ark of the testimony – Praying Pint

56.c. Jos 4:9-24

Jos 4:9-24 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day. For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste. And when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the LORD and the priests passed over before the people. The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the people of Israel, as Moses had told them. About 40,000 ready for war passed over before the LORD for battle, to the plains of Jericho. On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life. And the LORD said to Joshua, “Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.” So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before. The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

When all were over, then came the twelve and Joshua, who would spend some time in gathering the stones and rearing the memorial in the river-bed. Through all the stir the ark was still. Over all the march it watched. So long as one Israelite was in the channel it remained, a silent presence, to ensure his safety. It let their rate of speed determine the length of its standing there. It waited for the slowest foot and the weariest laggard. God makes His ‘very present help’ of the same length as our necessities, and lets us beat the time to which He conforms. Not till the last loiterer has struggled to the farther shore does He cease by His presence to keep His people safe on the strange road which by His presence He has opened for them.

The form of the miracle was a condescension to weak faith, to which help was ministered by giving sense something to grasp. It was easier to believe that the torrent would not rush down on them when they could look at the priests standing there motionless, with the visible symbol of God’s presence on their shoulders. The ark was no more the cause of the miracle than were its carriers; but, just as Jesus helped one blind man by laying moistened earth on his eyes, and another by sending him to Siloam to wash, so God did here. Children learn best when they have something to look at. Sight is sometimes the servant of faith.

The 12 stones preached at once the duty of remembering, and the danger of forgetting, the past mercies of God. When they were reared, they would seem needless; but the deepest impressions get filled up by degrees, as the river of time deposits its sands on them. We do not forget pain so quickly as joy, and most men have a longer and keener remembrance of their injurers than of their benefactors, human or divine. The stones were set up because Israel remembered, but also lest Israel should forget. We often think of the Jews as monsters of ingratitude; but we should more truly learn the lesson of their history, if we regarded them as fair, average men, and asked ourselves whether our recollection of God’s goodness to us is much more vivid than theirs. Unless we make distinct and frequent efforts to recall, we shall certainly forget ‘all His benefits.’ The cultivation of thankful remembrance is a very large part of practical religion; and it is not by accident that the Psalmist puts it in the middle, between hope and obedience, when he says ‘that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments’

The dullest would understand what had wrought the miracle when they saw the immediate consequence of the ark’s leaving its place. Cause and effect seldom come thus close together in God’s dealings; but sometimes He lets us see them as near each other as the lightning and the thunder, that we may learn to trace them in faith, when centuries part them. How the people would gaze as the hurrying stream covered up their path, and would look across to the further shore, almost doubting if they had really stood there that morning! They were indeed ‘Hebrews’-men from the other side-now, and would set themselves to the dangerous task before them with courage. ‘Well begun is half done’; and God would not divide the river for them to thrust them into a tiger’s den, where they would be torn to pieces. Retreat was impossible now. A new page in their history was turned. The desert was as unreachable as Egypt, The passage of the Jordan rounded off the epoch which the passage of the Bed Sea introduced, and began a new era. (MacLaren)

46.f. “Wilderness” – 10.l. “This was the dedication offering”

Num 7:84-89 This was the dedication offering for the altar on the day when it was anointed, from the chiefs of Israel: twelve silver plates, twelve silver basins, twelve golden dishes each silver plate weighing 130 shekels and each basin 70, all the silver of the vessels 2,400 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, the twelve golden dishes, full of incense, weighing 10 shekels apiece according to the shekel of the sanctuary, all the gold of the dishes being 120 shekels; all the cattle for the burnt offering twelve bulls, twelve rams, twelve male lambs a year old, with their grain offering; and twelve male goats for a sin offering; and all the cattle for the sacrifice of peace offerings twenty-four bulls, the rams sixty, the male goats sixty, the male lambs a year old sixty. This was the dedication offering for the altar after it was anointed. And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him.

Each tribe offered a silver platter and a silver bowl (each holding a grain offering), and a gold pan holding incense. Along with these they were also to present one bull, ram, and a lamb as a burnt offering; a goat as a sin offering; along with two oxen and five rams, goats, and lambs as a peace offering. “The altar was the focal point of daily worship, and it was therefore appropriate that when it was dedicated a representative from every tribe should offer all the regular sacrifices. It set a precedent and demonstrated that the worship was for every tribe and supported by every tribe.”

These identical offerings were offered over twelve days, with one day set aside for one of the tribes. To us, this may seem like meaningless repetition in this longest of all the chapters in Numbers. Nevertheless, God had several important reasons for this.

· To show that each tribe pledged their allegiance to Yahweh; that they each supported the work of the tabernacle and the priesthood, and the system of sacrifice commanded by God and carried out by the priests.

· To show the importance of each individual tribe, giving each tribe its own day of celebration and attention. These tribes were all related, but different – and each of them was important to God and should be regarded as important among Israel as a whole. Each tribe would receive attention, like each graduate at a commencement ceremony.

· To show the importance of each individual gift, giving full attention to every tribe’s gift. Every gift mattered.

· To show that God wanted to be approached with some degree of organization and order. The tribes came in a specific order, the same order that they were organized for marching through the wilderness.

· To show that at God’s altar, every tribe came as an equal. No tribe was better than the others at the altar for atonement, dedication unto God, and fellowship with the LORD.

The repetition of these offerings over twelve days gave a sense of ritual and ceremony to the participation of the tribes at the tabernacle. Ceremony and ritual have some place among the people of God. Different parts of the broader Christian family may debate the degree of emphasis on the role of ceremony and ritual, but it is undeniable that there is some place for ritual and ceremony in the gatherings of God’s people.

Clearly, this was generous giving. God must show Promised Land people how to be givers – one of the best measures of one who has moved from a slave mind-set to a Promised Land mind-set. The slave by nature is a taker because he is often unsure of provision. Promised land people are generous, because they trust in a God who promised to meet all their needs.

We rarely read in the Bible of exactly how God spoke to Moses. Here, at the tabernacle, we see that it was in an audible voice, not merely an impression in the mind. “This is perhaps the one instance in which we have a clear statement that in communing with God, Moses did actually hear a voice. The communications which he received were more than subjective impressions; they were objective expressions. “There is no form or visible manifestation, no angel or being in human likeness, representing God. It is only a Voice that is heard.” (Guzik)

44.g. “Wilderness” – 8.n. “Tabernacle” – “Holy Place”, and “Most Holy Place”

Exo 26:1 “Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.

Exo 26:31-35 “And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place. And you shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table, and you shall put the table on the north side.

“When God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt,” says the very learned Dr. Cudworth, “resolving to manifest himself in a peculiar manner present among them, he thought good to dwell amongst them in a visible and external manner; and therefore, while they were in the wilderness, and sojourned in tents, he would have a tent or tabernacle built, to sojourn with them also. – Now, the tabernacle being thus a house for God to dwell in visibly, to make up the notion of dwelling or habitation complete, there must be all things suitable to a house belonging to it. Hence, in the holy place, there must be a table and a candlestick, because these were the ordinary furniture of a room. The table must have its dishes, and spoons, and bowls, and covers, belonging to it, though they were never used; and always be furnished with bread upon it. The candlestick must have its lamps continually burning, etc.”

The plans for the tabernacle were revealed to Moses from the inside out, starting with the interior furniture and then working out. We approach the sanctuary from the outside in, but God builds the sanctuary from the inside out. He works in His people according to the same pattern.

The veil separated the tent into two compartments. The first compartment was the holy place, which was the larger room, first entered, with the table of showbread, the lampstand, and the altar of incense. The second compartment was the Most Holy place, a smaller room with the Ark of the Covenant.

i. This veil was a barrier, and no priest could go beyond the veil into the Most Holy place except the high priest. He could only enter once a year, and that on the Day of Atonement.

ii. Spiritually speaking, in dying for our sins Jesus with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12).

iii. In the temple, this veil was torn from top to bottom at the death of Jesus (Matthew 27:51), showing that through His death, there is no longer a barrier to the Most Holy place. (Guzik)

44.e. “Wilderness” – 8.l. “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat”

Exodus 25:10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.

Exodus 25:22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

The ark, a wooden chest three feet nine inches long, two feet three inches broad, and two feet three inches deep. The primary object of the ark was to contain the two tables of stone, written with the finger of God, which Moses was to receive before he came down from the mount. (Ellicott)

The ark was a chest or coffer, in which the two tables of the law, written by the finger of God, were to be placed. If the Jewish cubit was, as some learned men compute, three inches longer than our half yard, (twenty-one inches in all,) this chest or cabinet was about fifty-two inches long, thirty-one broad, and thirty-one deep; it was overlaid within and without with thin plates of gold; it had a crown or cornice of gold round it; rings and staves to carry it with; and in it he must put the testimony. The tables of the law are called the testimony, because God did in them testify his will; his giving them that law was in token of his favour to them, and their acceptance of it was in token of their subjection to him. This law was a testimony to them to direct them in their duty, and would be a testimony against them if they transgressed. (Benson)

The ark was a chest, overlaid with gold, in which the two tables of the law were to be kept. These tables are called the testimony; God in them testified his will. This law was a testimony to the Israelites, to direct them in their duty, and would be a testimony against them, if they transgressed. (Henry)

And there I will meet with thee,…. With Moses, and so with the high priest in later times, when he should enter into the holy of holies, and with the people of God as represented by him, when he should go in and inquire for them of the Lord: and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim; converse with him and them about whatsoever they should apply unto him for, these being the symbols of the divine presence: hence the Lord is frequently described as “dwelling between the cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony”; that is, which cherubim are upon it, being on the mercy seat, which was the cover of it; or rather “which is upon” (s), which mercy seat is upon the ark of the testimony, as it properly was; and here the Lord promises to commune of all things which I shall give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel: what they shall do, respecting those things which by Moses, or the high priest, they should inquire the mind and will of God about: this may signify that the way to communion with God lies through Christ, the mercy seat and propitiation, through his blood and righteousness, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; and the encouragement to it is from him, our great high priest, and from his propitiatory sacrifice; and the enjoyment of it is through him; our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ; God speaks to us by him, and reveals himself in him. (Gill)

There is much that could be said about the Mercy Seat, the Holiness of God, and the Sinfulness of Sin. Through God’s great mercy, grace, and love, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from eternal separation and torment. Through God’s great mercy, grace, and love, Jesus Christ freely gave His life and paid the price for our sin(s). Though we deserve death, and while we were yet sinners, Jesus gave his life for us. It is in this merciful act of love that we find salvation, faith, hope, and reliance for eternal life.

1. Written with the finger of God / To be kept as a sign against rebels

Exodus 16:31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. (An omer is the tenth part of an ephah.)

Exodus 25:16     And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.

Exodus 25:21     And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you

Exodus 30:6   And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you.

Exodus 31:18    And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Exodus 38:21    These are the records of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were recorded at the commandment of Moses,

Exodus 40:20     He took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above on the ark.

Numbers 1:53     But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel. And the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.”

Numbers 17:10    And the LORD said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die.”

Put into the are the testimony that I give you. The tablets, an omer of manna, and the staff. These were to be reminders of God’s mighty power displayed before all of Egypt and Israel. God’s provision for 40 years, and God’s commandments. These were a constant reminder before the people and were declared by God as a testimony to His chosen. They were to keep people from forgetting all that God had done and by application what He can do.

I think about the Bible, His written word, given to us with much more testimony about Him, His love for us, His plan for us, His expectations of us, His desire for us, His provision for us, and eternity. Isn’t amazing how He reaches out to His creation with such caring love. Isn’t it awesome that He not only gave his written word to us but also as it is written in

Do not allow complacent neglect to have any part of your heart, mind, and soul. Be intentional in your full commitment to humbly serve, honor, glorify, worship, follow, and obey Him.

We have been given a great testimony to believe and proclaim.