the God King who bought a people for himself, redeemed a people for himself out of Egypt, and is now going to dwell in the midst of them. And there in the holiest of holies, he will speak with them.
Now, interestingly, well, what's the best verse for me? Well, I think in my Bible, not just what I think in my Bible, I have verse 22 underlined. And there I will meet with you and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat from between the two cherubim, which are on the ark of the testimony about everything which I give you in the commandment to the children of Israel.
But maybe you would underline something else. It's fine. What would you underline in your Bible as the best verse to summarize this section? Maybe, maybe in yours, you would just underline the first part of 10 and they shall make an ark of acacia wood. Maybe that's good enough for you. I don't know. Let me know.
But what does this teach us about Christ and how does it call us to live? Right. What's the general equity of the principle here? Right. This is the ceremonial law. We don't have it anymore. It was a type. It was an example. It was a pattern pointing us to a heavenly reality like we talked about last time in Hebrews chapter 8, 9 and following.
What is Jesus Christ? When he died, we're gonna get to the curtain and that's going to be me, but that veil is torn in two and Jesus goes into the Holy of Holies. Now, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies once a year and not without blood, but Jesus enters in with his own blood and he sits down. Nobody sits down in the Holy of Holies. Where's the only seat? Jesus, the God-man, sits on the mercy seat.
Jesus is the one who is alone powerful enough to walk past the chair of him and sit down and speak to his people. It is Jesus who is our covenant King. It is Jesus who has invited us into his presence to worship him, to be his people, and he will be our God. It is Jesus that we look to as our prophet, our priest, and our king.
And he ministers in a tabernacle, not made with human hands, but in heaven. This is this picture that Isaiah gets when he goes into the presence of God and the seraphim are there and they cry out day and night, holy, holy, holy. And he sees the one who's blinding white light sitting on his throne and the tabernacle, the temple is filled with his glory. And at the sound of his voice, the walls are shaking. That is Jesus Christ sitting on his throne in a heavenly sanctuary guarded by the holy angels.
And we like Isaiah would fall down on our faces and say, whoa, are we, for we are unclean people with unclean lips. But Jesus Christ has purged us from our sin. He has brought us into the holies. He dwells amongst us and he speaks to us. and he loves us.
May you walk in that comfort and peace that your covenant King dwells in you by his spirit and invites you into his kingdom. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that these things point us to a heavenly reality. We thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for our King. We thank you. that you have made a way for us to dwell with you forever. God, please let us walk in your ways. Let us keep our eyes fixed upon you in Jesus's name. Amen. May the grace of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and the communion of Jesus Christ be with you. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.