10 ¶ And they
shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length
thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the
height thereof. 11 And thou shalt
overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt
make upon it a crown of gold round about. 12
And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four
corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in
the other side of it. 13 And thou shalt
make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 And thou shalt put the staves into the rings
by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them. 15 The staves shall be in the rings of the ark:
they shall not be taken from it. 16 And
thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. 17 And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure
gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half
the breadth thereof. 18 And thou shalt
make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two
ends of the mercy seat. 19 And make one
cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy
seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. 20 And the cherubims shall stretch forth their
wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall
look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
21 And thou shalt put the mercy seat
above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall
give thee. 22 And there I will meet with
thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the
two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of
all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.
A cubit, according
to some authorities, was a measurement that extended from a man’s elbow to his
fingertips. There are different cubits in the Bible. There is the cubit of a man which may allow for some
estimations without an absolute and precise standard based on the differences
in the sizes of men’s forearms.
Deuteronomy 3:11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the
remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was
a bedstead of iron; is it not
in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
But, there could
be a more exacting measurement of a cubit that wasn’t dependent upon the length
of an individual’s forearm. See in the next verse a measuring reed of a specific length to measure by.
Ezekiel 40:5 ¶ And behold a wall on the outside of the house
round about, and in the man’s hand a
measuring reed of six cubits long
by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building,
one reed; and the height, one reed.
If the standard
cubit was 18 inches long, as some say, then the Ark of the Covenant was nearly
four foot long but a little over two foot wide and two foot tall. Of course, a
longer cubit of, say, 22 inches, means a bigger Ark. It could have been nearly
five foot long and nearly three foot wide and tall.
Going on to
describe the covering of gold and the rings and staves by which the ark of the testimony was carried it is
stated that God is going to give something to Moses to store in it. The mercy
seat with two winged cherubims on each end was to adorn the top facing each
other. It is there that God chose to meet with Moses, to speak to him from, in
the tabernacle.
We see here the
definition of the ark of the testimony as
the place where all things which I will
give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel will be stored and
protected.
The ark of the testimony and its description
contains good teaching material for many sermons as, like our hearts and minds,
a place to hide God’s word, and as a token, as Matthew Henry put it, of God’s
meeting with us. The ark of the testimony
is like the believer’s heart and mind, complete with God’s word hid inside
and the mercy seat where, if God
truly dwells in your heart by virtue of your being born again, God meets with
you.
Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I
might not sin against thee.
We are God’s
temple, remember?
1Corinthians 3:16 ¶ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you?
1Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost which is
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
If we have the
Spirit of God inside of us.
John 14:23
Jesus answered and said unto him, 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.
Romans 8:9
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his.
The
kingdom of God that Jesus refers to is not a Christian nation with armies and
parliaments and policemen and fine church buildings. It is within the believers
uniting them as Christ’s church, His body on earth.
Luke
17:20 ¶ And when he was demanded of the
Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The
kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom
of God is within you.
Colossians
1:12 ¶ Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all
things consist. 18 And he is the head of
the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that
in all things he might have the
preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all
fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace
through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by
him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in
heaven. 21 And you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to
present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and
settled, and be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;
whereof I Paul am made a minister; 24
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is
the church…
This is how the God of the Bible meets with His people today as
opposed to how He met with Moses and the Hebrews here in Exodus. That is, if
you are truly His and didn’t just repeat a magic mantra that someone gave you
after emotionally manipulating you.
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