THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS PRESENTED IN THE ARK
THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS PRESENTED IN THE ARK
Exodus 25:10,11; Exodus 25:16,17; Exodus 25:21,22; Psalm 40:6-8; Psalm 73:1,2; Psalm 73:17,18; Numbers 10:33-36; Joshua 3:14-17; 1 Kings 8:6-11
I wish to say a word, dear brethren, as to the ark of the testimony and the ark of the covenant, knowing that everyone who loves our Lord Jesus Christ will take an interest in every glory in which He is presented to us.
The scriptures I have read in Exodus and the Psalms bear on the ark of the testimony, on Christ presented in that light. The last three bear on Christ viewed as the ark of the covenant. The ark of the testimony is almost always connected with the wilderness. It is not so on one occasion, in Joshua 4: 16, but in the main the ark of the testimony is connected with the wilderness, and that fits in with what we had before us this morning, when we were speaking of the testimony of the Christ having been confirmed amongst the Corinthians.
In Exodus 25 God proposes to His people, as having redeemed them and brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness, that in that position they should make Him a sanctuary that He might dwell among them. Then, as His thoughts were unfolded, it appeared that in that sanctuary He was to be served, and moreover that the sanctuary was to be carried in testimony throughout the wilderness journey. At every place where they stopped it was to be set up again complete, and the service of God connected with it was to be set up, and so throughout the whole of their wilderness journey they were entrusted with the privilege, and committed to the responsibility, of carrying this sanctuary in which God dwelt, setting it up according to His own requirements, defending it from every attack or intrusion upon it, maintaining in it all that was suitable and pleasing to God, and seeing that every feature of His service was functioning in it. Hence, you can well understand that it would constitute a very real testimony to God among the nations they might pass, or with whom they might come into contact during their journey from Egypt to Canaan, a very real testimony as to the character of the living God. Normally it would be seen that He had a dwelling amongst His people characterised by holiness, and that His people, with Him dwelling amongst them, constituted a living system characterised by sacrifice.
Now these are features which are to be seen amongst God’s people today. In Psalm 93: 5 it says, “Holiness becometh thy house, O Jehovah, for ever.” He has approached us by means of the precious death of Christ and we approach Him on that basis, and as under the influence of the way that God has come out to us in Christ, we ourselves become formed in love; so that Christianity is a system of constant sacrifice, not only in what we say to God, but more particularly in what we are as characterised by love. In this system, this sanctuary which the people of God were to provide for God’s pleasure, the first item in the instructions which Jehovah gave to Moses was the ark. As the instruction unfolded it became clear that the ark was the centre of the system, not literally the centre in a physical sense, in that it was actually in the most inmost place at the extreme end of the tabernacle, but it was the first item, the most prominent one, which God indicated in His instructions, and one, I think we may say, which was intended to give character to the whole of the rest of the system. As an example of that I may point out that not only was the ark of shittim or acacia wood, but the boards and bars of the tabernacle were also to be of the same wood; so also were the table and the two altars, so you will see that the system was intended to take character from the ark.
Another thing is to be noticed in connection with the ark viewed as the ark of the testimony, and that is, it is always, save possibly in the instance in Joshua 4, presented as covered; that is, either covered by the veil, being within the holiest and therefore to be seen only by one going into the holiest, or when the system was in movement, covered actually by the veil, for the priests had to go in and take down the veil and with it cover the ark of the testimony. It was then covered with a covering of badgers’ skins, and finally with a cloth wholly of blue. Thus covered it was carried. What I am seeking to point out is that the ark of the testimony is presented as hidden from view, and only to be apprehended by those who take up the exercise of going into the holiest, for only in the holiest could it be seen. That is important, because it is as we seek the presence of God that we gain some impression of Christ as the ark of the testimony: that is to say, it is not something that is open to public gaze; it is not something presented, so to speak, in the initial testimony of the gospel, but it is something which is to be cherished, and cherished by God’s people, for while in the old dispensation only the High Priest had access to the holiest and that but once a year, in Christianity the way into the holiest has been made open to us, and we are encouraged and exhorted in Hebrews to draw near and to enter the holiest. It is contemplated that we will make a practice of withdrawing into the presence of God, not for the purpose of making our requests known in relation to our own needs, not indeed necessarily for the purpose of praying at all, for the holiest itself is not connected with the thought of prayer, nor necessarily exactly connected with the thought of worship, though that would result, but more to contemplate what Jesus is and has established in the presence of God.
So I read Psalm 40:6-8 because the Lord in Spirit is presented as saying, “Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not desire: ears hast thou prepared me. Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not demanded; Then said I, Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me - To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart.” That gives us a clue to the idea of the ark of the testimony. It is Christ as having come into manhood with a view to establishing all that is in the will of God, and establishing it as cherishing it, as having it in His heart; not merely coming, so to speak, officially to do something as commanded to do it, but coming in as loving God’s will and devoting Himself to it. So we read that the ark was to be made of acacia wood; that is a particularly indestructible kind of wood capable of much endurance, signifying, I believe, the distinctive and holy character, the incorruptible character of manhood in which Jesus was found as having become Man; an order of manhood proved in the temptation in the wilderness to be wholly incorruptible, and therefore wholly capable of going through an evil world maintaining all that was due to God, and in no way deflected or corrupted by it. We, as having through redemption received the Holy Spirit, are capable of being formed after the same order of manhood; indeed, in the Spirit, we partake in it, and as, appreciating Christ and abiding in Christ, we may take character from it, so that we ourselves become incorruptible, as it says in John’s epistle, “We know that every one begotten of God does not sin, but he that has been begotten of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him,” 1 John 5: 18. It is a kind of answer in the saints to what the Lord said of Himself in John 14: 30, “The ruler of the world comes and in me he has nothing.”
When Christ came into this world He came in as cherishing all that was in the mind and heart of God to establish. He was going to carry it through and establish it whatever Satan or man might do, and the Lord carried through in triumph every item that was in the will of God. He surrendered nothing. In John’s gospel, we hear Him saying, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me and that I should finish his work,” John 4: 34. Then again at the close we hear Him saying, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it,” John 17: 4, showing that He had carried it through. What He had cherished in His heart He had completed. Not a single item of the will of God was left uncompleted. He went into death in order to establish the will of God for ever. In His death a basis was laid upon which God could effectuate His thoughts in mercy. So we find that upon the ark of the testimony was placed the mercy seat, and from that standpoint God would speak with Moses and communicate His mind to His people. Moreover, in the ark was to be placed the “testimony that I shall give thee.” It is once mentioned before the mercy seat is introduced and after the mercy seat is introduced it is mentioned again; it is set in the ark, “the testimony that I shall give thee.” I believe the bearing of that is that in answer to all that Satan brought into this world in introducing into God’s creation a will contrary to God’s will. God has first of all brought in in Christ One who loved His will and was governed wholly by it, and came in for the express purpose of effecting it, and then on the ground of mercy based in righteousness on His death. God is securing men of Christ’s order,
who likewise are governed by delighting in God’s will, and are regulated by no other. That means in the full result that we see in Christ in God’s presence the pledge of the bringing in and establishing of another world where the will of man in opposition to God is entirely set aside; a world composed of those who take character from Christ, and delight in God’s will, so it is a world in which God can dwell complacently.
So the testimony in regard of Christ now, as we have it in Ephesians is “He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” He has already gone up far above all heavens with a view to filling all things. There is nothing more striking than that. I urge the brethren to contemplate it that there is a Man now in the presence of God who is going to fill all things. Let the power of it sink into our hearts, that the day is near when there will be no longer room for anything that does not take character from Christ. What a day for God! The day of Christ in contrast to this present scene and all that marks it; a day when the whole universe will be filled with what takes character from Christ, and the greatest influence to bring that to pass will be the assembly, His fulness, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. I trust that what I have said will give you some little impression of what the ark of the testimony is. It is Jesus, known in the truth of His Person, a divine Person become Man, bringing into manhood an order of manhood wholly His own, a wholly incorruptible order of manhood, the great characteristic feature of which is that God’s will is delighted in, and God’s will is to be established. Moreover, He is apprehended as having already gone through death and triumphantly risen again and been exalted to the right hand of God, indeed, far above all heavens, and from that point He is going to fill all things. That being so, what is the effect of it upon us, dear brethren? This is an item that we carry in testimony, these things having place in our hearts’ affections. Obviously, one important result is that no other will than God’s will, nothing else but what is taking character from Christ, should prevail in the assembly. The bearing of the assembly at the present time as in testimony here is that it is a sphere where God dwells, and where all things that are going to obtain publicly in the world to come have their answer morally at the present time; hence the more we get the light of this in our souls, the more we shall be regulated by Christ in order to see that conditions in the assembly are, in fact, pleasing to God as governed entirely by His will.
Then there is another thing, and that is illustrated by Asaph in Psalm 73. It has its result in preserving us from becoming affected by influences that otherwise might have a harmful effect upon us in this world. Asaph was a godly man, but he says, “As for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped,” the reason for that being as he says, “I was envious at the arrogant, seeing the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs in their death, and their body is well nourished. They have not the hardships of mankind, neither are they plagued like other men.” Then in verse 13 he says, “Truly have I purified my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency: For all the day have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.” There is a child of God, one of God’s people, and he is conscious of what it is to be continually under discipline. Every one of God’s children is in greater or less degree under discipline; not necessarily chastening in a severe form, scourging because of failure on our part, but every parent knows that his children, while they are children, always have to be in greater or less degree under discipline; that is to say, there is a certain rule, involving sometimes limitations, which has to be maintained in the home for the instruction and preservation and development of the children. So with God’s children, every brother and sister, if he is sensitive, knows that in some way or other he is constantly conscious of God’s hand upon him, and necessarily so. We are conscious of the necessity for it, for we are to become partakers of His holiness. The more we understand God, the more we realise the necessity for it, but Asaph was feeling that he was plagued all the day long and chastened every morning. He looked upon the wicked and he saw their prosperity, apparently having no difficulties, and so on. That was the point of view that Satan was careful to present to Asaph. So powerful was the effect of this upon him that he said his feet had well nigh slipped until, as he says, “I went into the sanctuaries of God; then understood I their end.” That was his salvation; he went into the sanctuary of God. If we resort to the holiest, we shall get an apprehension of Christ in His ability to establish God’s will and bring in a world entirely according to Himself for the pleasure of God, and that means we see that this world, whatever conditions are like and however the wicked may seem to prosper for the moment, is bound to come to an end. You see the utter worthlessness of all that pertains to this world, if you have in your soul the light of One in a dominant position from which He will fill all things. That means the setting aside for ever of the system of things in which the wicked flourish. To have Christ in our hearts as the ark of the testimony is more than preservative; it gives us a right judgment as to what this world is morally, and enables us in a satisfied way to be completely apart from it, and wholly given over to the testimony of God to which we have been called.
Now I speak of Christ as presented in the ark of the covenant. The ark of the testimony, as I see it, is the One who enshrines a testimony which God is giving and which the saints are carrying, that a day is near when God’s will will be established publicly. The ark of the covenant is the one who enshrines and gives effect to all God’s thoughts of love concerning His people, and it is a very great thing to appreciate Christ in that light also, as the One who is powerful to make good every thought of love and blessing which God has formed regarding His people. I have read the three passages, in Numbers 10, Joshua 3 and 1 Kings 8, because they present the ark of the covenant in three positions. In Numbers we have Him as coming into view when the people of God first set out upon their first journey in the wilderness as committed to His testimony. In the second we have Him as the ark of the covenant as setting aside the power of Jordan so that God’s people might pass over into their inheritance. In the third passage He is brought into His final resting place and the glory of God fills the scene.
In Numbers 10 it is when the people were about to set out on their first journey as committed to the testimony. It says, “They set forward from the mountain of Jehovah and went three days’ journey; and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting-place for them.” Notice what is said, because often you hear it quoted that the ark of the covenant went three days’ journey before the people. That is not what is said. What is said is, that they went three days’ journey, and the ark of the covenant went before them in the three days’ journey; that is, the three days’ journey is their journey, only the ark goes before them in it to search out a resting place for them. I believe what is intended to be conveyed in this is, that we may well afford to commit ourselves thoroughly to the testimony of God in the wilderness whatever it entails, because the Lord Himself, in His love for us, will undertake everything that has to be encountered in relation to it. The three days’ journey would be a full experience of what it meant to be in the wilderness committed to God’s testimony. Two days would be a witness to it, but three days’ journey would be the full experience of it, a complete testimony to what it meant to be in the wilderness as identified with God’s testimony. It would mean testing, and rigour, and encountering enemies; it would mean all that, but then there is what the ark does entirely of itself: it moved out of its ordinary place in the midst of God’s people in their journeying; it leaves that place and takes a place in front of them and goes before them to search out a resting-place for them, and to meet every enemy that had to be met, a most touching thing.
So we read in John’s gospel, chapter 3, “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end.” That is the Lord taking account of the fact that His own were now to be left in this world in His absence. That would constitute the world a wilderness, and they were to be left in the wilderness entrusted with God’s testimony, and having that in mind, and knowing full well what the world was, the Lord set Himself to love His own right through to the end. That is most encouraging. Before we commit ourselves to God’s testimony in this world, there is one thing we may be assured of, and that is, that the love of Christ will see His people right through everything; whatever has to be encountered. He will encounter it; that is what the Lord would assure us of, and that is what this movement of the ark conveys. When they began their journey, as identified with God’s interests in this world, the ark went before them to search out a resting-place, to make sure that it is not all conflict, but that they should have resting-places, and in searching out a resting-place, to meet the enemy; as it says, “And it came to pass when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered; And let them that hate thee flee before thy face. And when it rested, he said, “Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel.” This was not the final resting-place that was in mind, the final place was Canaan, but this was a resting-place sought out while they were still in the wilderness, and I believe it has its answer in what the Lord’s supper affords to us on the first day of the week, for our position publicly is that we are in the wilderness committed to God’s testimony, and passing in it through all the exercises that are connected with it, but we appreciate that the Lord provides a resting place in that position, a place where, for the moment, we may lay aside the exercises connected with the testimony, and enjoy His love and the way His love would serve us, and we enter into that resting place in the sense of His complete victory over every enemy that has challenged His way. So the ark of the covenant represents in that way Christ as great enough to give expression and effect to all that is in the heart of God in regard to His people.
This, in Numbers 10, is only a provisional resting place while we are in the wilderness, but the great thought of God is that we should pass over into our inheritance, and finally that we should constitute His inheritance. Joshua presents to us our inheritance, while that which is arrived at under David and Solomon, in finality, represents God’s inheritance in the saints. So in the book of Joshua we have the ark presented to us again as the ark of the covenant, and it is presented as moving into Jordan, and it says,
“When they that bore the ark were come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (and the Jordan is full over all its banks throughout the days of harvest), the waters which flowed down from above stood and rose up in a heap, very far, by Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan; and those that flowed down towards the sea of the plain, the salt sea, were completely cut off. And the people went over opposite to Jericho.” This presents to us Christ as entering in irresistible power into death in all that death meant, in order to break its power and make a way through, so that God’s people should be able to pass over into the inheritance which God’s love had provided for them. It has been well said that the ark in Jordan is not so much expressive of the love of Christ, though, of course, love is there, but it is particularly expressive of power, the power that disposed of death. It says in Psalm 78: 61, “And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor”; that refers to the ark. Christ is the power and the glory of God, and that was seen particularly as He entered into death, for when the Lord Jesus went into death, all that was involved in death as the judgment of God and the power of Satan, all was concentrated there. “The Jordan is full over all its banks throughout the days of harvest.” It was overwhelming to anything else but the ark, but the ark moves into it, and as the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the edge of the water the waters went back, and the waters that flowed down toward the sea failed, and the people passed over; so no water was seen and the victory was complete, and that is exactly what we have in the light of Christ’s death and resurrection. It is true that it says here in verse 17 that the ark remained in the midst of Jordan until all the people had passed over, but that is rather to emphasise the completeness of the victory. For us the completeness of the victory is seen, not in Christ in death exactly, but in His resurrection, that is where death is seen to be completely overthrown.
The completeness of the victory which Christ has accomplished over death is to enter into our souls. We are to contemplate it, because what He has done has been in view of us. God having marked us out for an order of life and blessing which stands related to Christ beyond death; therefore, if we see Christ going into death as the power of God to dispose of death and overthrow it, and rising triumphantly out of death, we understand that He is setting out what is in God’s mind for us. It says in Colossians, chapter 2, “Ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead.” When we come together in assembly, and our hearts are freshly touched by means of the Lord’s supper, and He comes in in response to the affectionate desires of His own. He is able to present Himself as for ever beyond the power of death. That is an actuality. We are not yet actually risen but Christ is. The position is actually held by Christ, and faith apprehends that what has actually come to pass in Christ is God’s mind for us, so faith enters into it. Just as the people had to keep their eyes on the ark and to move, their movements being determined by the movements that they discerned in the ark, so we keep our eyes on Christ; not exactly Christ in death, but Christ as out of it, because the standing of the ark in Jordan until the people were passed over was to demonstrate the completeness of the victory, and that for us is seen in the position Christ has as risen from among the dead. So, not only is there faith in the operation of God who raised Him from the dead, but also, quickening comes in; there is power in our souls, as our affections are quickened in relation to Christ where He is. The element of power enters into this matter of passing over the Jordan, in that there were twelve men who had power each to take up a stone from the bed of the Jordan and to carry it to the other side. I only touch on this as that which enters into our passing over in assembly to take up our proper position with Christ; to enter upon the position that is ours according to God’s purpose. We are entitled in that position to view ourselves in the light of God’s purpose as wholly of Christ’s own order. God has quickened us together with Him, we who were in a state of moral death. This is witnessed to in the action of Joshua, who, doing it intuitively, took twelve stones and placed them in the Jordan; “in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant had stood firm; and they are there to this day,” Joshua 4: 9.
In closing I would refer to the passage in 1 Kings 8: 6, “And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Jehovah to its place, into the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim.” I believe it refers to the way the saints, as having their own part with Christ consciously as brought into the immediate presence of God, and enjoying their part with Him in sonship before the Father, are privileged to take account of Him, not now as on their side, which is what is typified in David and Solomon, but as the One by whom and in whom all God’s purposes of love have been secured. David and Solomon typify Christ on our side as Head, the One by whom we are introduced into the presence of God, and under whose direction and influence we have part in the service of God; but there is also another view of Christ, a glorious view, and that is typified in the ark of the covenant of the Lord in its final resting-place when everything is reached, and the saints are conscious of being holy and without blame before God in love in the liberty of sonship, and in the enjoyment of having part in the service of God. In that liberty we appreciate that all this has been in God’s mind, it is what His own love has purposed for His own satisfaction, and we appreciate Christ as the One who has been God’s power for the bringing to pass of all His pleasure. It is a question of apprehending the ark in His own glory when everything is reached, as directing attention to God as the One from whom all has emanated, and yet it is as though God would bring us into some apprehension of how He has Himself been dependent upon Christ for the effectuation of all His pleasure. You can understand what a glory Christ assumes in our eyes in that light; the ark of the covenant of Jehovah in His final resting place; all God’s thoughts brought to pass; the saints in the liberty and joy of it; God Himself receiving His portion from their hearts’ affections; and as in the enjoyment of all this, we are in the presence of God, the most holy place indeed, and privileged to apprehend One without whom God could not have effected His pleasure. In Him divine glory shines, and divine complacency is established. That, I believe, is the final thought in relation to the ark of the covenant of the Lord. So we can understand that it says, “When the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Jehovah, and the priests could not stand to do their service because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah,” 1 Kings 8: 10, 11. That is to say, God is so delighted with the results achieved for Him by our Lord Jesus Christ, the saints themselves rejoicing before Him and responsive to Him, that He claims the whole scene and His glory fills it.
I trust one has been able to convey some definite impression of these glories that attach to Christ, the ark of the testimony and the ark of the covenant.
I believe they will bear pondering and contemplating so that we may be enlarged in our appreciation of Christ, and enlarged also in our apprehension of the glory of Christianity, glorious from the point of view of the testimony we are carrying and glorious from the point of view of the holy privileges into which we are already able to enter in the power of the Holy Spirit under the hand of Christ.