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THE LORD SEEN IN THE ARK

Joshua 3:11-17; 1 Samuel 7:1,2 (to “twenty years”);

I had a simple impression, which is to look at the ark as it is presented in these different settings, and how it speaks of what God has in mind for His people, and the exercises associated with that. Our first scripture refers to the ark when it was first spoken of to the people of Israel. It is referred to as “the ark of the testimony”. In Numbers and Joshua it is referred to as “the ark of the covenant”. In 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel we find references to “the ark of Jehovah”. Finally in Kings we have “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah”.

In Exodus we have what God is proposing to His people. Before this, God had led them out of Egypt to this place, and He went before them and He looked after them. This involved exercises for the people. Then at this point God proposes to them that they should have this ark; that they should build it. The instruction as to its building was very detailed and very complete. It was to become the centre for them. It was to regulate their movements by going before them. In Numbers 10 and Joshua 3, the ark was to go before them and go with them. We know that the tabernacle of which the ark was the centre had to be set up again every time they stopped. What it really conveyed was that God had in mind to dwell among His people, as is said in Exodus 25:8.

He wanted to provide a place where He could be known, were His mind and His presence could be known. God’s desire for those that belong to Him, and indeed for every man, is the same today. He desires that we should know Him and that we should know His presence. God’s word to Moses is addressed to a people that had come out of Egypt and had gone through the Red Sea. They had experienced, in each of the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, that they had to put the blood on the two doorposts and on the lintel. God desires – and I trust this is true of everyone here – that we should come to Him on the basis of knowing the Lord Jesus as our own Saviour. When we come under the value and blessedness of the blood that has been shed, we are at peace with God. The distance that you were conscious of between yourself and God at one point has been removed by the Lord Jesus in His work.

God does not want you to stop there, blessed as it is to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, but He has much more in mind for you. As this ark and everything that surrounded it would speak to the people of Israel, so God would let you know today that He has in mind blessings for you. He has in mind that you should know Him and His presence, and that you should have a relationship with Him now. The scriptures we have read convey great blessings associated with the ark. What God was proposing to the Israelites was that they should accept the privileges that He was presenting to them, and in doing so they would also take up the responsibilities that came with the privileges. And God desires the same for you today. He desires us to take up our privileges, everything that He has prepared for those that love Him (1 Cor.2:9).

What is set forth in the ark of the testimony is very precious. It speaks to us of our Lord Jesus, and of the way that He has come into this scene to accomplish and secure everything for God. We referred in the hymn that we sang to the fact that the Lord Jesus, in the preciousness and blessedness of His manhood, is food for us; and the ark would speak to us in the same way. Great thoughts are conveyed in the acacia wood and in the gold. They speak of the preciousness and blessedness of the moral glories that we find in the life of the Lord Jesus, who went through in His perfection, in every way displaying the glories that were His. He endured and carried the sufferings, all the rejection, everything that He bore. Even the very presence of sin around Him – what it was for Him, for His holy precious soul, to be surrounded by a scene that was marked and pervaded by sin.

That is food for our souls. How precious to see Him come into manhood to secure everything for God, and everything for us too. He has secured our blessing, fulfilling the great purpose spoken of in verse 22: “And there will I meet with thee, and will speak with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, everything that I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel”. What blessings God has for us in the blessed Person of the Lord Jesus, and what food for us. In every detail, in every circumstance of your life, the Lord Jesus is available to you. To be a Friend, a Comforter, to be near to you, to direct you, to be the Object of your affections, to satisfy your soul.

The ark was to be the centre of everything for the Israelites. Their lives and their journeying changed from the point that they had the ark with them. They were to care for it, and to carry it, in the way that God had appointed to them. Why? Because the ark was very precious to God, and God’s intention was that it would become very precious to each one of them. God has the same desires in relation to the Lord Jesus now. He desires that He should become very precious to each one of us. He wants to bring us into the blessed secret of Christ’s preciousness to Him. And this is available: what a privilege to know the Lord Jesus in this way, the One who has such glory and who has been given such a place. He is coming soon and will rule over everything, but we can know Him in nearness now, and we can know His love. What a blessed thing it is to feed on Him.

What a beginning this was for the children of Israel. It was to change everything for them. And God desires the same for every one now. That is why the gospel is still preached, because God desires more people to be brought to know the Lord Jesus and the blessedness of His Person, and to be attached to Him now. Yes, salvation is for eternity, and there is an aspect to it that is future and that is very important, but salvation is fundamentally for now. God desires salvation for every one, and that is why the gospel goes on. Christ is brought before hearts so that we may be further attached to Him.

I want to look at a few, blessed instances where the ark went before the people. In Numbers there is a wonderful suggestion: the ark is referred to as “the ark of the covenant”. It would really bring before us what has been secured for God’s own pleasure, for Himself. What God has established as a covenant, as we find in Hebrews with the new covenant, is for His pleasure. It is the opportunity for Him to express who He is, to declare the extent and greatness of His love, and to have man on His terms and to be able to bless him. And so here, despite everything that might come in by way of difficulties and trials and conflict, God has in mind that the Lord Jesus would lead us into an area of rest. He wants this to be our desire too.

The ark of the covenant went before them in the three days’ journey to search out a resting-place for them. How blessed it is to be able to enjoy rest, where the difficulties of the wilderness, of our lives, give place to an area where we can rest and enjoy the presence and the company of the Lord Jesus. We most certainly prove it when we begin the week by remembering Him. That is a privilege that God calls every believer to. May we all take up that privilege and enjoy the resting place to which the ark leads us. What a God we have to do with! He provides for us in a wonderful way. The Lord Jesus as the true ark would go before us and He would seek out a resting place. It was three days’ journey: this would point to what was involved for our Lord Jesus in order that there might be a resting place. It indicates that securing a resting place for us was done at a tremendous cost. And we are reminded of it when we begin the occasion on Lord’s day morning: the price, the cost, that He paid so that we might know an area of rest. In that cost, God too has proved His love for us. He proves His love to you so that you might know what it is to be brought into an area of true rest.

I suppose many people look for rest. But the rest that is described here is rest for the soul. That is rest of a kind that men do not even try to achieve because they cannot. What God desires for you is that you are brought into an area where your soul, your affections, your whole being is at rest in the peaceful, loving presence of the Lord Jesus. What a privilege it is to follow the Lord Jesus in this way, to answer to His desires and to remember Him. Thus we prove what it is to be in an area of rest. That gives confidence: Moses says, “Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered”. Our trust is in the One who has completely vanquished the power of the enemy.

We are reminded of His victory also as we have the emblems before us. He has triumphed, and has left nothing still to be done. His work is complete and the enemy that we have to face is one that the Lord has completely vanquished. “And when it rested, he said, Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel”. Well, we desire His presence, we love His appearing. We speak of the Lord being near and that is really an experience in our hearts, in our souls, in our affections, that He is near to us. We are among those “who love His appearing” (2 Tim.4:8), and we desire His presence. And so you come to remember Him and you come expectantly, desirous of His presence. We want to taste that place of rest, and experience what it is to be with Him.

What blessed privileges God is placing before us for us to take up. I would encourage anyone here who has not yet taken up their privileges in this way to do so. What wonderful blessings flow to souls who follow the ark in this way. The Lord Jesus has gone on before and has secured through His work this rest for your soul. And He desires you to prove it.

In Joshua, we have a yet more elevated thought. We find that the ark is referred as “the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth”. This would assure us in our souls as to the portion that belongs to each one of us. What a blessed portion we have. We may think it is beyond us, that it is too elevated for us. But we are assured by the fact that the One who has gone before is spoken of as “the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth”. What is described here is the entering into a realm, a spiritual realm, on the other side of death. This is indeed for us. The thought in the Jordan here is death in all its power, standing between us and what God would have us to enjoy in the area to which the Lord Jesus draws us.

The blessed thing to see is that death in all its power has been completely conquered. As soon as the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant dipped in the edge of the water, “the waters which flowed down from above stood and rose up in a heap”, so that when the people crossed over, the waters were not seen any more. This suggests something further that we can prove, particularly when we come together on Lord’s day morning. The Lord Jesus would come and manifest Himself to us, and He desires to take us with Himself. What we prove as we move through the service in those realms is that we are following Him, we are following the ark through, and we are following Him in that realm where He is now, where He would occupy us with the glories of His person. The greatness of His glories and all that belongs to Him are prominent in the place where He is now. We prove the blessedness of tasting and touching something which is beyond this scene marked by death.

What a blessing this was for the people: it was a defining experience for the people of Israel. They were to go completely over the Jordan, and the experience was to remain with them, as a memorial to them. How suggestive these things are. God has great blessings in mind: He has come out, He has revealed Himself to us in Christ, not only as our Saviour, wonderful that that is, but also to bring us into the greatest of blessings and to bring us into them now. If we have a desire to taste something of them, God encourages us to enjoy those privileges, to take them up and to follow the Lord Jesus in our affections and in our movements. We can follow Him into this area of rest, an area of great spiritual blessing.

I have often been drawn to these scriptures in the two books of Samuel. I suggest that they show how things are to be maintained in a day of departure. In 1 Samuel 7 it was a very sad day, and it followed on a very sad experience for the people of Israel. They had lost the ark. It had been taken from them. The ark was a testimony to them of God’s presence in their midst, and they had lost it. The previous chapter shows how God could look after the ark, but as far as the people were concerned, they had lost it. Now it had returned, and there was a household that was prepared to look after it. We can see in the history that the testimony has been maintained by individuals who were exercised and who had affection for Christ.

Here the ark is referred to as “the ark of Jehovah”. We find in these two scriptures that it is either referred to as “the ark of God” or “the ark of Jehovah”. It is referred to as the ark of God when it is a question of what is official, and opposition is faced. But in connection with these two households it is referred to as the ark of Jehovah, which would bring before us the affections that they had for it and the blessings that they proved from having it. We see that for the household of Abinadab the presence of the ark raised exercises: “and hallowed Eleazar his son to keep the ark of Jehovah”. I am sure we have all proved that the affections we have for the Lord Jesus raise exercises with us, as individuals and in our households. This house was prepared for it. They valued the ark to the extent that they were prepared for the exercises that keeping it implied. I certainly feel measured by that. If we are attached to Christ in all the blessedness of His person, which is what the ark speaks of, we would desire that He should have His rightful place in our hearts and our households, and that means we would take up the exercises that come with it.

In 2 Samuel, we find another household that cherished the ark and kept it. It says that Jehovah blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. God would certainly bless abundantly anyone, any household and any individual, who desires that the ark should have its rightful place. It means being exercised in relation to the Lord Jesus, what He is and what belongs to Him. We should desire to increase in our appreciation of Him, of His person and His blessedness, and be more attached to everything that belongs to Him. We find here a house that was ready: there is no hallowing mentioned here. It is the side of blessing that is brought before us. There is great blessing.

We find something further: David is given confidence to bring the ark back. He was fearful after what had taken place before, when Uzzah took hold of the ark. But the fact that the ark was taken into the house of Obed-Edom and was maintained in the household, and that God came out in blessing, gave him great confidence to bring the ark back to its rightful place. I am sure we can see this if we look in the history of the testimony: the exercises of individuals, and households also, have benefited the company more broadly, as was the case with the house of Obed-Edom. What blessings come to individuals, and to households and localities, through the exercises suggested in taking care of the ark.

I wanted to finish on the thought, we might say the most elevated thought of all, of the ark being brought into its final resting place. It answers to the exercises that David expressed in Psalm 132, where he says, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, Until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob … Behold, we heard of it at Ephratah, we found it in the fields of the wood” (vv.4-6). That would certainly relate to the experiences of what we referred to in 1 Samuel 7. Then, “Let us go into his habitations, let us worship at his footstool. Arise, Jehovah, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength” (v.7). This is the ark being brought into its final resting place.

What a view God would give us of what He will do. Everything will be brought into full accordance with His thoughts; what a place the Lord Jesus will have. What trust, what confidence, God has in Him. He “has given all things to be in His hand” (John 3:35) because He is the One that is able to bring to fruition every one of God’s thoughts and desires. Indeed, He has done so, and all of that will be displayed. It says that “the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah”. It takes us back to the first thought that God made known to the people of Israel when He spoke to them through Moses while they were still in Egypt – that He was to be their God, and they were to be His people (Ex.6:2-8). In 1 Kings 8 this was realised as regards Israel. Beloved brethren, this will soon be realised in finality. God’s great thought is to dwell among men (see Rev.21:3), to rest where His love is known and appreciated and responded to. His love can rest there because everything is fully suited to His presence, suited to His mind. We can taste something of it now. That is the blessedness of the portion of the believer.

The Old Testament is very helpful in illustrating our experiences as believers. You find that things are presented in a sequence. The blessedness for us is that we can enter into the greatest of privileges now. We can taste something of what the eternal day will be. God wants us to have that experience now. As we follow the Lord Jesus in those blessed realms, and as we give Him His rightful place in our hearts and in our midst, and take up the exercises that flow from this, then what blessings are enjoyed! We are able to taste something of what that eternal day will be, and to prove that God’s inheritance is in the saints (see Eph.1:18), which is very blessed indeed. What a thing that is to taste and to prove practically, to have some sense of God’s inheritance being in the saints, and of belonging to that in which He has His delight. The God we have to do with has purposed and desired to have His dwelling place among men, and He will have His rest there. He would desire to draw each one of our hearts more and more into the enjoyment of it.

May we all be drawn to Christ. May we appreciate more and more what the Lord Jesus is to us, and how He is set forth in the ark. As the ark of the testimony, He has come in all the blessedness of His person to secure everything for God. As the ark of the covenant, God has established everything in Him for our blessing. We can be sure that those realms, those experiences on the other side of death, are indeed our portion now. The Lord Jesus wants us to enjoy those privileges. As we do so, we will be helped practically in the exercises that are necessary if we are to cherish Him and give Him His rightful place.

May we be drawn to Him and further attached to Him, for His name’s sake.

Address at Grimsby

10 February 2024

Sylvain Perret

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