Tabernacle Lectures (144) The ark of the covenant

If you look at the outside of the ark of the covenant, it is a box made of shittim wood but covered with gold inside and out. God’s secret is hidden here. The ark of the covenant points to Jesus Christ. No matter what sin we commit, or what evil we have fallen into, Jesus Christ saved us from the judgment. The reason we can avoid the judgment and go to eternal heaven is not because we are good people. It is through one person, Jesus Christ.

The ark of the covenant is just unattractive shittim wood. But it possessed all the conditions for God to dwell among the people of Israel. It is missing not even one thing for God to meet with us. It has the power to resolve all our sins. The people of Israel carried the ark of the covenant onto the battlefield and won. Just like that, if Jesus Christ is with us, we can overcome any fight with Satan.

Noah’s ark, the ark of bulrushes, and the ark of the covenant all signify Jesus Christ. He lacks nothing to establish us before God. The ark of the covenant reveals Jesus Christ, who has the mysterious power to wash all our sins.

The ark of the covenant may just look like a box, but God’s deep heart is contained inside. Inside the ark is Aaron’s budded rod and the golden pot of manna. The most important thing inside the ark were the two tablets of stone that had the 10 commandments. And the cover for the box, where they put the stone tablets, is called the mercy seat.

Because the 10 commandments are the laws of God, only God can keep them. There is no human who can keep them. If humans could keep the 10 commandments, then they would be on the same level as God and not the creation. The law came down through Moses, and there is not even one person who kept it, other than Jesus. The day the law came down, 3,000 people died, and then 23,000 people died as they committed adultery. After the law came down, curses and death kept coming. So Moses had no choice but to smash the law.

When Moses received the law again and came back, God said do not just leave it there, but put it inside the ark of the covenant so that the people of Israel cannot see it. The top that covers that box is called the mercy seat.

The lid that covers the law is the mercy seat. The box which contains the law is the ark of the covenant. After discovering that we are such evil and filthy humans, we must turn our heads from the 10 commandments to look at Jesus Christ and receive grace through Jesus Christ. That is the will of God.

The people of Israel did not rely on faith but on their actions. Faith is not about relying on what you yourself did, but accepting what someone else did as yours. Accepting what Jesus did as mine is faith. When Jesus was judged for sin on the cross, it was the same as us being judged.

Not accepting Jesus’ death on the cross and diligently doing righteous things is not faith. The Bible says that kind of person is focused on their actions. With their mouths, these people say “I am saved by faith,” but they are actually relying on their actions.

If you are bound by the law, you cannot receive the grace of Jesus Christ. Because if you stand by the law, you are always standing as a sinner, so God said to put the two tablets of the law inside the ark of the covenant, which is in the deepest place of the Most Holy Place. He did this to stop us from looking at it.

Atonement was accomplished when the mercy seat covered the law. Atonement can never happen under the law; there can never be grace. If the law is put in the box and covered, we can go forth to God boldly in the midst of grace, without the law.

So God is showing us a mysterious secret of the ark of the covenant. It is telling us that you discover that you are a sinner through the law, but you receive salvation through grace, not through the actions of the law. We must have fellowship with God after we cover the law; that is when we can have a truly free relationship.