Where Is The Ark of the Covenant?

 

"Then God's temple in Heaven was opened, and within His Temple was seen the ark of the covenant. And there came flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder, and earthquake and a great hailstorm." (Revelation 11:19)

Bealel constructed the Ark of the Covenant. Bible scholars generally believe that between 605 and 586 B.C., Jeremiah hid the Ark of the Covenant in a cave to keep the advancing Babylonians from discovering it. In recent times, people have made claims purporting to know the location of the Ark. However, no one has revealed the Ark or its location. This is because the Ark of the Covenant is not on Earth. Instead, I believe God took the Ark to Heaven after A.D. 30. If Israel had accepted Jesus as the Savior, He would have remained on Earth after His resurrection and ruled from David's throne (Isaiah 9: 7) until God destroyed the Earth. As predicted in Ezekiel 40-44, the Ark would have been placed in a temple on Earth and Jesus would have served in it. When Israel rejected and crucified Jesus, the Father implemented an alternative plan and Jesus returned to Heaven. God took the Ark to Heaven about the time Jesus ascended because this new plan requires a temple in Heaven.

During the time of the seventh trumpet, God will reveal the Ark to the whole world in a glorious display. The timing of this event is as important as the event itself. Consider the following:

1. During the Great Tribulation, people will be unable to travel because of badly damaged infrastructure and gasoline supplies. They will be unable to communicate due to inoperable power grids. This isolation will separate people and nations into small geographic cells. There would simply be no purpose to reveal the Ark near Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation when very few people would hear about it and even fewer would get to see it. Revelation 11:19 predicts God will deliberately show the Ark from the sky at the seventh trumpet so that everyone on Earth can see it! A local discovery would not come close to fulfilling this global objective.

2. If someone finds the Ark of the Covenant on Earth prior to the Great Tribulation, it would be a sensational find, gaining worldwide attention for a few days. However, an archaeological discovery would not have the spiritual significance that goes with the display of the Ark at the seventh trumpet. The Ark would be considered a religious relic that belongs to the Jews. They would take the possession and immediately hide it from view the way they hid it in the temple's Most Holy Place during Bible times. Additionally, if someone finds the Ark before the Great Tribulation begins, it would have no moral or importance for most of the seven billion people on Earth. This is because most of mankind does not recognize God's Ten Commandments as God's will.

In fact, most Christians consider them to be part of the Jewish Religion in the same way a black stone mounted into the Kaaba's wall in mecca is considered part of the Muslim religion.

3. If the Ark of the Covenant is found prior to the Great Tribulation and no one is killed when touching it (1 Chronicles 13:10), this would prove the Ark is no longer holy and God's consuming power no longer rests upon the Ark. Many Christians would be confident the Ten Commandments were abolished at the cross. There would be no reason for God to show the Ark to everyone If He had abolished the Ten Commandments at the cross. The Ark is not an empty box. We know that from 1 Kings 8:9.

4. In Bible times, the only people permitted to touch the Ark were Kohath's descendants. Even an ordinary Levite was not permitted to touch it. If someone finds the Ark on Earth prior to the Great Tribulation, who would move or handle it? If God's consuming power no longer defends the laws which He wrote with His own finger, the stone tablets would be of interest only to archaeologists; not for what they declare, but because they show God's handwriting.

5. God could have easily removed the Ark from the Earth the same way He removed Enoch and Elijah. I believe since there will be a war over worship during the seven trumpets, God will show the Ark at the end of this war so everyone can see His laws are above all others. The saints who were persecuted for worshiping the Creator on His Sabbath, will have their faith affirmed when they see the Ark at the seventh trumpet. It will be an omen of God's coming wrath on the wicked, and they will see the box that contains the laws they refused to accept and willfully defied.

Understand, Jesus will not show the Ten Commandments at the seven trumpets because they are spiritual laws. (Romans 7:14) God's covenant promise is that he will write His laws in the minds and hearts of His faith-full people - those led by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:14) He will complete this process during the Great Tribulation when He removes the sinful nature (the sealing). If, during the Great Tribulation, a person wants to see what the Ten Commandments look like, he can study the lives of those who have the seal of God! When the wicked see the Ark in Heaven's temple, anxiety will torment them.

6. Jesus will mark the completion of the judgment of the living and the close of salvation when He displays the temple in heaven, because heaven is His seat of government. (2 Corinthians 5:10) Jesus will also show the Ark because it represents the law He uses to judge mankind. He wants the world to understand that he kept His covenant. Everyone who has the seal of God in his forehead will have the sinful nature removed and the Ten Commandments written in his heart and mind. God will destroy the wicked arbitrarily. The seven bowls will be legitimate judgments on the wicked because they willingly rejected the clearest evidences of God's will, defiantly refused to obey His laws, and unjustly persecuted and deliberately hurt His innocent saint during the Great Tribulation.

7. Finally, some people claim the Ark in the Earthy temple was a copy of the Ark in the heavenly temple. I cannot accept this argument because Jesus wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger on the two tablets of stone in the Ark of the Covenant. (Deuteronomy 10:4) This makes the stone tablets in the Ark of the Covenant on Earth originals, not copies. If the Ark with THE original Ten Commandments is still on Earth, revealing an Ark from Heaven would be an insignificant event. Jesus deliberately wrote on stone because they will endure for eternity.

These points are why I believe the Ark in heaven's temple is the only Ark that has ever existed; and if my conviction is true, it explains in part, why God has protected this one article of furniture with His glorious presence for millennia.

Was the Sabbath Created at Mt. Sinai?

Many Christians agree that the Ten Commandments are important and we should live according to them. However, when pushed to acknowledge the fourth commandment, they change their position, saying the Ten Commandments were abolished at the cross. Observing God's seventh day Sabbath rest creates a problem because those who keep it face all kinds of headwinds. Resting on the Sabbath is contrary to the ways of the world. Most Christians believe it is still a sin to steal, commit murder, commit adultery, worship idols, and take the name of the Lord's name in vain, they they will not admit that it is a sin to break the fourth commandment. They have not studied the Sabbath issue and are surprised to learn that God made the seventh day holy long before He wrote the Ten Commandments. He did not suddenly make the seventh day holy at Mt. Sinai. He made it holy Creation week! (Genesis 2: 1-3)

Some argue there is no record of anyone keeping the Sabbath before Mt. Sinai, but this is false. The Bible says Enoch and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 5: 22, 6:9) God did not hide His Sabbath day from them. In fact, Jesus probably walked with them on the Sabbath! I Believe this because Jesus said, "the Sabbath was made for man." It is unreasonable to think that our Creator made the Sabbath for man and did not tell him about it.

The Sabbath Renewed prior to the Exodus

God's Sabbath rest became a test of faith for Israel prior to Mt. Sinai! About 2,500 years after Creation Week, the Lord sent Moses to Egypt with this message to Israel's elders. If the Israelites want to be delivered from slavery, the Lord commands the Israelites to take a three day trip into the desert to meet with Him. Friday will be for travel, Sabbath will be used for worship and rest, and Sunday will be used for the return trip. During this festival, the nation of Israel must corporately recognize and worship the God of Abraham on His holy Sabbath and offer atonement sacrifices as required by the Lord. After the festival, the Israelites must cease working on the Lord's Sabbath. Although the Bible does not explicitly state these conditions, there is sufficient evidence to reveal these details. Notice the five passages:

1. "Afterward [after informing the elders of Israel of the Lord's plan and His commands and after considerable discussion among the elders about Pharaoh's response and after getting their agreement to proceed] Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, 'This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: "Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert." 'Pharaoh said, 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.' Then they said, 'The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.'"

2. Even though Pharaoh did not permit the Jews to take a three-day journey, the Israelites stopped working on the seventh day. When Pharaoh learned of this, he summoned Moses and Aaron to his court. He said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work! Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working." (Exodus 5: 4,5)

3. When the Israelites stopped working on God's Sabbath, they challenged Pharaoh's authority. Slaves are not permitted to dictate anything, including their work days or hours! From the economic point of view, Pharaoh did not want to kill his slaves. War comes with a price, both for the defeated and the winner. Therefore, to regain control over the situation, Pharaoh decided to increase the torture. Pain would teach the slaves obedience. Pharaoh continued to purchase straw from the Egyptian farmers, but no longer required the farmers to deliver the straw as before. Instead, the Israelites would be forced to go into the fields and gather straw, and Pharaoh made it perfectly clear they would have to produce the same amount of bricks. "The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, 'Complete the work required of you each day, just as when you had the straw.' The Israelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh's slave drivers were beaten and were asked, "Why didn't you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?'"(Exodus 5: 13,14)

4. Week after week, the torture went on. Some of the Israelite foremen appealed to Pharaoh to stop the harsh treatment saying, "'Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, "Make bricks!" Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your won people.' Pharaoh said, 'lazy, that's what you are-lazy! That is why you keep saying, "Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord."'" (Exodus 5: 16,17)

5. Even though Exodus 5 does not mention the holiness of the seventh day explicitly, there is no other reason for millions of slaves to be punished for resting other than resting from their work on God's holy day. "The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, 'You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.' When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, 'May the Lord look upon you and judge [condemn] you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.'" (Exodus 5: 19-21, insertion mine)

If you understand that God made the seventh day holy during Creation Week, the elements in this story are easy to discern. Resting on God's holy day was a condition for deliverance from slavery. Faith in God came with a price. Jesus tested the Israelites to see if they would obey Him. When a person is willing to suffer for what he believes is God's will, the Bible declares that person "lives by faith." (Romans 1:17) God tested the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace because they believed the second commandment forbade worshiping idols and God tested Israel when He required them to rest on the seventh day.

Larry Wilson

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