03. The Location and Guardianship of the Ark; or, God's Presence Concealed

Chapter 3 - The Location and Guardianship of the Ark; or, God’s Presence Concealed

AMONG the articles that composed the furniture of the tabernacle, there was one which, as to material, size, and construction, bore, in many respects, a close resemblance to the lower part of the ark. We allude to the table of show-bread. Both were of shittim wood, both were overlaid with gold, both were orna­mented with an edge-crown, both measured the same in height and width and length; both were furnished with rings and staves to avoid the defilement of human touch. But there was an essential difference in their location---a difference answering to the diversity of their use. The one, as a table, was to be placed "before the Lord;" the other, as a footstool, was to be beneath His throne. Hence, the former was assigned its standing in the holy place; the latter was put within the Holy of Holies. "Thou shalt hang up the veil under the taches, that thou mayest bring it thither within the veil the ark of the testimony; and the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy: and thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place: and thou shalt set the table without the veil . . . on the north side."

Concealment of the ark from ordinary gaze was the obvious design of this distinction; and this purpose was steadily kept in view in every arrangement. One entire tribe was set apart for the services connected with it. "The Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord, to minister unto Him, and to bless in His name." Even this had been too free a grant of publicity: consequently, of the Levites themselves, none might approach the sacred chest but the family of Kohath, who were constituted its bearers. For anyone else to come near it, was the instant forfeiture of life: "the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death." The Kohathites, when they were allowed to carry, might not dare to touch it; "the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it, but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die." This it was which gave rise to the pro­vision of the rings and staves; "unto the sons of Kohath he gave no wagons or oxen, because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that they should bear upon their shoulders." Hence also the command, "the staves shall be in the rings of the ark, they shall not be taken from it," a direction which not only ensured the security of the poles, and facilitated speedy departure in case of urgent haste, but also guarded against the risk of any contact with the ark in the replacement of them. But this was not all. From among the descendants of Kohath had been chosen one branch, to whom alone was confided the guardianship of the coffer: "Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites,"---that is to say, cause them not to be cut off by granting them un­restricted access to the ark; "they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die;" but "when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it."

Another distinction was made. When the ark rested, none might enter the Holy of Holies, save the chief representative of the priestly line: and only on the annual day of atonement was it permitted even to him. "Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not; for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat." On the tenth day of the seventh month, and then alone, might he stand immediately before the ark, sprinkling the sacrificial blood; and even then was the cloud of incense from his burning censer "to cover the mercy seat" with its vapory mist.

There was no flood of earthly light, natural or artificial, poured upon the view, and re­vealing every object in that sanctum with a blaze of radiance. While the outer court was visited by the light of heaven, and the holy place illumed by the seven-lamped candlestick of gold, the Holiest of all was penetrated by no created rays. "The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness." What­ever there might be of illumination proceeded from the Divine presence, from the glory which filled the house---a glory, moreover, which was not unshrouded. It was "in the cloud" that Jehovah appeared; for "there was the hiding of His power." None might endure the effulgence of His unveiled countenance, none abide the dazzling splendor of His full re­vealment. The precise nature of the glory-­cloud must be to us, at least for the present, a matter of conjecture. We know that it was all attempered brightness; and yet we know it was such as mortal vision might not steadfastly behold. "Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Mild and subdued we may believe it to have been, when the trembling high-priest advanced to the reverential dis­charge of his solemn duty; but easily kindled, even to the emission of a devouring flame, if approached with an uncommanded footstep, and a bold, presumptuous heart.

We are at no loss to understand the teaching which this guarded concealment was to im­press upon the Israelites. There was in this nothing of the mystery which false religions have affected for the sake of awing the multi­tude. There was nothing of the reserve with which impure religions have cloaked their deeds of wickedness. The whole is resolvable into the simple fact, that no man can see Jehovah’s face, and live; for "God is light," and dwells "in the light which no man can approach unto." If He dwelt on earth, He could not do otherwise than make "darkness His secret place." If He clothed His presence in a visi­ble form or symbol, it must of necessity be one that would hide, rather than reveal, His divine essence. If He admitted man into His audience-­chamber, it must be in the person of a repre­sentative; the one must approach in behalf of the many. The seed of Abraham were to behold in this a marked protest against idolatry. They were distinguished from nations around by their worship of an unseen Deity. They might have no glimpse of Jehovah’s form, they might make to themselves no fancied re­presentation of it. Unprepared for this notion of pure spirituality, they were allowed the ark as a material symbol or sign; but lest they should make that the object of their worship, it was sedulously removed from their gaze. Visible in itself, to the people it must be unseen. Thus it furnished an initial lesson of faith in the Invisible. Generation after generation knew that the ark was behind the veil; from time to time, they, or their fathers, had seen the veiled burden borne from one resting place to another; and, year by year, their chief priest entered the most holy place, and there dimly discerned its glittering presence. They themselves saw it not, but on testimony they believed in its existence. They never had the right to look upon it, but they nevertheless continued to look towards it. And this reverence for an unseen but material ark, as the earthly proof of Divine residence in their midst, was a help to their belief in the unseen because immaterial presence of their God. The same lesson it is still ours to learn. "God is a Spirit," and we "have not heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape." Whether in a future world our bodily eyes shall be fitted to behold God face to face, except in the person of the glorified Mediator, the revelations of eternity will disclose. This we know, that, while sojourners here, we may enjoy the manifestations of His spiritual pre­sence, but not the actual vision of His brightness. "Whom no man hath seen, nor can see," is a declaration of the New Testa­ment as well as of the Old. But there is One clothed in our nature, who has "entered for us within the veil," even Jesus, "made an high-priest forever." He is our advocate with the Father; He stands, not in "the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true," but in "heaven itself;" there He appears "in the presence of God for us;" there He makes intercession in our behalf, and offers our prayers in His golden censer before the everlasting throne. Through Him we have access unto the Father; and He has given us assurance that His people shall one day be with Him in Paradise. All which that promise includes, we may as yet be unable to fathom; but when we reach yonder bright abode, it will be given us to understand the full meaning of the words, "In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."