Randy Suits

The Lost Arc of the Covenant

My covenant life spouse,

Much has been made of the disappearance of the Israelite Arc of the Covenant made by craftsmen in the pattern shown to the prophet Moses on the mountain when he received the Ten Commandments. Built by Bezaleel in about 1250 BC, it was believed to be the embodiment of God himself. They carried the arc before them as they travelled in the desert during the 40 year penalty on those aged 20 years and over for unbelief when God wanted to lead them into the promised land. (They faithlessly believed the ‘evil report’ (see Numbers 13: 30-33). After God wrote the ten commandments on the 2 stone tablets, the Israelites built the Arc of the Covenant and the Tabernacle of the Covenant in which to house it. The Tabernacle stood in the center of the camp. When the cloud of the witness of God moved, the Levite Tribe would disassemble the tabernacle, cover the Arc and follow until the cloud came to rest. (The Arc could only be carried by the Levite priests, emblematic of Christians who are believer priests. Also the physical arc had to be carried on poles whereas the spiritual arc of Christ is forever internalized and carried about in our being) They would pitch camp, reassemble the tabernacle and place the Arc in the veiled Holy of Holies. It remained a center piece of worship until Nebuchaddnezar invaded Judea 500 years before Christ. Just before that event occurred, according to tradition, Jeremiah ran into the temple, into the holy of holies and rescued the Ark of the Covenant. He spirited it away and buried it, together with the 2 stone tablets it contained and on which God had written the Ten Commandments. The location of this burial, many scholars claim, is in a cave at the banks of the Dead Sea. God buried the Arc, through the actions of the prophet Jeremiah, and has not uncovered it. The birth of His Son Jesus Christ brought a new dispensation in which Christ himself was all and everything a believer needed to approach God. The physical arc of the covenant is replaced with an eternal spiritual arc of Jesus our Savior and brother. An arc of perishible elements was replaced by an eternal Arc of redemption. The lost arc of the covenant is, in Christ, a living, eternal vehicle of communion and communication with God the Father. We no longer need the material lost arc of the covenant because we have a better spiritual arc; eternal in the presence of the Most High God.

Happy in Christ the eternal Arc, Kochany