Hebrews Chapter Nine, The Contents Of The Ark

 

External religious formality reigned in Israel as Jeremiah attempted to reason with a people beyond redemption, Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, 14:11. Like Pharaoh in Moses’ time, they had hardened their hearts beyond recovery, and now destruction awaited them because of their rebellious choices. Idolatry had warped their perspective and lessened their view of their national God; God in turn was stripping them of every vestige of idolatry, including the permanent removal of the ark.

Despite this clear explanation about the ark’s disappearance there is a spurious passage in the Apocryphal book, 2 Maccabees concerning it. “It was also contained in the same writing, that the prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of God. And when Jeremy came thither, he found an hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door,” 2 Maccabees 2:4, 5, LXX. The author of Maccabees, writing in Jeremiah’s stead, states in verse 7 that the secret place the ark was buried would be found when Israel was restored as a people. These verses are antagonistic to the declaration of Scripture, which states that Israel will not think about or visit the ark ever again. Maccabees, written around the times of Greek occupation of Israel and Antiochus Epiphanes’ persecution of the Jews, was meant to kindle patriotic pride. The scribe that pens 1 Maccabees indicates that these books were not inspired the way the Bible was; there was no prophet ordained of God in those days, 1 Maccabees 9:27. While useful for historical context, the books of Maccabees cannot be subscribed to for plenary inspiration.

 

The final reference made to the ark is found in Revelation. It is written, “Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple,” Revelation 11:19. This may be a translated ark taken from earth to Heaven in Jeremiah’s time, or the original, which the copy was modeled after according to the pattern shown Moses on the mountain. Whatever the case, the ark is distinctly Jewish, as it was the throne of Israel’s God in the days of the tabernacle and temple. In Revelation John sees the ark a final time in Heaven’s temple when it was opened. This verse precedes chapter 12, which deals with Satan’s violent persecution of the Jewish people when he was cast to the earth part way through the Tribulation week (of seven years). If the ark resides in Heaven, then we know another will not be made, nor will it be found; it has been removed from the Jewish expectation and humanity’s degraded penchant for idolatry. It’s singular appearance in Revelation precipitates a series of judgments on the earth that further showcase that God is returning to His dealings with mankind through the agency of His earthly people, Israel.

 

The golden pot of manna goes back to the historic moment of Israel’s sojourn when God rained bread from heaven upon them, Exodus 16:14. The people named the substance Manna (meaning “what?” in Hebrew), Exodus 16:31. The Psalmist, when addressing the bread from Heaven, wrote, “Human beings ate the bread of angels,” Psalm 78:25, NIV. Either the Psalmist was waxing poetic with his descriptive prose, or this confirms that angels can (and do) have food to eat. We know that angels can consume food like humans because they did so when Abraham entertained God and His angels at his tent, Genesis 18:8.

 

God ordered Aaron to collect an omer of the manna to be kept as a memorial of how He fed them with bread from Heaven, Exodus 16:33. The pot was then placed beside the Testimony, or the Decalogue for a witness to future generations, verse 34. This same manna ceased the day after Israel entered Canaan under Joshua and ate from the produce of the land for the first time, Joshua 5:12.

 

In the reign of Solomon, when Israel had finished the house of the Lord and Solomon had dedicated items to be placed in its treasuries, that he brought up the ark, 1 Kings 8:1. It is unclear how it was made known, but the author of Kings testifies that, “nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb,” 1 Kings 8:9. Sometime between Moses and Solomon, the manna had been removed from the ark.

 

Another item to have apparently gone missing was Aaron’s rod that budded. The rod carries with it a most interesting backstory. It stemmed from the rebellion of Korah, when the Levites sought the priesthood from Aaron’s family. Korah and his fellow rebels, driven by envy, were consumed by God in an earthquake and fire, Numbers 16:33, 35. Despite the clearly divine interposition of events, the congregation blamed Moses and Aaron, prompting the Lord once more to break out against them, this time with a severe plague that left 14,700 dead, Numbers 16:49. Aaron’s intercession with his censer of incense appeased God’s wrath, symbolic of a saint’s intercessory prayer to God, which avails much, James 5:16.

 

Finally, to put an incontestable end to all dispute, Yahweh commanded the patriarchs of each representative tribe to deliver a rod to the tent of meeting. From the collection of rods God would cause one to sprout and reveal His chosen priestly line. We read of the results when Aaron’s rod was examined. “The rod of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds,” Numbers 17:8, NASB. The Lord ordered Moses to keep the rod of Aaron and set it before the Decalogue (like the pot of manna) as a sign against the rebels to clearly remind them who God had chosen, Numbers 17:10. Interestingly, the menorah or golden lampstand had cups shaped like almond blossoms, Exodus 25:33-35. It was fitting then that Aaron’s rod bore fruit, so to speak, since from his lineage the priestly tribe would officiate at the altar, bearing spiritual fruit in the service of God, on behalf of His people. Only Aaron’s lineage would be accepted; only Aaron’s lineage would bear fruit approaching the altar to make atonement for the people. It was symbolic of the Coming One, whose one time approach to the altar atoned for sin once for all, for all people, Jew or Gentile.

 

It might have been, like Nehushtan, the pot of manna and the rod that budded were removed so they were not inordinately venerated by men of perverse minds, that need the crutch of idolatrous worship to have something carnal to take faith’s place. In more modern context, the religious climate of Christendom reveals a church awash in similar activity with shrines, altars, wafers, crosses, prayer beads, supposed relics (like the “Shroud of Turin”), et al. Corrupting what is simple comes naturally to sinful man; we complicate things because complication benefits those who know more than others, and we profit from the uninitiated that need to rely on the knowledgeable for navigation through the maze religion has become. Sadly, we have come a long way from what the apostle termed, “the simplicity that is in Christ,” 2 Corinthians 11:3.