Rev. David Holwick ZH Exodus series, #16
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 25, 2009
Exodus 25:10-11,16-22
GOD'S BOX
I. The ark is hot!
A. Hollywood's version.
Steven Spielberg made a fortune in 1981 with "Raiders of the
Lost Ark."
The premise was that Nazis wanted to find the hidden Ark of the
Covenant so they would win World War II.
It is kind of ironic to think of Hitler wanting a Jewish box,
but the Nazis did love the occult.
Of course, Indiana Jones beats them to it and the ark now
resides in a CIA warehouse somewhere in the United States.
B. Ethiopia thinks it has a better plot.
One of the oldest churches in the world is the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church.
They claim they got their start when Philip baptized the
Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.
But their association with the Bible goes back even farther.
According to them, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba had a
son named Menelik who became the king of Ethiopia.
Menelik brought Solomon's ark to Ethiopia where it has been
kept in a church in the ancient city of Axum.
The leader of the church today is Patriarch Abune Paulos, who
was educated down the road at Princeton Theological Seminary.
At the end of June this year, Patriarch Paulos claimed that
his church possessed the original ark of the covenant.
What is more, they would reveal it to the world in a few days.
He changed his mind, but he insists that it is there.
If they are telling the truth, they would possess the most
amazing archaeological object in the world. [1]
C. The ark has great significance.
1) It was revered but not worshipped by the early Jews.
2) It represented the tangible presence of Almighty God.
a) The ark provided them with divine guidance.
b) It was also a focus for atonement, the removal of sin.
3) The ark reveals important aspects of our own salvation.
II. Ark was made out of the best stuff.
A. Gold.
1) This precious metal was always used for the objects that
were closest to the presence of God.
a) Farther away, silver and copper were adequate.
2) The gold would have been hammered into thin sheets and
attached to the underlying wood.
3) Intricate designs were added to it.
B. Cherubim.
1) Other places in the Bible describe them as winged creatures
that had human and animal features.
2) They are supernatural creatures and are always associated
with the throne of God.
a) They are not pink, fat babies with quivers and arrows.
b) They are actually rather terrifying beings, called
"living creatures" in Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4.
3) Two cherubim figures were placed on the cover.
a) Later, in Solomon's temple, two 15-foot-high cherubim
filled the Holy of Holies.
C. Simple construction.
1) The word ark means chest.
a) It is a different word from Noah's ark.
b) Chests like this were common in the ancient world.
1> King Tut's tomb contained a wooden chest that was
carried with long poles attached with rings.
c) For wandering in the wilderness, Jews had to keep it
portable.
2) It was not very large - roughly 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet.
3) Most important construction detail - God gave the building
instructions. Exod 25:9
a) Solomon's temple was revealed this way as well.
III. The ark represented atonement.
A. In the New Testament, the cover is called the mercy seat. Heb 9:5
1) It is the place where God's mercy was poured out on sinners.
2) Sacrifices were not done on the ark, but on the altar.
3) However, once a year the high priest sprinkled the ark
with blood on the Day of Atonement.
a) When the Jews thought of the ark, they thought of God's
mercy in removing their sins from them.
B. In Exodus, the cover is called simply "the atonement."
1) Another way to translate it is "the place of propitiation."
2) Propitiation is a loaded term.
a) It is a theological concept, that because God hates our
sins, his anger must be appeased with a sacrifice.
b) Lots of people are bothered by the idea that God is
ever angry at us, or needs to be bought off.
c) Of course, that is the same idea behind the cross.
IV. The ark is where they met God.
A. It was a container for the Ten Commandments.
1) The tablets were a testimony of God's character.
a) Later Jews supposed there would have been two arks,
one for the broken tablets and one for the whole ones.
b) However, the Bible never suggests this.
2) Manna and Aaron's budding rod were later added to it,
then taken out of it.
B. God's presence was seen over the mercy seat.
1) Other passages suggest the presence was in the form of
the Shekinah cloud.
2) The ark was not a container for God - his presence hovered
on top of it, not inside it.
3) The ark is where God revealed his will to Moses and Aaron.
V. The ark was dangerous.
A. You didn't want to mess with it. 1 Sam 6:19-20; 2 Sam 6:6-7
1) Seventy Jews looked into it out of curiosity, and died.
1 Sam 6:19-20
2) The Levite Uzzah had a bad experience with it.
The Jews were transporting it to a new location in Israel
and had it on a cart hauled by oxen.
The oxen stumbled and Uzzah reached out his hand to keep
the ark from tipping over
He died on the spot. 2 Sam 6:6-7
B. Under Eli, the Jews used it as a magic charm. 1 Sam 4:4
1) They paraded it before their enemies to give the Jews
good luck in battle.
a) The medieval Italians did the same thing with religious
wagons holding statues of local saints.
2) The Jews not only lost the battle, they lost the ark.
a) David's faith is shown by the fact he refused to use
it as a charm. 2 Sam 15:25
When his son Absalom launched a coup against him,
David had to flee Jerusalem.
His loyal priests and Levites followed him with the
ark.
David told them to take it back, saying, "If I find
favor in the LORD's eyes, he will bring me back and
let me see it."
He didn't rely on a religious charm, but entrusted
himself to God's will.
C. This was the (false) premise of the Spielberg movie.
1) Whoever has the ark, wins.
2) But it didn't work for the Jews - they lost the battle
and the ark to the Philistines.
a) It didn't work for them, either.
b) Plagues struck their country, so they sent it back.
VI. Where is the ark today?
A. It probably perished in the Babylonian invasion.
1) Legends that is was hidden somewhere - in Egypt, or Ethiopia,
or even in tunnels under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem,
have never been proved.
2) The ark was never rebuilt by the Jews.
3) The temple in Jesus' day did not have an ark inside.
B. Jeremiah foresaw the day it would be no longer needed. Jer 3:16
1) He was envisioning the future kingdom of the Messiah.
a) God's throne will be everywhere the people live. 3:17
b) God will be present with them at all times.
2) All nations will have access to God, without an ark.
VII. People still want a visual reminder of God.
A. A company in Groveport, Ohio, has the perfect solution.
God's Box.
A 3-inch by 5-inch metal box.
They say it is the perfect spiritual tool for times of trouble
and despair.
When your burdens are just too heavy for you to bear, write them
down.
Then put them in the box and give them to God to hold for you.
It is constructed to last forever. [That's a long time]
It comes in many colors and is very attractive.
It's portable too; place it in your glove compartment, slip it
in your purse, carry it in your golf bag!
At the bottom of the box is a silver lining.
This signifies the "silver lining" you'll find when you look
beyond your troubles!
God's Box is only $19.95 each.
And there is free shipping on orders of $200 or more!
1) If it has a glowing cloud above it, I'll get one.
But I suspect it doesn't.
2) God doesn't use boxes any more. He has something better.
B. God's real ark is still available.
1) Not in Egypt or in Ethiopia, but in heaven.
a) The Book of Revelation mentions it as being in the
heavenly version of the temple. Rev 11:19
2) We can have access to it now.
a) At Jesus' death, the veil in the Temple was torn
and the ark-less Holy of Holies was exposed.
b) This signified that direct access to God was not limited
to one man, the high priest, but open to all of us.
c) We can experience the presence of God through faith
in the Lord Jesus.
1> The Holy Spirit will give us assurance that we
belong to God and that he will guide us.
3) Do you have this experience?
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
1. This information comes from the article “Ark of the Covenant” at
Wikipedia.org. The Ethiopian claims are said to be a 13th-century
fabrication to legitimize the ruler at that time.
#36056 "God's Box, Only $19.95!," by David Holwick, October 24, 2009.
"God's Box" copyright © 2006 K and B Creations LLC, Groveport,
Ohio; <http://www.thegodsboxsite.com/products>.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Study notes:
Alan Cole
=========
I. Chest is better description than ark.
A. Different word than Noah's ark or Moses' bulrush ark.
B. It was a sacred box to contain the two tablets, and the top
was considered a throne for the invisible God.
II. Description.
A. Gold - used for things connected to God's immediate presence.
B. Testimony = Ten Commandments.
C. Mercy seat - interpretation of Hebrew word. Literally, that
which covers, or that which propitiates.
1) Atonement was not performed at the ark, but by the blood
shed on the altar.
2) However, it was a natural transference - note that it was
sprinkled with blood on the Day of Atonement.
D. Cherubim - human-faced winged sphinxes. (Ezek 1, Rev 4)
III. There I will meet with you.
A. The ark was the visible symbol of God's presence.
1) Under Eli, the Jews used it as a magic charm. 1 Sam 4:4
a) David refused to use it this way. 2 Sam 15:25
2) Jeremiah foresaw the day it would be no longer needed. 3:16
a) It probably perished in the Babylonian destruction
of Jerusalem.
B. The ark's location was the holiest spot in the tabernacle.
1) To touch the ark was to die. 2 Sam 6:7
2) However, neither the ark nor the cherubim were worshipped.
a) By containing the law, the ark witnessed to the
character of God who was worshipped there.
Expositor's Bible Commentary, Exodus, Walter Kaiser
===================================================
I. The tabernacle embodies the theology of worship.
A. It assumes God is the Great King who reigns and is worthy of
praise and adoration.
B. Just as God dwelt in glory in his tabernacle, so one day he
will dwell in glory among his saints in the world.
II. The ark is the place of atonement.
A. Ark is mentioned 180 times in the Bible.
1) It is the throne of God.
B. Verb that lies behind the noun "atonement" means "to ransom or
deliver by means of a substitute."
1) (no word for lid or cover, though it appears in Heb. 9:5)
2) It is a foreshadowing of Christ's atonement. Rom 3:25,
Heb 9:23-24, 1 John 2:2
III. Meeting with God.
A. One of the primary intentions in worship is our meeting with
the living God.
B. Cherubim - composite creatures with wings.
