THE ARK OF THE TESTIMONY
[p. 54] THE ARK OF THE TESTIMONY
Exodus 25:10 - 16; Numbers 10:33 - 36; Joshua 3:3,4; Joshua 3:14-17
Our subject tonight is really a part of what we had before us last evening. We dwelt on the ark of Noah, occupying ourselves chiefly with its dimensions, as pointing to the greatness of Christ as Man. It was said to Noah, “Make thyself an ark”, Genesis 6:14 pointing to Christ as on man’s side, and embracing in His mind and heart all the thoughts of God, all the objects of divine consideration, and carrying all through against all contingencies, including death itself, into the new world, the world in which God smelt a sweet savour, and in which He said, “While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease”, Genesis 8:22 a fixed order of things.
Now, what is before us tonight is the ark of the covenant. It is that in which God sets out His testimony — another side of the truth. He does not say to Moses, Make thyself an ark. It was not made exactly for the people. It is habitually called the ark of the covenant, or the ark of Jehovah, or the ark of God. Sometimes it is referred to simply as the ark, but it is never spoken of as the ark of the people.
Now I need not suggest that we are dealing with a very great subject, and the Lord’s help is needed peculiarly that we may dwell upon it in a true priestly way, for in dealing with the ark all other hands were shut out save those of the priest. As carrying it the Levites are called priests in Joshua, for it requires hallowed hands to touch it. But, nevertheless, it is to be touched. John leaned on the bosom of Christ, for the love that is there casts out fear; but in casting out fear from our hearts He qualifies us by self-judgment, by the Spirit of holiness [p. 55] by the Spirit of truth, to have to say intimately to the ark. John says again in his epistle, “That ... which we have heard, which we have seen ... and our hands have handled”. 1 John 1:1. You see what a priest he was, and so it is he, I apprehend, whom the Spirit of God employs to set out Christ as the great antitype of the ark. It is not Christ, as I have said, on our side, but on God’s side.
John begins in his gospel by presenting the Lord. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, John 1:1. He is about to present Christ as having been not only God, but with God, in order that God should be rightly presented to us; being with Him is held in prominence. And so as regards the Holy Spirit coming out, He is sent by Christ as having been with the Father (John 15:26). He goes forth, the Lord says, “from with the Father”. Then again, John the baptist was a man sent from God. These passages express what was in the mind of the Spirit in John’s gospel. He says, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father)”, John 1:14. Then again, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” John 1:18. It is from the divine side. We have to grasp the idea at the outset in John’s gospel, if we are to understand the whole gospel, namely, that the Lord is presented from the divine side, and is so to be apprehended by us if we are to understand Him as the ark of the covenant.
What comes out immediately in John is the suggestion of the measurements of the ark of the covenant. Although so great, the Lord came into exceedingly small circumstances. What He is in His Person is announced at the very outset. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word [p. 56] was God. Without Him was not one thing made that was made. The great fact of His Person is laid down in the plainest possible terms so that it should lay hold of our souls from the beginning, and then we can follow the Lord into the small outward circumstances into which He was pleased to come. The measurements of the ark of the covenant were small. The measurements of the ark of Noah were large. But when we are directed to the Person of the Lord, we are reminded that He is divine, that He is no less than God Himself, and being that, He can come into the very smallest circumstances, and we follow Him into those circumstances with hallowed minds, reverential minds. We learn to take off the shoes from our feet, so to speak. We learn the sacredness of the Person and the surroundings. John says, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. John 1:14. He does not say, ‘became man’. He says, “became flesh”. That includes the Lord as a babe, as it includes Him as a boy, and as a man. He was as much in flesh as born in the manger as He was when He was witnessing in the power of the Spirit in His ministry.
How it bows the heart, beloved, as one contemplates that great Person — He who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man hath seen nor can see, the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the blessed and only Potentate, who in His time shall show that He is King of those that rule, the Lord of those that exercise lordship — that He should become flesh, that He should be pleased to come into such small circumstances! And yet the Person remains what He was, what He is, and what He shall be, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and for ever! All this bows the heart, as I said.
And so in that condition the loved one says by the Spirit, We contemplated Him, we contemplated His glory. Have you done it, beloved? Have you by [p. 57] the Spirit, humbly and holily and abstractedly contemplated the glory of that One who has become flesh? It is as become flesh that He is contemplated. As dwelling in light unapproachable I could not contemplate Him, but He has become flesh; I can contemplate Him, but it is as an only One with a Father. It is a great thing to learn how to contemplate. It is not a passing glance; your heart is arrested, your mind is arrested. As of old Moses turned aside to see a great sight. What was the great sight? A bush burning and the bush not consumed. What kind of a bush? A thorn bush. But Jehovah, the I AM of Israel, was there. He was in the bush, and as Moses turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush. God is to be apprehended in those outwardly small circumstances. When Moses turned aside to see, God spoke to him, and He says, “Moses, Moses”; Exodus 3:4 as much as to say, You are to be recognised now.
Beloved, have we turned aside to see this great sight, the eternal God become flesh? The voice says to Moses, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground”. Exodus 3:5 Then follows a wonderful communication. Moses inquires as to what he should say to the people: who had sent him? God says, “Thus shalt thou say ... I AM hath sent me unto you”. “I AM THAT I AM”. Exodus 3:14. The eternal God, the self-existent One, had come into the bush. And so in John 1 the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He came not only into manhood but into ordinary human circumstances. It was not a passing visit; He dwelt among us. God came into our circumstances to be seen of men, to be apprehended. And John says immediately, “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, John 1:14 not now the burning bush, but One, as Man, in the affections of the Father In Luke He is in Simeon’s arms. He is on our side. We are entitled to appropriate Christ, as in Luke He is on our side. But in John He is in the Father’s arms, so to speak. God claims Him.
Then in verse 18, “No one has seen God at any time”. Now we come to the direct reference to the Person: “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. John 1:18 It is not there, ‘was in the bosom of the Father’, but as meaning that He is where the love is. Does that not touch your heart? He is where the love is. It is the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father; and the passage was written long after the ascension of Christ to heaven. It is therefore the present moment. The declaration is past, of course; He hath declared Him.
There are powers in this world at the present time that are seeking to shut out the love of God from this world. They are seeking to shut out the light of it from men’s hearts. So you find in the book of Revelation (chapter 15), angels come out of the temple and they are girt about the breasts with golden girdles. They are given the seven vials of divine wrath to pour out upon the world. In chapter 16 the world as we know it is dealt with by these executors of divine wrath. The explanation is evidently that the world has shut out the love of God. Organised opposition in this world is the most potent of all opposition, and the world is intensely organised, religiously, socially, and, I may say, commercially, to shut out the love of God and make it ineffective in the heart of man. God resents it.
John the baptist says, as he sees the Lord coming to him, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. John 1:29 Now we have a diminutive expression, a sacrificial expression. It is not a bullock or goat. It is a lamb, a creature that conveys [p. 59] what is diminutive and precious. Such was Christ in this world as the antitype of the ark of the covenant.
Then again the next day John looks upon Him as He walks, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God!”. John 1:36. One so delightful to God, so infinitely precious, so intrinsically precious to God; John’s heart is full. Have our hearts been full as we contemplate Christ, as in John’s gospel, come into such small circumstances so as to be within our range? The Lamb. You will remember how the lamb of old was to be in the house of the Israelites from the tenth day to the fourteenth day of the first month before it was slain. It was there so that every inmate of the house should come to regard it according to its true worth, and so is the Lamb in the gospel of John.
I have said all this as amplifying the idea of the measurements of the ark. The measurements are two and a half, by one and a half, by one and a half cubits. What I understand is, that the half applies to the Lord as being much less outwardly than inwardly when in the world. What I have said indicates it plainly. The Lord was greater inwardly than He appeared outwardly, and if you follow from the outset, having the fact clearly in your soul that He is a divine Person, you will be drawn to Him. In love He was pleased to humble Himself, making Himself of no reputation. He sits on Sychar’s well. The Holy Spirit tells us He was wearied with His journey. That is not a mere incident that might easily be left out. It is placed there by the Spirit to call our attention to the reality of the circumstances and conditions into which Christ came. The woman who had come from the city to draw water contemplated Him simply as a Jew. True enough He accepted the fact that He was a Jew. He says, ‘We know what we worship’. Think of the Lord saying that! “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews”, John 4:22.
[p. 60] But is that all? No. He says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. John 4:10. There you come to the Lord’s formal recognition of the dimensions of the ark. He was ostensibly a Jew, a wearied man. But who was He? If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is. You have to come to that if you are to know Christ. We have to apprehend Him in His personal greatness, although in these circumstances. As knowing this, the woman would ask of Him. What would He have given her? Living water. God was before her; the whole testimony of God was there. He says to Nicodemus, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen”. John 3:11 He could speak of the heavenly things. All the thoughts of God regarding the earth could be unfolded and were unfolded, and all the thoughts of God as to heaven.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”, John 3:16. That was the testimony. It was in that blessed Man, who was regarded as so insignificant in man’s eyes. The ark was covered with gold inside and outside. The shittim wood denoted what I have been saying, that the Word had become flesh, but in John’s gospel it is not so much a question of His humanity, but that God was expressed there: the gold was inside and outside; all that was seen was gold. So that when Christ was seen by Nicodemus the testimony of God was there.
Now I wanted just in closing to dwell on the passage in Numbers to show how, as the ark of the covenant, He has the saints in view. It is said that they moved from the mountain of the Lord, and as [p. 61] they moved out the ark of the covenant went before to find a resting-place for them. That is a feature that is extremely interesting as pointing to the love of God for the saints. There is the love of God to the world, which is universal. But John’s epistle speaks of the love of God to the saints, and so, as the saints move the ark goes before them to find a resting-place.
What you get in John’s gospel, almost immediately, is, As many as received Him, to them gave He the title to take the place of children of God. Love would give us that place. It is a question of the love of God, and that love doing its utmost for the saints. Hence, as many as received Him were given the title to take the place of children of God. And the covenant is, Behold, what manner of love; it is the manner of the love that God has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. Then in chapter 20, where we see the ark out of Jordan, out of death, the Lord comes into the midst of the company and gives them rest. As He is going down to the Jordan the enemies are there in full force, and He inquired from them whom they sought. They say, “Jesus of Nazareth”. He says, “I am he”, John 18:5 literally it is ‘I am’. The enemy’s forces went backward and fell to the ground. But He says, “If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way”. John 18:8 He has the saints before Him. He would give them rest.
What comes out in John’s gospel is that divine love will do its utmost for us. As the people moved out the ark went before, three days’ journey, to seek a resting-place for them. That touches the heart. “If ... ye seek me”, He says, “let these go their way”. And as He comes out of death He seeks them. As He says, “I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice”. John 16:22 He was thinking of their hearts. He was thinking of them. “Your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you”. See how secure [p. 62] it is! He went before them three days’ journey to seek a resting-place, and when the ark went out we are told, further, Moses said, “Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered”. That was Christ going into death. The enemy went backward and fell to the ground. The Jordan was driven back. But when the ark rested it says, “Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel”, Numbers 10:36.
You see what the ark does? It makes a place. It leads the saints into rest, and makes a place amongst them for the presence of God, for John’s thought is to bring in divine Persons in their love even to one person. “If a man love me”, the Lord says, “he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”, John 14:23. Is not that wonderful? Divine love is at our disposal in John’s gospel and will do its very best for us.
Now I wanted just to say a word about Joshua to show how we, as believers, are to keep before us the great difference between Christ and us, especially as seen in His death. The word says there were to be two thousand cubits distance between them and the ark. I want you just to take note of that, because as you do you are impressed with this, the great difference between Christ and you. He must always have the pre-eminence. Two thousand cubits would be at least three thousand feet or one thousand yards, a very substantial measure. I was saying yesterday, having in view God as a God of measure, we must ever bear in mind that there are divine measurements. The Israelites moved on as they saw the ark, but they did not crowd it. They were taught by the distance to be respectful, to be reverential. Do we not need such instruction? How easily our natural minds slip in in dealing with the things of God! How easily we forget the greatness of the Person [p. 63] of the Lord, that He could go alone into death, in all its power, and roll it back! For it is said that Jordan overflowed all its banks. Mark that! At the time of harvest death had risen to its height. As we see that solitary Man go forward as John presents Him, He is going down to deal with that thing that had terrorised man for centuries, the enemy of God and of man, in the hands of Satan — even death itself. He was going to annul it.
It was the Son of God that was going down into death. No one could take His life from Him. He had power to lay it down and take it up again. He goes into death and annuls him who had the might of it. And now the people pass over. The feet of the priests stood firm in the bed of the Jordan until “all the Israelites passed over on dry ground”. God had said to Moses, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest”. Exodus 33:14. The ark was a symbol of that presence. It remained in the bed of Jordan until every Israelite had passed over into the land of promise.
You see what love will do for us — what it is doing for us today! It has enabled us to go into Canaan, the place of blessing and privilege. The love of God in the Son of God has gone into death to give us rest. In resurrection He says to Mary, “Go to my brethren”. What a word! He is going to give them rest as brought into His own relationship with His Father. “Go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God”. John 20:17 Mary went and told the disciples these things, and then the Lord Himself came where they were, saying, “Peace be unto you”. And again, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you”. And having breathed on them, He said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”. John 20:19 - 22. Thus they stood up in peace. Love had done it for them [p. 64] May God help us to follow Him as the Israelites followed the ark! The two thousand cubits typically imply that they followed respectfully and reverentially; and every one of them went over. The feet of the priests stood firm in the bed of Jordan until every Israelite went over. God gives us rest. He rests in His love, but He rests in having us in His rest.