02.09. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine The Ark of the Covenant At the dedication of the Temple it was brought up out of the city of David, and carried into the oracle of the house, the Most Holy Place, even under the wings of the cherubim (2 Chronicles 5:7-10). This was the Ark which was in the Tent of the Congregation in the Wilderness (Exodus 25:10-17). It is a complete type of the Lord Jesus Christ—a full-length representation of Immanuel—of His incarnation, as typified by the shittim wood (John 1:14), of His divine nature by the gold (1 Timothy 3:16), of His perfect obedience by the unbroken tables of the law within (Psalms 40:8), His atoning death, the foundation of God’s merciful actions, by the blood-Stained mercy-seat (Exodus 12:13), His risen glory by the crown of gold round about (Hebrews 2:9), and the fulness of the Spirit received in ascension by the cherubim on the mercy-seat (Acts 2:33). There were rings of gold and staves of shittim wood overlaid with gold. These staves were put into the rings, never to be taken out so long as Israel continued a wandering people (Exodus 25:12-15), reminding us of the promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age, “never leaving, never forsaking. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). There He is, in the tenderness of His humanity and the glorious perfection of His Godhead—shittim wood overlaid with pure gold. When that Ark was brought to its resting-place under the shadow of the larger cherubim, these staves were drawn out of the rings and placed behind the Ark, so that the heads of the staves were seen from before the oracle; the staves were hidden behind the Ark; wilderness wanderings will soon be over, but God will have His abiding presence with His people to be kept in everlasting remembrance. We should look back with thanksgiving and praise to Him who was always with us here below. The Crown Of Gold

“And thou shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. “Beautiful type of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus in resurrection and ascension; in the presence of God “crowned with glory and honour, “the sufferings of death forever past. The Tables Of The Law In the Ark were placed the two unbroken tables of the law on which God wrote with His own finger when Moses went up to the mount a second time. The first tables were provided by God Himself, but broken by Moses owing to Israel’s transgression. These tables were typical of the covenant of works, by which no man can be justified before God. The second tables, having been prepared by Moses and written again by God, were deposited in the Ark, and are typical of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus. They also remind us of the words of Him who said, “In the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God. Yea, Thy law is within My heart” (Psalms 40:8). The Lord Jesus, made of a woman, made under the law, in His life of perfect obedience, doing the will of God, magnified the law, and made it honourable. The Propitiatory

Above the two tables was the Propitiatory, upon which the blood of atonement was sprinkled by the high priest once a year, when he entered into the holiest. First, with incense beaten small, which he put on the censer, from which a cloud covered the Propitiatory, a type of Christ entering the Holiest in the memorial of His life and character and walk and work on earth.

Then the high priest dipped his finger in the blood of the bullock, which had been slain without, and sprinkled it on the mercy-seat eastward. Why eastward? Because that was the line in which the worshippers must draw nigh as they entered. When God sees that blood of atonement, the way is clear for the worshippers to draw near. It seems to say, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like Crimson, they—shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). Scarlet seen through crimson appears white to view; so God looks upon the approaching worshipper through the crimson light of Christ’s atoning blood. Having sprinkled the blood once eastward beneath the eye of God, the priest sprinkles it seven times before the mercy-seat, for the eye of the worshipper drawing near. Thus we come right with God in full assurance of faith, knowing that we are welcome through the way of redemption there. The Propitiatory, therefore, sets forth Christ in His atoning death, as the tables in the Ark tell of His perfect life of obedience.

—Our Daily Homily