So Exodus chapter 25 and we're
going to read together in verse 10. And the Lord is speaking once again
to Moses concerning the construction of the tabernacle and he says,
And they shall make an ark of shitting-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 thou shalt make upon it a crown of gold round
about. And thou shalt cast four rings
of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof,
and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings
in the other side of it. And thou shalt make staves of
shittum wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put
the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the
ark may be borne by them. The staves shall be in the rings
of the ark, they shall not be taken from it. And thou shalt
put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. We now come to the Ark of the
Covenant, or another name that is given to it is the Ark of
the Testimony, the testimony being the commandments, the two
tablets of stone that were laid within the Ark and seem to have
been the principal purpose for the Ark, holding these two stones. This Ark of the Covenant was
another of the pieces of furniture, or what the Bible calls the instruments,
in the tabernacle. And again we discover that it
has special significance in the worship of God and for the Old
Testament people. And it also leads us to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This Ark of the Covenant was
in some respects central to the whole purpose of the Tabernacle
and it was given a special place in the Tabernacle, a place of
importance Now we've spent a little bit of time thinking about the
location and the items of the tabernacle, but this was located
in a special section of its own. called the Most Holy Place, and
it was separated from the Holy Place by a veil, so that within
the tabernacle there was a separate section It was a third of the
actual tent, the actual tabernacle itself, that was set apart for
the covenant, the Ark of the Covenant. So that outside, if
you remember with me, there was the brass altar for the sacrifice,
then the brass laver for the cleansing, And then as you entered
into the tent or the tabernacle itself, there stood a golden
candlestick giving light to the room because there were no other
windows or openings in the room. There was a gold-covered table
that contained or bore 12 loaves of showbread. There was a gold-covered
altar of incense from which a sweet fragrance constantly filled the
tent. But then, after the altar of
incense and behind a curtain or a veil to shield it from the
eyes of even the priests, was the Ark of the Covenant, or the
Ark of the Testimony. It is also called the Ark of
God. And it was a box made of chitin
wood, like the other wooden constructions. This is also called acacia wood.
And it was overlaid within and without with pure gold. This Ark of the Covenant was
longer than it was high. Remember we spoke about the Altar
of Incense? It was higher than it was wide. But this was like a chest, or
we would call it perhaps today if we were looking at it, a blanket
chest. It was longer than it was high
or wide. and it was two and a half cubits
long, one and a half cubits wide, one and a half cubits high. And inside this ark or this chest
was kept the testimony or the law of God. The two stone tablets
that God gave to Moses containing the Ten Commandments were inside
this box. The book of Hebrews also tells
us that there was kept in this box a pot of manna, reminding
the Israelites that God had daily provided for them through their
wilderness journeys, and also Aaron's rod that buddied, which
was a reminder to the people that Aaron was the appointed
high priest, God's appointed high priest, and that all life
comes miraculously from God. And once again, we realise that
there is great symbolism in this ark and its contents, and that
by faith, these Old Testament people, these Old Testament Jews,
were able to glimpse beyond the immediate ceremonies and the
immediate instruments and the immediate surrounds of the tabernacle
to understand that there was a deeper and a spiritual significance
to these things and those men and women of faith were able
to look beyond and see not the high priest Aaron but our great
high priest that Hebrews speaks about, the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. And they could discern, somewhat
at least, something of his saving responsibilities and his covenant
roles for his people. Now, we read together about the
construction of the Ark in Exodus chapter 25 and we learned that
it was made of wood and gold and again these two things brought
together and made into one instrument remind us of the two natures
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his human nature which is pictured
by the wood, and his divine nature, which is pictured by the pure
gold. And interestingly as well, the
poles that were also made of chitin wood and covered with
gold, they were for carrying the Ark of the Covenant. and we find that they were fixed
in place within four solid gold rings and these would be used
to pick up and to carry the Ark of the Covenant. These gold rings
were cast from molten gold and there was a gold crown or moulding
that was around the top of the chest, around the rim or the
edge and the Ark had a lid which is called the mercy seat. But we're going to come back
to that on another day, God willing. What we're told in other parts
of scriptures concerning this Ark of the Covenant is that once
a year and only once, The high priest, who was Aaron during
his lifetime, was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, that
is, he was able to enter the tabernacle, go through, past
the lampstand, past the table, past the altar of incense, to
the veil, and to draw back the veil and enter into the Holy
Holy's. Only once a year was that permitted
and only Aaron was permitted to do that. So that while the
presence of the Lord dwelt in the tabernacle, there was no
approaching to God except by Aaron once a year. And he entered
expressly with the blood of a sacrifice in order to perform a symbolic
ritual. Now the priests that served in
the tabernacle every day, they entered the tent every morning
and every night to attend to the candlestick and replenish
the oil and the incense. And each week they brought the
showbread and they located it carefully on the table. But no one ever saw behind the
curtain or behind the veil. No one ever saw the Ark of the
Covenant when the presence of the Lord was there. except on
one occasion each year, the high priest was allowed to enter the
Holy of Holies, where the presence of the Lord dwelt. And there
he would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. Now that's going
to be the final instrument in the tabernacle, and we're going
to return to that next week, God willing. But here are a couple
of lessons which I think we can draw from what the scripture
tells us and the Holy Spirit tells us regarding the Ark of
the Covenant. The first thing we've already
mentioned is that the two tablets or tables of the law were placed
inside the Ark of the Covenant. So once again, remember, let
us see if we can picture this. It was a box. It was a wooden box that was
covered with gold inside and out, a chest, and inside that
chest was laid the Ten Commandments, the two tablets of stone. And they were placed inside the
Ark. They were preserved there. That's
where they were to be kept. That's where they were to be
known to be located. Now, the children of Israel had
promised to keep the laws that were written on those two tablets
of stone. but they never did and they never
could. They remained there, those tablets
of stone. They remained in the Ark of the
Covenant as a continual source of guilt and condemnation against
the people. They always spoke out about the
fact that they had fallen short, they had transgressed they had
committed sins against the Lord. However, spiritually speaking,
and those who had faith to understand and who saw something of the
Lord Jesus Christ in the Ark of the Covenant were able to
discern that being placed inside the Ark points to them being
kept and covered and hidden by the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
who is typified by the Ark of the Covenant. Our guilt, our
condemnation, like the guilt and condemnation of the Old Testament
Jews, is hidden and removed in Christ. if indeed the Lord Jesus
Christ is our saviour. And this reminds us that our
saviour was perfect in all his ways, that he lived a pure life
and he was completely obedient to God. This inherent holiness
and purity of life is what we call Christ's sinlessness. and it's what made the Lord Jesus
Christ a suitable sacrifice for sin. Christ could not have died
for us as our representative if he had been guilty of sin
of his own. But in his sinlessness he was
worthy and fit to be a sacrifice for his people. The law was satisfied
with Christ and as it were Christ covered the law, enclosed the
law, kept the law and honoured the law as our sinless representative. Another thing that we learn from
the description that's given to us here in Exodus concerning
this Ark of the Covenant is that the poles that were used to carry
this piece of furniture was that they were expressly not to be
removed from their carrying location. So they were fixed as poles at
the side of this chest so the chest could be carried. either
by one man carrying each end of a pole, in which case there
would be four carriers, or perhaps standing between two poles and
holding them up in their hands, in which case there would just
be two carriers. But the point is that the poles
were not to be removed. So the gold rings and the poles
were fixed onto the Ark of the Covenant. and when it was moved,
when the Ark of the Covenant was moved, when the people moved
and the tabernacle was dismantled, and it went before the people
as they made their way through the wilderness on their journey. Remember that took 40 years to
do that. As the people moved, as the priests
who carried the Ark of the Covenant moved, the Ark itself was covered
over so that it wasn't seen. It was carried by these priests
through the wilderness. And I think that there's a little
picture there as well. There's a picture about the way
in which the Lord's people, the church, have a responsibility
to bear and to carry the testimony of Christ in this world. Through this wilderness, as it
were, the Lord's people carry the testimony of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We bear witness to the things
that we have seen and heard. We are ready to tell men and
women, to tell boys and girls, to tell our friends, to tell
our neighbours, to tell our family about the things that we have
learned concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And gospel preachers,
have given to them the fixed doctrines of Christ. It's not
my responsibility to make things up. It's not my responsibility
to be imaginative or creative about the messages that I bring. It's my duty, it's my obligation,
it's my privilege to speak about the things concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ and the things that are written in the Word of God
so that these are fixed and these have to be declared faithfully
by the preachers of the Gospel. Fixed doctrines, fixed teachings,
a fixed Gospel, a fixed ministry of the Word that has to be faithfully
declared to every generation. But here's the last point that
I want to leave with you today, and perhaps it's the most important
lesson for us today. And it's to remind us that all
true worship of God must be offered according to God's pattern and
God's requirements. The Ark of the Covenant over
which the presence of the Lord dwelt in the Holy of Holies was
hidden and separated and exclusive. It could be approached only once
a year under strict terms and the high priest who came into
the presence of God must come with blood. No one but the high
priest ever entered or even saw inside that holy of holies when
the presence of the Lord was there. No one but the high priest
entered where the presence of God dwelt. Had anyone tried to
do so, they would have been instantly killed because no sin can be
in the presence of God's holiness. Our Lord Jesus Christ by his
sinlessness then and by his substitutionary death has opened up a door of
access into the presence of God for sinners like us by taking
away the sin that excluded us and making us holy and fit for
the presence of God. That's the great message of the
gospel. Now the tabernacle with its instruments
was made around 1450 years before the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ and it continued for about 400 years until the time of Solomon's
temple. But even in Solomon's temple,
there was a holy place and a separated place hidden by a veil called
the Holy of Holies. And that veil pictured our separation
from God until the death of the Lord Jesus Christ opened up free
access by faith into God's presence. So that now, by trusting in the
blood of Christ's sacrifice, we can each bring our, not just
the high priest, but we can each bring our spiritual worship to
the Lord. Now I do not doubt that there
was a degree of mystery and ritual to these Old Testament ceremonies. Yet even for the Old Testament
believer, they were able in these things to see Christ's sacrifice
and His intercession. And whether it was in the altar,
whether it was in the cleansing, whether it was in the lampstand,
whether it was with the table of showbread, whether it was
the incense that came up and the intercession of Jesus Christ,
all of these things pointed to the Saviour. Christ was always
central to all true worship and he still is. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be
saved. I am the way, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.