May the Lord God be with us this
morning as we turn to his word and we will turn to the chapter
we read in the book of Exodus, Exodus 25. And this morning I really want
to consider the Ark of the Covenant. And so we will read chapter 25
verse 22 by way of a text, but we will not look just only at
this text, but Exodus 25 and verse 22, which reads, and there
I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above
the mercy seat and between the two cherubims which are upon
the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee
in commandment unto the children of Israel. The Ark of the Covenant. For when Moses was at Mount Sinai,
and the Lord gave him very clear and very specific instructions
and details about how he was to build the tabernacle, and
all of the different items that would go in it. The dimensions
of the tabernacle were given, all of the materials were expressly
told, the layout of the tabernacle, and all the different items to
go inside. And they were given all of the
materials and the measurements for the altar, for the candlestick,
for the table of showbread, and for the altar of incense, and
so forth. But one of the most particularly
special items to be placed into the tabernacle was the Ark, the
Ark of the Covenant. Well then, what was the Ark,
and what did it look like? Well, we are told that the Ark
was two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide, and
one and a half cubits high. And so for in our measurements,
that is about 135 to 140 centimetres long, so just under a metre and
a half. 67-ish centimetres wide and 67
centimetres high, so just over half a metre wide and just over
half a metre high. And so it was not a huge box,
it was not very large, but it was of some good size. The ark was made of chitin wood,
something that would be known as an acacia wood today. It was
made of wood. and it was overlaid both outside
and inside with gold. So the wood was inside and the
gold was around it and also covering it on the inside. On top of the
ark is what's described as a crown of gold. Going around the top
edge of the ark, all around it is this raised crown. And on each corner of the ark
is a ring, a ring made of gold cast into the ark, and into those
rings was the staves of wood, or poles of wood, which were
overlaid with gold. And those poles were kept in
the rings, and the real purpose of those was for the carrying
of the Ark, so that the priests, when they came to carry it, would
carry the poles and the Ark on them. Above the Ark was a lid,
and this lid is exactly the same dimensions of the Ark, it covers
it completely, and that lid is known as the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat was made of pure
gold. and they covered the ark, and
above the mercy seat was the engravings made of pure gold
of two cherubims, or two angels, above on top of the lid, on top
of this mercy seat. And they were looking towards
each other from one end, one from one end, one from the other
end, looking towards each other with their wings stretched out,
but their faces looking downward towards the mercy seat, towards
the top. of the ark. And so that's what
the ark looked like. I hope perhaps we've seen pictures
of it or artist's interpretations at least of what people thought
it looked like. That's what we're told in the
scripture of what the ark looked like. Inside the ark was placed
the two tables of stone where God had written the ten commandments. And so inside the ark and then
covered by the lid, the mercy seat, there is these two tables
of stone that God has written the Ten Commandments on. They're
placed inside and they are kept inside of the ark. And the ark
is very special because it is there that we read in our text
that God says that he will meet with Israel and that he will
commune with them from above the mercy seat between the two
cherubim, so above the ark at the place where the cherubims
were above the mercy seat the Lord said that he would meet
with them. And so the Ark is symbolized
of God's presence. God was there in the Holy of
Holies in the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was. And so the Ark and all everything
else was made in accordance with the very specific instructions
the Lord had given by the man Betheliel and those working with
him. And so that is what the Ark was,
and what was inside it, and roughly what it looked like. But you
may ask this morning, well, what has that got to do with us? That
was for Israel many, many years ago. It was important to them,
but we no longer have a tabernacle. We no longer have an Ark. We
no longer have the literal tables of the stones with the Ten Commandments
written on inside the Ark. We do not have that with us anymore. So why do we consider this important
today? Well, there is great teaching
and instruction in the Lord's directions with regards to the
Ark. What it shows us Nothing you
see is by chance, by the Lord. There is instruction in every
detail. And in fact, I hope we will see
this morning that when we consider the Ark of the Covenant, it directs
us to Christ. It directs us to the Lord Jesus
himself and his gospel of grace as it points towards his coming. It is important for us to remember
in reading the Old Testament that the Old Testament points
forwards to the coming of Jesus Christ. We are privileged in
our age to look back We look back having a complete Bible,
the complete revelation of God in the Scriptures. We look back
and we can see the fulfilment of all of the prophecies and
we can see the wonderful person of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
we look on the Old Testament in that light, But the Lord in
the Old Testament times was speaking often in picture language about
what was to come. And so in many, many things in
the Old Testament, we can see what we call types of Christ. We can see pictures of him. But
what we do today is we look at the fulfilment of those pictures. And then when we see those types
in our considerations it gives us a little bit more light if
you like, but the fullness is in Christ who has come. And so
the types are helpful. The pictures are helpful, but
we must not lose sight of the fulfilment of these pictures,
or of these types, that they are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is interesting and helpful,
but it is only a type. But I hope we will be able to
see today, this morning, that there is much instruction and
there is much which directs us to Christ in the consideration
of the Ark of the Covenant. The first one we notice is that
the Ark of the Covenant teaches us the holiness of God's law. the holiness of God's law. The law of God, the Ten Commandments,
as we know, were given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai. But
that law is an unchanging law. It is a perfect law. And that law must govern all
actions toward God and toward our fellow men. We are commanded
to love the Lord our God, to have no other gods before him. We are commanded to make no graven
image. We are commanded to honour the
Lord's day. We are commanded not to kill,
not to steal, not to covet. We are commanded to honour our
father and our mother and so forth. These are commandments
of God that govern our actions towards the Lord and towards
one another. And this is a perfect and unchanging
law. In fact, if you look at the Ten
Commandments, you can see that these commandments were not new
at Sinai, but we can see, in fact, the outworking of these
commandments prior to Mount Sinai. For instance, to take one example,
you can see that commandment, thou shalt not kill, you look
right back at the beginning of time to Cain and Abel. You can see that the Lord is
making that clear direction there, how wrong it was to murder. And in fact, we won't do it this
morning, but if you look at the Ten Commandments you can find
that these things were revealed and were known to the Lord's
people prior to Sinai. But at Sinai it is given so clearly
and is inscribed in stone. An unchanging and a perfect law. This law then was to be preserved. It was to be kept. That law It highlighted something,
didn't it? Yes, it was perfect, but it highlighted
that Israel could not keep it. It showed it, that they were
sinners. It showed that they fell short
of this law. And in fact, when you think about
the Ark of the Covenant, inside the Ark are the two tables of
stone with the Ten Commandments inscribed. But what is there
is the second set of tables. And the reason there are two
is because the first set of tables was broken. It was cast out by
Moses and broken. when he came down from the mount
and saw Israel worshipping the golden calf. When Moses came down and when
he saw this worship of an idol, what was going on there was the
breaking of the very law that he was carrying in his hands.
You shall have no other gods before me, says the Lord, and
here is another god that they said has brought them up out
of Egypt. You shall make no graven images,
says the Lord, here is the image of a calf that they are worshipping
and dancing around. You shall not take the name of
the Lord in vain, they said. And yet there was this strange
mix that Aaron spoke of, worshipping on the day of a Lord and yet
also worshipping a calf. You shall worship the Lord You
should be faithful. The Lord shows faithfulness in
the Ten Commandments. You shall not commit adultery.
It shows faithfulness. And they were being unfaithful
to the Lord. They were wandering. They were
even running away from God. And they were breaking the very
law that Moses was holding in his hands. And he casts down
that law in his anger. and wrath and the law is broken
at his feet. It is a broken law, but it is
still a good law, you see. It is a perfect law, it is a
holy law, it is given by a holy God, but it is broken. And so in the Ark of the Covenant
is the law of God, but it is the second set of tables, because
the first set has been broken. And so the Ark teaches us the
holiness, the perfection of God's law. Well, what does the law do today? The law still speaks loud and
clear of the Lord's commandments, of how we should be, of how the
Lord would have us to be. And yet what the law does is
it holds up like a mirror in front of us and reveals what
we are. Reveals what we are. And in the
reflection of the law, we see failure. We see coming short. We see law breaking. We see, yes, that we do not honour
the Lord as we should. And yes, we have committed these
great sins. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he speaks, he opens this up even more As if he says, you
must not sit back and say, well, I have not committed adultery,
I have not committed murder, and therefore I am not guilty
of breaking the law, because he says that the law is also
applying to the heart. What is in your heart in reflection
as you look at the law? What do you see? Do you see covetousness? Do you see envy? Do you see lust? Do you see anger? Do you see
a worship of some idol? Do you see dissatisfaction and
disappointment and unfaithfulness to God? When new law is held
up, you see, in its perfection, in its holiness, it reveals that
we are all lawbreakers. And whether we confess it or
not, does not change the reality, we are a lawbreaker. You see, The Ark of the Covenant
teaches us the holiness of God's law. This law was to be preserved
and maintained and kept in the Ark. But to us, it may be as
we consider the Word of God this morning, all it does is reveal
our sin and our helpless condition. Secondly, The Ark of the Covenant
shows us the holiness of God. The holiness of God. Moses was instructed in building
the Ark and everything else, that when all was completed,
he must place the Ark into the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies
was that most furthest place within the tabernacle. First the priest would enter
into the Holy Place, where there was the table of showbread, and
the candlestick, and the altar of incense, and beyond the Holy
Place is the Holy of Holies. And inside there is the Ark of
the Covenant. But the Lord commanded Moses,
commanded Aaron, who was the first high priest, that no one
could enter in to the most holy place. In Leviticus 16 we read,
Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times
into the holy place within the ark before the mercy seat which
is upon the ark, that he die not. for I will appear in the
cloud upon the mercy sea. Do not come within the veil,
do not come into the most holy place where the Ark of the Covenant
is, because that is where I am, says the Lord, and he must not
come in, if he does, he will die. And the Holy of Holies was
guarded by a curtain, or a veil as we have it here, and this
veil had embroidered on it the cherubims, and it was a symbol
of guarding. If you remember, in the book
of Genesis we're told here that it was the cherubims with their
swords which barred Adam and Eve from returning back. into
Eden. And here we have these cherubims
on the veil, as it were, guarding the way. You cannot enter into
the most holy place where is the Ark of the Covenant. Only
one could enter in, and that is the High Priest and he can
only come into God's presence once a year on the Day of Atonement,
which we will come to in a little while. But the Holy of Holies
shows to Israel that the Lord is in the midst of the camp. He is there, in the tabernacle,
in the most holy place, above the mercy seat of the Ark of
the Covenant. But to everyone, apart from one
person, he was not to be approached. They could not come into his
presence. He was unaccessible to all apart
from the high priest and him only once a year. And this taught
Israel that God himself is holy. God himself is to be approached
with reverence and with a holy fear. You see we have seen this
morning already that God's law is holy. But God's law is holy
because God is holy and it's his law. The Ten Commandments, in fact,
reveal to us the holy character of God. It reveals to us what
God is like. If he would have us to be as
this commandment says, that is how he is. He would have us reflect
his holiness. told in the word be ye holy as
i am holy and so that we must not have any any gods other than
him shows that he is the one true holy god that we must not
commit adultery shows that he is a faithful god that we must
not commit murder shows that he is a just God with that ability
to give life and also to take it away, it's not our prerogative.
And if you look through the Ten Commandments you can see it reveals
to us the character of God. He is a holy God and he is with us, he is near
to us. We do not have a God who created
the heavens and the earth and then stepped back and left it
all, and has no interest and no involvement in it. We have
a God who is in every place. The psalmist says, Whither can
I go from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou
art there. If I descend into the depths of hell, behold, thou
art there. If I go into the uttermost parts
of the sea, behold, even there shall thy right hand guide me. You see, the Lord is everywhere. He is in our homes this morning. And that's a wonderful truth,
a wonderful blessing for us when we're separated physically from
our public worship, He is with us, He is in our homes. There
is no place that we can escape or run from His presence. Whether
we're at home, whether at work when we're able to be there,
whether at school when we're able to be there, the Lord is
there, He is near to us, He is with us. But you see also in
another sense, The Lord is far off, because though he is near,
we cannot just approach him as we are, because he is a holy
God. It's as if these cherubims on
the veil are guarding the way into the presence of God, because
he is holy and pure and we are sinners. He is given a holy law
and we are law breakers. To stand in the presence of God
as we are in our sin is a terrifying thing. It is a frightful thing
to stand in the presence of a holy God in our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
of this when he speaks of those servants who came to him, or
who would come to him, saying all the good works and things
that they had done. Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful things. Then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you, Apart from me, you
workers of iniquity. And look at those works. He describes
them as workers of iniquity. But they would say, but Lord,
we have prophesied in thy name. We've cast out devils in thy
name. We've done wonderful works in thy name. These were not workers
of iniquity. These were good works. These
were wonderful works in the name of the Lord. But the Lord says,
but I never knew you. And that's what made the difference. They were unforgiven. They may
have done many good things, but they were unforgiven. They did
not come to the Lord as they were asking for mercy. They did
not know him. He did not know them. There was
no relationship between the Lord and these people. He says, I
never knew you. And they proved it to be a fearful
thing to be in the presence of the Lord in their sin. Because
he says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. You see,
we cannot say, but Lord we did this, and we were involved in
that work, and we put ourselves in that position, and we were
zealous, and we did all sorts of things. And for the Lord to
say, but I never knew you, you never prayed, you never sought
my face, you never asked for mercy, I never knew you, and
you did not really know me and then to be in the holy presence
of God, presence of a holy God, and to hear his just condemnation
depart from me. So the ark teaches us where it
is in the holy of holies, the holiness of God. Thirdly, the ark shows to us
that there is mercy. through the blood of the Saviour. There is mercy through the blood
of Jesus Christ. On the Day of Atonement, that
one day a year when the high priest could enter into the most
holy place, he went into that place but he must go with the
blood of the sacrifice. firstly with the blood of a bullock
for his own sins, and then with the blood of the goat for the
sins of the people. And he must enter into that Holy
of Holies and he must go with the blood, he must be carrying
it, and then he must sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat between
the cherubims, which is above the Ark of the Covenant, and
it is there that the Lord would commune with them. It was a wonderful
day. It was a day of mercy, the day
of atonement. But there must be the blood,
you see. There must have been the offering made. There must
have been the sacrifice on the altar before there could be the
entering in. He must first kill the bullock
before he can enter in. He must first take the goat before
he can enter in. There must be the evidence of
the sacrifice as the high priest enters in to the presence of
a holy, holy God. But if he comes with the offering,
if he comes with the blood, there is mercy to be found. And that sin which was confessed
And that blood which was presented, it showed mercy. And we see that
in the second goat. the scapegoat, where the high
priest was to confess the sins of the people on the head of
the goat and then he was to be led out into the wilderness by
the hands of a fit man to be seen no more. And the picture
we have there is all of the sin of the camp being led out, being
taken away, a picture of the removal of sin. day of mercy, a day of atonement. And so there is an approaching
into the presence of a Holy God but through the blood of the
sacrifice. Now what do we read in the epistle
to the Hebrews as the Apostle wonderfully opens up all of these
Old Testament types and pictures for us? In Hebrews 9 verse 11,
but Christ being come a high priest of good things to come,
by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the
blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God? You see, as the Apostle
says here, it is fulfilled in Christ. He has entered into the
very presence of God with his own blood. He has entered into
the holiness of God with the evidence of the offering, his
own blood, shed at Calvary. And in Christ therefore we see
that this holy law in the Ark has been completed, it's been
satisfied, it's been kept perfectly and completely. In Christ we
see an offering far beyond and above the offerings of goats
and bulls, but the blood of his own, his own life. a real acceptable sacrifice,
a real acceptable substitute for sinners. And in Christ we
see he has entered in for others, like the high priest went in
for all of the camp. So Christ has gone in as the
representative of all of his people, bearing the evidence
of his suffering, of his death, his own blood. And the apostle
says that he has obtained eternal redemption for us. And so the ark And the sprinkling
of blood on the mercy seat shows that there is mercy through blood. There is the removal of sin. The scripture gives us some wonderful
pictures, wonderful statements about the removal of sin. Psalm 103, we're told that as
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions,
from us, complete opposite directions, complete opposites. They cannot
meet, they cannot be found. One is one way and one is the
other way. That's how far he's removed the
transgressions of his people through his own blood. In the prophecy of Micah, we're
told that all our sins are cast into the depths of the sea. You know you children, if you
go to the beach, hopefully one day we'll be able to go to the
beach again, and if you take a stone and you just paddle into
the edge of the waves and you throw your stone down into the
sea, probably you'll be able to see it through the water.
You'll be able to look at it there, down at your feet. But
if you took a stone and you went on a ship, and you went miles
out to sea into the middle of the ocean, and you threw that
stone over the edge of the ship, you'd never be able to find that
stone again, would you? You could search and search,
you could look all day long, and that stone is sunk all the
way down to the bottom. You'll never ever find that stone
again. You see, that's what the Lord
has said in that text in Micah. He is cast into the depths of
the sea. Not just the shallow bit, the
depths of the sea. And you'll never find it down
there. You'll never be able to see it down there. That's what
he's teaching us here. The sins cast down that deep
are sins that have gone. They cannot be seen. They've
been removed completely. Again in the prophecy of Isaiah
we're told that all our iniquities are cast behind his back. Again if you've got your back
to something you cannot see it anymore, it's behind you, it
cannot be seen. These are the wonderful pictures
we have in the scriptures of the forgiveness of sin, mercy
through the blood of Jesus Christ. It is wonderful wonderful news
that there is to the utterly undeserving, like the prodigal
son who comes back utterly undeserving and yet is welcomed and is loved
and is received and is forgiven. See the ark shows us that we
are lawbreakers but it shows us that there is mercy through
the blood of Jesus Christ. Fourthly, The ark shows us that
God is in the midst of his people. God is in the midst of his people. We are told that the ark was
placed in the tabernacle and the tabernacle is in the midst
of the camp. All of the tribes were to camp
in their different order around the tabernacle. It was at the
very center of the camp. And therefore it was a constant
reminder to Israel that the Lord was in the midst of them in a
very special way. Yes, he is the God of all the
world, he is in every place, but he was most particularly
with them in the midst of the camp. And wherever you lived,
wherever your tribe was camped, you would be able to get to the
midst of the camp. He was there. God is in the midst
of his people. Epistle to the Hebrews we are
told, he will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, never leave
thee. He is always in the midst of
the camp, he is always amongst his people. Jesus, one of the
last words he spoke to his disciples before he ascended into heaven,
and lo, he says, I am with you always, even to the end of the
world. I am with you always, whatever
situation you're in, whatever path you're called to walk, I
am with you always. I am in the midst of the camp the opening chapter of the book
of Revelation. John has that wonderful vision
of the Son of Man walking in the midst of the candlesticks.
The candlesticks being a picture of the churches. He is in the
midst of them, moving amongst them, in and out between the
churches. I am with you, he says. I am
in the midst. So the art teaches us that the
Lord is still with his people. You might say, but I thought
Jesus had ascended into heaven. I thought he was seated at the
right hand of God. Yes, of course, the Lord Jesus
is not physically with us anymore today, but he has sent the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come and
reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to us and grants us the sense
of his presence amongst us. He is near to us, though we're
even told that he is in us, that we are the temple of the Holy
Spirit. The Lord is in the midst. Oh,
what comfort this must give to us today. The Lord is near to
you to hear your prayers today. The Lord is near to you to hear
your confession of sin and how you have fallen short of his
holy commandments. The Lord is near to you to comfort
you, to guide you, to help you in a difficult time. The Lord
is near to you to restore you and to lift you up when you stumble
or when you fall. He is near to you. And it's wonderful when you look
at Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, says David. And if you look at
all the different paths that David walks through in Psalm
23, whether he's by the still waters, whether he's in the green
pastures, whether he's in the valley of the shadow of death,
the shepherd is always there. The shepherd's always walking
with him. The shepherd's always doing for him what he needs. It's the same today. The Lord
is in the midst of his people. I will never leave you, nor forsake
you, he says. Finally, fifthly, the Ark of
the Covenant tells us that not only is the Lord in the midst,
but the Lord goes before his people. In the book of Numbers
we are told of how the tabernacle was placed in the midst of the
camp when they were camped. But it also tells us that the
ark was at the front when they marched. When they moved, the
different parts of the tabernacle itself was first throughout the
armies, as it were, but the ark was at the front. They followed
the ark. And Moses, when he comes to the
end of speaking to the people at the end of the Book of Deuteronomy,
he encourages them of this wonderful truth. The Lord, he it is that
doth go before thee. He will be with thee, he will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee, fear not, neither be dismayed. He it is that doth go before
thee and they followed on. The ark
where the ark went they followed on. Isn't it wonderful to know
that the Lord goes with his people but he also goes before his people
and remember this the eternal God who is not bound by time
in the future just as much as he is in the present. He's already
there. He knows it already. He's gone before you. And so he knows this morning
what's ahead of each of us. And that's particularly comforting
at the moment when we just do not know what a day or a week
will bring into our or our family's life. He is there. He's gone
before. And because he's there, he knows
what we will need to walk the path to get there. He knows and
he will provide. I shall not want, says David. and He has planned the way, and
it's for your good, and it's for His glory, and it's been
planned by wise and kind hands. He has gone before. Oh, if only we more could look
to an unknown and uncertain future and see that my Saviour's there
already. But He has also gone before to
prepare a place. He says, Let not your hearts
be troubled. I go to prepare a place for you. He's gone to prepare a place
for his people. This world will not be their
home forever. It will not be their rest. It
must not be their rest. He has gone to prepare a place
and you know that there is no empty place in heaven at the
end. It's as if he's gone to place your name on the chair,
or he's gone to place your name on the door, and it's ready,
it's prepared for his people, and they must one day go there. He's gone to prepare a place.
He's gone before. But where he is, there we may
be also. but he's also gone before through
the path of death. When the children of Israel come
to the end of their journey and they're coming through the River
Jordan into Canaan, the Ark of the Covenant was what went first
into the river carried by the priests and then the river was
stayed and there was the dry land and the people moved over
and the Ark stayed in until all the armies had gone over. You
see the ark, as it were, stepped into the river first and then
the people followed. So Christ, he has gone before
you into death, he has been through it. He has experienced it so
that his people might know life. He has passed through that way,
yes, so that he might hold his people's hand as they pass over
Jordan, that he might support them as they are gathered home.
He's gone before, you see. The Lord goes before his people. And so the Ark teaches us Simply
in these five things, there's much more he could consider,
but these five points this morning. It teaches the holiness of God's
law. It teaches us the holiness of
God himself. It teaches us the mercy of God
through the blood of Jesus Christ. It teaches us that the Lord is
in the midst of his people. And it teaches us that the Lord
goes before his people. See what comfort the Ark must
have brought to Israel. what comfort it brings to us,
not that we have an ark, a box of wood and of gold, but that
we have the fulfilment of it all, that Christ is with us. Yes, that he is holy, but he
is merciful. And yes, he is perfect, but he
is in the midst of his people and he has gone before his people. The Lord is all our hope, all
our salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation,
says the psalmist. What shall I fear? Oh, what a
glorious saviour we have. May we worship him as we see
more of him through these types of the Old Testament. May the
Lord bless these thoughts thus far this morning. Amen.