Bible Commentaries
Exodus 25

Verses 10-22

Seeing Christ in the Ark of the Covenant

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

After God had given commandment unto Moses to build the Tabernacle according to the pattern, which He had shown unto him; He commanded Moses to build the Ark. This Ark stands preeminently for the Lord Jesus Christ, as we shall discover in our lesson. The Ark was the first piece of the Tabernacle's furnishings to be constructed.

Man wants to begin the story of redemption with himself. God begins the story with the Lord Jesus Christ. This suggests to us a few very vital things.

1. It suggests that the redemptive story in its entirety began with God. It was God who purposed redemption and not man. In other words, it was God who was seeking to save the lost, and not the lost who were seeking to save themselves. Let us give you a few verses of Scripture on this line.

(1) A Scripture in Revelation 13:8 . The verse, in part, reads: "The Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." The foundation of the world, of course, preceded the creation of man. Adam was not created until the earth was formed, and everything necessary for the housing of Adam had been completed.

Therefore, we are sure that the Scripture above puts the plan of redemption before the creation of the man, who was to be redeemed.

(2) A Scripture in 1 Peter 1:18 , 1 Peter 1:19 . Our verse says: that the sinner is redeemed by the Blood of Christ, as a Lamb slain "from before the foundation of the world." This Scripture goes far back into eternity. In line with the verse in Peter, we quote a word in Peter's Pentecostal sermon. Peter said that Jesus Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

What we are seeking to make plain is that the instruction of the building of the Ark of the Covenant preceded the instructions relative to the other furnishings of the Tabernacle. In other words, Jesus Christ stands forth in His Deity before anything else which concerns man, and his redemption.

2. It suggests that God did not create man without knowing the fact that man would sin. God did know it, not only that man would sin, but He foreknew every reach of sin, all of its woes, and its sorrows. He foresaw the whole sweep and sway of sin's wreckage before He created man. For this cause He purposed and planned man's redemption through Jesus Christ our Lord, long before the world was.

Therefore, let us never go to the Cross itself, or to the hill of Calvary for our first vision of God's grace in redemption. Back of that Cross lay not only God's plan and purpose, but the eternal Son, Himself. It was in the beginning when Jesus Christ was with the Father coequal, and co-existent, that the Son, the Word, was both with God and was God.

Let us remember that the Christ of Calvary's Cross, was the One whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

I. THE ARK IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES STANDS FOR JESUS CHRIST IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US (Hebrews 9:24 )

Our verse in Hebrews tells us that Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

1. We must remember that the only piece of furniture in the Holy of Holies was the Ark. That Ark was a figure of the True, and it acclaims to us that Christ is now in the true "Holy of Holies, even in Heaven itself in our behalf.

2. Christ is in the presence of God for us.

(1) His presence with the Father reveals God's acceptation of His sacrificial work. Jesus Christ died in ignominy and in shame. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was despised and rejected of men. He was, however, taken up by the Father, and given a seat at His own right hand. He was there exalted, and given a Name that is above every name.

In other words, God has received into Heaven One who was made sin for us.

(2) His presence with the Father anticipates our possible approach unto Christ and to God in the eternities to come. When Jesus Christ died, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain, and the holiest of all, was left with unrestricted entrance to Blood-bought saints. Before the rending of the veil, the high priest himself, entered once a year into the holy of holies, but not without blood, which he offered both for his own sins and for the sins of his people. After the death of Christ, all believers have entrance unto God, but not apart from Blood. In other words, we may approach God, but that approach must be made by virtue of Christ, our Great High Priest, who by His Blood has given us access to God.

God pity those who imagine that they may have entrance into the holiest of all, apart from redemptive grace; and therefore apart from the Blood of the Cross of Christ.

II. THE ARK IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES STANDS FOR JESUS CHRIST, THE GOD-MAN (Exodus 25:10-11 )

1. The Ark was made of shittim wood. The peculiar wood used for the making of the ark was the most incorruptible of woods. Wood stands for Christ, clothed with a human body. He had a body that was never to see corruption.

The shittim wood grew in the desert. This brings to our memory the Scripture which says: "For He shall grow up before Him, as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground." There was nothing in the race from which Christ sprang to produce the Son of God.

2. The Ark was made of shittim wood covered with gold. Gold always represents, when used typically, the Deity of our Lord. Christ was holy. He knew no sin; He was without spot and blemish. When men beheld Jesus Christ they beheld God in the flesh. The Book of Hebrews describes Him as being the brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of His person.

We need to see in Jesus Christ the manifestation of God.

Have we not read, "No man hath seen God at any time; but the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him"? Jesus did not hesitate to say, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."

III. THE TABLES OF THE LAW WITHIN THE ARK OF TESTIMONY (Exodus 25:16 )

Inside the Ark of Testimony there were placed the tables of the Law, the pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. We are to speak of the Law written upon the two tables of stone.

1. The Law had been written by the finger of God when Moses was with God in the mount. This Law carried a twofold message. On one table were four commandments covering man's duties toward God. On the other table were six commandments covering man's obligations toward man. These Laws expressed the perfect demands of righteousness, by a righteous God. The only reason that the Law cannot save, is because it is weak through the flesh.

When the Law came sin revived. We had not known sin, excepting by the Law. The Law, in itself, was not death unto us, but it demonstrated that sin had wrought death within us. In other words, the Law made sin exceedingly sinful. Read Romans 3:19 , Romans 3:20 .

2. The Law was placed in the Ark because Jesus Christ was made of a woman and made under the Law. He, however, fulfilled every righteous demand of the Law. It was on this basis that He could be made sin for us.

God looked down at the Law from the midst of the cherubims, but He looked at it through the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy seat. Thus does the Father recognize that the saint is free from the curse of the Law because Christ was made a curse for us, and we stand before God clothed in His righteousness.

IV. THE POT OF MANNA WITHIN THE ARK OF TESTIMONY (Exodus 16:33-34 )

We remember how God said unto Moses, and how Moses said unto Aaron, "Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna, therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations." It was this pot of manna, which was placed in the Ark, and it bears witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is the sustenance of His people.

1. The pot of manna carries a parallelism with the bread, of which we partake at the Lord's Supper. We remember how the Lord said, "This is My body, which is broken for you." At the supper, He also said concerning the wine, "This cup is the New Testament in My Blood." It is through the Blood of Christ that we have eternal life. The life is in the Blood. When Christ, therefore, shed His Blood for us. He was the Good Shepherd, giving His life for the sheep.

On the other hand, the bread, descriptive of His broken body, stands for the sustenance of the life which we receive in redemption. We are aware of the fact that Christ said: "I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger."

There is a sense in which we begin to live as we eat of the Heavenly Manna. There is also a sense in which we are sustained in life, as we eat of the manna. God does not save us, and then leave us to famish and to die with hunger. The Lord said: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Thus, the Bread is the Word and the Word is Christ.

Let us thank God that He who begets us by the Word of Truth, desires us to partake of that same Word, that we may grow thereby.

V. THE ROD OF AARON WHICH BUDDED WITHIN THE ARK OF TESTIMONY (Hebrews 9:4 )

1. The budding of Aaron's rod, and the almonds which it bore suggests the high priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Aaron was chosen of God, given the place of authority and of power as the priest of God. Korah desired to usurp that priestly office. God rebuked Korah for this and at the same time, He placed His seal upon Aaron in the budding of the rod.

2. The budding of Aaron's rod being placed in the Ark suggests that Jesus Christ our High Priest is exalted by the Father. The antichrist, Korah-like, may seek to usurp the authority and power of the Christ and endeavor to enthrone himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, but the Lord will overwhelm him even as He overwhelmed Korah and will cast him along with his false prophet into the lake of fire. Jesus Christ shall then be acclaimed as a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

3. The budding of Aaron's rod encourages saints to approach the Father in the Name of the Risen Lord Jesus. It assures every believer that there is One clothed with all authority and power, both in Heaven and on earth, who is representing us in the courts of Heaven, and that He is managing our affairs for us. All human religions are dead sticks. Christ is Aaron's budding rod, because He rose from the dead, accepted by the Father.

The people after the budding of Aaron's rod dared not doubt His Divine appointment and power as the priest of God. Neither can the saints today who think of the Lord Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father, look upon Him as other than the accepted Lord, our Priest.

VI. THE MERCY SEAT THAT COVERED THE ARK (Exodus 25:21-22 )

Our verse says: "And thou shalt put the mercy seat above the ark; * * there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat."

1. We should remember that the mercy seat was made of pure gold. Once more we see the Deity of the Son of God. He who would deny the Virgin Birth must give to the world a Saviour of little worth. Jesus Christ claimed Deity when He said: "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world." He also said; "I and My Father are one."

Not only was the mercy seat covered with pure gold, but it was covered with beaten gold. The fact that the gold was beaten, carries with it the thought that it was God the Son who suffered for us. It was God the Son whose soul was made an offering for sin. It is by the stripes with which God the Son was beaten, that we are spared from the wrath to come.

2. It was at the mercy seat that the high priest came to sprinkle the blood. It is not the beautiful life of Christ, which saves us. It is the Blood of Christ which saves. A college president told us that his greatest aim was to teach the students of his university to walk in the footsteps of Christ the Nazarene. We said to him, "No man apart from the Blood of Christ, can walk in the steps of the God-Man." We must first be washed from our sins. We must next be empowered by the Holy Ghost, and then we will find that Christ risen and ascended will live out His life in us.

VII. THE CHERUBIMS WHICH OVERLOOKED THE MERCY SEAT (Exodus 25:20 )

1. The cherubim were formed with their faces looking one to another, toward the mercy seat. What did they see? They saw beneath the mercy seat, as it were, a Law which we have broken, but a Law which Christ had kept. They saw the manna and the rod that budded. They saw all of this through a mercy seat, on which the blood was sprinkled. As ministers of judgment, the cherubims had once been placed at the east of the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Think you, therefore, that sinners in their sins, could stand under the gaze of these holy ones? We answer, "Never, unless between them and God, is the shed Blood." The cherubims, therefore, looking down upon the mercy seat could easily be ministers of blessing, as well as ministers of praise.

The same angels who are ministers of judgment upon the ungodly, are ministers of mercy and of grace toward those who are redeemed, and under the Blood.

2. It was between the cherubims and the Ark with its mercy seat of beaten gold that God came to meet with His people. How marvelous it is that we can draw nigh to God by the Blood of the Cross. It is, however, just as truly marvelous that God draws nigh to us by the Blood of the Cross.

Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Yet, such a hallowed fellowship is ours only as we stand sheltered by the Blood.

AN ILLUSTRATION

As the Ark led the way of old; so let Christ go before us. A west-bound Atlantic steamer was having a serious time in the dense fog off the coast of Newfoundland; The. officers had completely lost their bearings; they knew well they were in treacherous waters, and for three days crew and passengers were filled with anxiety and suspense. On the fourth day the ship, from main deck to steerage, rang with cheers. Out of the thick gloom a little sloop had come bearing a pilot and, as the great grizzled master of the seas clambered up the distressed vessel's side and took the wheel, both passengers and crew knew deliverance had come. Can you imagine them refusing to take the pilot on! What folly to sail uncertain waters without a pilot!

To sail life's sea without the Great Pilot on board is a sad and serious mistake. In the experiences of student life, in the days of apprenticeship, in commercial, in political and in domestic life there are problems to be solved, dangerous situations to be met and temptations of every sort to be overcome, Whatever else you do, don't start out without the Pilot and don't drop Him when well out to sea. Remember that you will need Him most when crossing the bar and amid the breakers of the farther shore.

"Jesus, Saviour, pilot me,

Over life's tempestuous sea;

Unknown waves before me roll,

Hiding rocks and treacherous shoal;

Chart and compass come from Thee,

Jesus, Saviour, pilot me."

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