04. The Contents of the Ark; or, God's Presence Linked with Man's Duty

Chapter 4 - The Contents of the Ark; or, God’s Presence Linked with Man’s Duty THE ark was not to be an empty or useless receptacle. It was to contain a sacred deposit. "Thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee." This testi­mony was written on two tables of stone with the finger of God himself, and then placed for safe keeping within the sacred chest. "I turned myself," says Moses, "and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me." Thus the coffer was usually denominated "the ark of the testimony," or "the ark of the covenant," or "the ark of the testament," because within it were placed" the tables of testimony" that embodied the sum and substance of God’s covenant. In the Decalogue were contained the grand requirements of the moral law, and in them the fundamental principles which lay at the basis of the ceremonial code. It is easy to trace the wisdom of the lodgment which was assigned to it. Primarily and practically this answered the end of complete preservation. Not only were the statutes thus secured from loss, but likewise from interpolations and erasures. So long as the finger of man durst not touch the graven tablets, the wickedness of man could not tamper with them. They rested as though beneath the lawgiver’s immediate eye; they remained ever beneath His manifest protec­tion. Such an attempt as Popery has made to cancel one of the divine precepts, was un­paralleled among the Jews. Graven images they made, but made them in violation of a law they durst not disavow.

There were some among the sons of Israel, who cried, "When will the Sabbath be gone, that we may set forth wheat?" but, glad as they would have been to expunge the Fourth Commandment, they durst not deny its heavenly origin. Well they knew that any design and any effort to promulge a false version must prove futile, while the original lay in the Holy of Holies, a perpetual witness to the divine requirements. The same glorious presence which once attended their utterance, hovered still over their place of preservation. He who had given the law in Sinai, now guarded it in the sanctuary. Surely there was here an apt illustrati0n, if not an intended symbol, of that which every age of the church’s history has demonstrated to be truth; namely, that "the eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and He overthroweth the words of the trans­gressor." It is His omniscient watchfulness that has continued to guard the truth in its purity; it is His Spirit’s presence that still watches over the revealed record. The with­drawal of the visible sign has emboldened error in its attacks; but the unslumbering gaze of Him who sent forth the inspired volume, has ever marked the enemy’s ad­vances, and has invariably frustrated the schemes of the evildoer. "The righteousness of His testimonies is everlasting."

We believe that there was also a secondary and typical purpose in the depositing of the testimony within the ark. There seems to have been here a shadowing forth of the relation­ship between God and men; an implied teach­ing, that the presence of the Almighty on earth is that of a lawgiver, a moral governor,---one who has a right to impose statutes, and a claim to demand obedience. Throughout Scripture we find that God’s residence with His creatures is linked with their subjection and allegiance:---"If ye will walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments and do them, then I will have respect unto you, and establish my covenant with you, and I will ­set my tabernacle among you, and my soul shall not abhor you." "They shall walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them; . . . and I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore, and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them." "If a man love me he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." It is true, that the righteous law of God was imperfectly kept even by Israel’s best and holiest men, while yet the Shechinah-cloud was not withdrawn; but we remember, that the mercy seat was "above upon the ark," when the testimony had been placed within. The just God was also a Savior. The Lawgiver was able to pardon,’ while yet the honor of His law was unimpaired. An atonement was in the fullness of time to be wrought out. The Son of God was to ascend on high, to lead captivity captive, and to receive gifts for men," yea, for the re­bellious also," for the express purpose "that the Lord God might dwell among them." To such as believed in Him, to such as through Him hoped in God’s mercy, the law, as to its condemning power, was hid. It was not abolished, for it was still the perfect standard of rectitude, the needful rule of life; but it was so covered, that to the man of penitence and faith it was no longer an accusing witness, no longer a bar to the shining of God’s face.

There was yet another form, in which the law of God was transcribed---an enlarged, or rather supplemental form---the book of the law as penned by Moses, concerning which the di­rection was given, "Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." The manuscript-roll contained, for the most part, the minute and varied precepts of the Levitical code, with all the ordinances and observances which were laid down for the Jews as a peculiar people. This was to be laid, not within, but "in the side of" or "beside" the ark.

[There is some difference of opinion as to whether the book of the law was placed within or without the veil. If it was from the roll of Moses that the Levites were ac­customed to read to the people, then must it have been accessible in the holy place, since it was read at other times besides the day of expiation, But if the perusal was from a copy, as we incline to think, then there is no ground for disbelieving that the original was in the Holy of Holies. Tradition states that it was kept in a small coffer made for the purpose. The autograph, having pro­bably in later years been misplaced, was found by Hilkiah the priest in the days of King Josiah (2 Kings 22:8).] The difference of nature between this and the tables of testi­mony, sufficiently accounts for the difference of place. The moral law embraced the essen­tial requisitions of God’s government; the ceremonial law included (if we may so term them) the accidental arrangements of it. Had the former been fully obeyed by the human race, there had probably been no necessity for the latter. God manifested His presence as the giver of the moral law; but, in order that His presence might be retained among fallen men, He appointed, until the Messiah’s advent, the typical ordinances of the ceremonial law. The obeying, or the breaking, of the fundamen­tal precepts acquitted or convicted man of sin; the believing use, or unbelieving rejection, of the ritual institutes determined the grant or the withholdment of pardon. The record, therefore, of the latter was not placed beneath the mercy seat,---as if to teach that, should the services of expiation be willfully and wholly neglected, there remained "no more sacrifice for sin" than that which they prefigured. If the Decalogue was hid beneath the mercy seat, to denote the putting away through Christ of the law’s condemnatory evidence, then is there a peculiar emphasis in the fact, that the Mosaic statute-book, on the other hand, was expressly placed beside the ark, in order that it might be "a witness against" such as violated its provisions of mercy. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;" but if we persist in rejecting Him, we reject our only hope.

It has been a debated point, whether the ark held anything more than the tables of the covenant. We are distinctly told, that when placed in the temple, "there was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb;" (1 Kings 8:9.) whereas the Apostle Paul, speaking of the Holiest of all, says, "Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubims of glory."(Hebrews 9:4; Hebrews 9:6.) Nothing can be more explicit than the phraseology of both passages; and there seems no satisfactory mode of harmonizing them, except that of taking each as it stands, and regarding the two as referable to distinct periods of the ark’s history. The decided majority of our commentators are now agreed, that in the Epistle to the Hebrews we have an account of things as they were in the time of Moses; but that before the days of Solomon, perhaps during the captivity among the Philistines, the vase of manna and the miraculous rod of Aaron had been lost. Whether this be the correct interpretation, or not---whether these things were in the ark, or near it---still the connection between them and the sacred footstool of Deity was so marked as to demand a brief consideration of the cir­cumstances which were thus memorialized.

Little more than two months had elapsed from the time of their quitting Egypt, when the Israelites murmured for want of food. Distrustful of the mighty hand which, in the land of Zoan, and at the Red Sea, had wrought wonders in their behalf,---forgetful also of the goodness which had converted for them the bitter waters of Marah into a palatable and refreshing beverage-they declared that they had been led into the wilderness to be con­sumed of hunger. But their impious repinings were arrested by an undeserved interposition. Food from heaven was rained down upon them six days in the week, and the Sabbath’s por­tion given them in advance. For forty years was the Heaven-sent bounty continued; nor did it cease until they reached Canaan, and ate of the corn of the land. When the miracle was no longer needed, it was withheld. But it was not to be forgotten. An omer, or single portion, had been set aside, that it might be preserved from generation to generation, as a ’ specimen and as a remembrancer of the wilder­ness-supply. To Aaron’s care it was confided; by him it was treasured, until the ark was lodged within the tabernacle; and there, in a golden vase, it was laid up "before the testi­mony,"* (Exodus 16:32-34.) betokening that He who presenced himself among His people, was ready to pro­vide for their every want. If Jehovah was their lawgiver, He was also their protector. If He claimed their obedience, He also deserved their trust. If He took up His abode in their midst, it was to bless them. When He con­sented to say of the earthly tabernacle or tem­ple, "This is my rest forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it," the promise was given, " I will abundantly bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread." When the Psalmist commemorated the Divine residence on earth, he broke forth into the doxology, "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits." And when the prophet gave the assurance, concerning the godly man in his day, "Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure," it was in connection with the further prophecy, "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty." So is it with us in these latter times, If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." The soul that enjoys God’s spiritual presence is never wanting in spiritual food. When we sit down under His shadow, we find His fruit sweet to our taste, "all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old," which He hath stored up for us. So will it be in the world to come. The redeemed are before the throne of God, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them; they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters."He that overcometh," shall not only sit with Christ on His throne, but it shall be given him to eat of "the hidden manna."

Aaron’s rod was another memento of Israel’s rebelliousness. The brother of Moses had been chosen, as we have already noticed, from among his tribe and family, and devoted to the sacerdotal office. One of the Kohathites, Korah by name, was jealous of his cousin’s advancement to superior dignity; and, in con­junction with some of the Reubenites, whose tents were adjacent to the encampment of the Kohathites, he stirred up a revolt in the con­gregation. Signal punishment followed the daring conspiracy. Korah and his company, who aspired to the priesthood, were consumed with fire at the door of the tabernacle; their tents, with those of Dathan and Abiram, were suddenly entombed within the earth that clave asunder to receive them; and, on the ensuing day, a plague broke out among the people, whom they had infected with the contagion of their sin.

Then, with a view to demonstrate more unmistakably the irrevocable choice of Aaron’s line as that of the priesthood, each tribe was commanded to bring an almond ­branch inscribed with its distinctive name; and these, together with that of Aaron, were left for one night in the tabernacle. The morning’s light revealed whom God had chosen. Every other rod was dry and dead, as when delivered into Moses’ charge; that of Aaron had budded; nay, in one short night, had blossomed; nay, as though to prove yet more distinctly that no human collusion had forced it into precocious bloom, it also yielded almonds. The wondrous sight of buds, blos­soms, and fruit, upon the same stem,---and that the branch of an almond, a tree which in Judea took two months from its flowering to its fruit-bearing,---was sufficient to convince every beholder that the portent was from above. Then was it further commanded by Jehovah that this living branch should be brought "again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels." The knowledge that it was there might well deter the rash footstep of such as had no permission to enter the Holy of Holies, while the same knowledge might serve to encourage the high-priest with the assurance that, being of Aaron’s house, he might enter without peril. The placing of it beneath the overshadowing cloud of glory, denoted that He who dwelt there could alone confer on the selected high-priest, and his lineal successors, the right to approach the sacred presence. It denoted God’s sovereign claim to appoint whom He would to minister before Him:---"No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron: so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high-priest." Of Him it had been said in the language of prophecy, "I will cause Him to draw near, and He shall approach unto me." And so, through Him, are believers "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood." When they walk in the light of God’s coun­tenance, they say, "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts." When they fall down before the Lamb, their song is, "Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests."

When, or how, the treasured urn of manna, and the fruitful almond-rod were lost, it is im­possible to say. Various theories have been propounded. Some have thought, that they continued among the holy things of the sanc­tuary until the destruction of Solomon’s temple; while others have believed, that the time of their disappearance from the interior of the ark was the date of their destruction. We need not say a word in disproof of the ecclesi­astical fable which enumerated these remains of Jewish antiquity among the relics in the Church of the Lateran at the time of Pope Sixtus the Fifth; especially as rival vases and almond-branches have been the property of other churches, as in Paris, Bordeaux, &c. That they were wanting in the second temple is certain; that they were ever in the first temple is (to say the least) doubtful. Of one thing we are assured,---that the providence of God could have ensured their safety, had their longer preservation been necessary. We may believe that they were in careful keeping until they had done their work.

They may have been chiefly intended to meet the exigencies of the people, first during their pilgrim-state, and then during their infancy as a nation. When they were fairly established in Canaan, the grand purpose of these emblems had been ac­complished. When Jehovah had planted His people in "a land flowing with milk and honey," a land wherein they could eat bread without scarceness,---when He had commanded judges, and raised up princes, to "feed" his people Israel,---the memorial of His past bounty was not a more convincing proof of His provi­dential care than were the innumerable mercies with which He continued to surround them. And when the priesthood was firmly established ---when the office had been repeatedly handed down from father to son, without a gainsaying word or a rebellious murmur---it was no longer needful that there should be a marked indica­tion of that which none contested. With or without such memorials, the duty of the Jew was clear. He had to obey God’s holy law, to trust His fatherly care, to submit to His wise decrees. And our duty is the same. Is God willing to dwell among us? we must welcome Him by a cheerful obedience. Has He manifested His presence? we must confide in His bountiful love. Does he allow us to approach His footstool? we must humbly acknowledge His sovereign grace.