Friday, December 6

SOMEONE IS MERCIFUL: THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

Exodus 25:10-22                    Hebrews 9:4                          2Cor. 3:18

          “Behold!  See!  Open your eyes and look upon Me with wide-open gaze!  I, the LORD, long to be seen and known!”  The LORD’s voice thunders over the waters!  There’s a trumpet blowing today!  There’s an alarm sounding in His Holy Mountain, even now!  As we follow the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, do you see God’s great longing to be seen and known by His creatures?  And what great extents He goes to in order to show us Himself!  Truly He is the man who lights a candle and does not put it under a bushel, but puts the light—the revelation of Himself—on a candlestick, that He may be seen by all who enter His house. (Luke 11:33)

     Do you see Mercy manifesting Himself here, as He gives us the beautiful ark of the Covenant—a copy of something, even Someone—in heavenly places?  We’ve already seen two other arks—the ark of Noah and the ark of Moses—and they began a pattern that emphasizes the awesome truth revealed now in the ark of the Covenant.  The ark of Noah was covered within and without with pitch, a symbol of the saving blood of Jesus Christ.  This speaks of the complete renewing work the LORD purposes to do in us through our submission to the cross in new birth and sanctification.  He will give us a new heart and will put His law within us, resulting in both inward and outward purity and obedience.  Next, we see the ark that carried the infant Moses to safety.  It was daubed on the outside with tar, which speaks of the outward work of the law, creating the desire in us, even as sinners, for legal morality and doing right, and that produces in us an erroneous belief that we’re saved.  But Moses didn’t stop there!  He surrendered his will to the LORD and responded to God’s revelation, and set before us the ark of the Covenant.  In this beautiful symbol, truly we do see Someone Special!  The wooden box portrays the humanity of Christ.  Then, once again, it is covered within and without, but this time, with gold—revealing the absolute conformity of the will of Jesus, Son of Man, to the perfect will of the Father.  Oh, what mercy is revealed to us here as we are given vision to see our Savior!  Christ is the fulfillment of the law—the stone tablets within the ark.  Christ is the fulfillment of the Word of God—the manna within the ark.  Christ is the fulfillment of the priestly office—Aaron’s rod within the ark.  And He is all this within our hearts, producing changed lives without.  Here’s the place of true salvation, shown under the mercy seat of Almighty God!  Pure gold!  Pure Son of Man!  Perfectly fitted to reign in our hearts!  Perfect portrayal of the required relationship between God and man!  Even as Christ Jesus is that portrayal, so we, as we are conformed to His image by His indwelling Spirit given in new birth and baptism in Holy Ghost and fire, will become the perfect portrayal of that heavenly relationship as well!  As Jesus Christ accomplishes this miraculous work in us, who were so horribly defiled by sin and self, truly He will be known by all as Someone Special.  See Him!  To Him be all praise and honor and glory, now and forevermore!

~ Cindy Warren