Since the ark was, to Israel, the sacred symbol of Jehovah’s presence in ‘their midst, and moreover the divinely appointed meeting-place between the Lord and Israel (Exodus 25:22), by manifesting a becoming respect for the Ark of God the godly in Israel proved their devotion to Jehovah; and on the other hand, by their dishonorable treatment of the same, the ungodly among the Israelites proved their utter disregard of the Lord’s commands. Therefore as we trace the ark from Jordan to Moriah, and observe Israel’s varied treatment of it, we may at the same moment discern, in some measure at least, that nation’s spiritual condition.
By setting the ark in the midst of Jordan, Jehovah formally took possession of Canaan.
The ark occupied a prominent position in the procession, during Israel’s seven-days march round Jericho; meanwhile a work of grace was being wrought in the doomed city: Rahab and those found with her were separated from those that “believed not” in Jericho, and preserved in a day of destruction.
The twelve tribes stood on either side of the ark while the law was read before all Israel in Canaan; a witness to Israel that God was in their midst, to bless or to curse them according as they hereafter obeyed or disobeyed His sovereign commands (Josh. 8:33-35.)
After Joshua had subdued the seven nations of Canaan, all Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle there (Josh. 18:1). Thither the eleven tribes repaired, in the days of Phineas the high priest, in a day of sore distress, to humble themselves, and to weep before God, and to inquire of the Lord (Judges 20:18-28).
From the days of Phineas until the days of Eli, during an interval of several years, no mention is made of the ark. This silence is most significant; that there is a reason for it the reader of Judges 2 will not fail to discover.
In the days of Eli, although godly individuals went up to Shiloh to worship the Lord, and to pour out their souls before Him, Israel as a nation openly dishonored God by removing the ark from its divinely appointed resting-place within the tabernacle, thereby violating the sanctity of the Holy of Holies. They robbed the tabernacle of its mercy-seat when they bare the ark (perhaps uncovered) into the camp of Israel.
Verily the Lord did display His power in that camp! But the sad details of Israel’s richly deserved chastisement are so well known, that there is no need to give them here. Suffice it to say that, for the sins of His priests, for the sins of His people, God “delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s head.”
The Philistines lightly brought the ark of God into the house of Dagon their god, to whose power they were wont to ascribe their victories (Judges 16:23, If they despised the armies of Israel, they were nevertheless compelled to give glory to the God of Israel. Dagon was broken to pieces, their land marred with mice, and themselves plagued beyond endurance until, to save themselves from utter destruction, they reverently sent the ark back again into the land of Israel.
It first arrived at Bethshemesh, where it was received with great joy; and thousands of Israelites assembled to behold it. We shall, however, the better understand the reason for what occurred at Bethshemesh, if we for a moment reflect that the ark contained the tables of the covenant. (Hebrews 9:4). In fact, the ark was the only place in Israel where the law was preserved, absolutely unbroken! And it was where the law was preserved, but by the mercy-seat concealed, that atonement was made for the sins of Israel. The men of Bethshemesh violated the ark by touching it (Numbers 4:25); and in opening the ark, so to speak, they separated mercy from justice (which two are ever associated in the word); and they had no sooner exposed the law, than 50,070 of them fell victims to awful sentence:— “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”,
On this account the ark was removed to Kirjath-jearim, an obscure Gibeonitish city (Josh. 9:17); where it remained for many, many years, as it were unnoticed and forgotten by Israel. 1 Chronicles 13 furnishes us with positive testimony to the effect that Israel inquired not at it in the days of Saul.
David the man after God’s own heart “heard” of the ark at Ephratah, and “found it” in the “city of woods,” and vowed that he would give himself no rest until he found “an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.” (Psalms 132) And peace was no sooner restored to Israel, and himself established upon the throne, than he set about performing the long cherished desire of his heart.
He gathered Israel together at Kirjath-jearim to bring up the ark to Mount Zion. With music, and with singing, David and his mighty men set forward, but they had not proceeded far, when Uzzah touched the ark and died before God.
By this melancholy occurrence the Lord taught David and Israel, that the ark must not be treated as if it were simply a trophy of victory. For they had set the ark upon a new cart, instead of causing it to be borne upon the shoulders of Levites; they sought the Lord, but not after the due order (1 Chronicles 15:13).
Three months afterward, with reverence and godly fear, and yet with rejoicings and sounds of a trumpet, the kings and men of Israel, in solemn procession, brought up the ark to Zion, into the tent which David had already prepared for its reception; and David being perfectly content to lay aside his glory as king, that God might be all in all to Israel—clad in a servant’s simple attire-danced before the Lord with all his might.
And Asaph and his brethren ministered before the ark continually (1 Chronicles 16:37.)
Presently the thought occurred to David, that he dwelt in a house of cedar, while the ark simply abode within curtains; and he resolved to build “an house of rest for the ark,”—but that honor was reserved for Solomon. The ark remained in Mount Zion (for David would not allow it to be carried forth from Jerusalem, when he fled from Absalom), until the temple was built on Mount Moriah.
Let us now retrace our steps, that we may observe what had become of the tabernacle during all this time. The writer had failed to discover one Scripture which warrants his supposing that the ark was ever restored to the tabernacle! The thought of a tabernacle without an ark is all the more saddening when we connect it with the sacred rites peculiar to the great day of Atonement.
And the priests of Shiloh, who were principally to blame in the matter, had soon ample cause to rue the day when the mercy-seat was lost to Shiloh! So terrible was the visitation of Shiloh, that the fearful doom of that city became an example to Israel of the dire results of provoking the Lord to anger (Jeremiah 7:12-14.)
During the reign of Saul the tabernacle was pitched at Nob. David appears to have been a frequent visitor to the tabernacle whither he went to inquire of the Lord (1 Samuel 21 22:14). Nob was also overtaken with visitation, scarcely less terrible than that which befell Shiloh. Doeg the Edomite was an instrument in the Lord’s hands, by which he performed that which had been foretold concerning the guilty house of Eli. As for king Saul, the instigator of the foul deed, when he, in a day of sore distress, inquired, the Lord answered him not. And the unhappy king went, in despair, to the witch of Endor. As a man sows, so shall he reap.
We have already observed that the ark remained for many years in one of the cities of the Gibeonites. How very remarkable that, during David’s reign, the tabernacle was found in another of their cities, even in Gibeon! What reader of Josh. 9 would have thought this possible? “Them that honor me I will honor.”
And Zadok, and his brethren the priests ministered before the tabernacle, in the high places at Gibeon. (1 Chronicles 16:39,40.)
When David saw the destroying angel with his sword drawn over Jerusalem, he could not go to Gibeon, for he was afraid, &c. And when he had offered a sacrifice upon Orman’s threshing floor, by the Spirit he foretold that this was the exact spot upon which the temple should be built (1 Chronicles 22:5). And because he had set his affection upon the house of his God, he prepared with all his might, abundance of costly materials for the building of the same.
The temple was no sooner built and prepared, then Solomon gathered all Israel together. And they brought up the tabernacle from Gibeon, and the ark of God from Mount Zion, and both were carried into the Temple. The only contents of the ark at this time were the two tables of stone (1 Kings 8:9). Aaron’s rod, and the golden pot of manna, each commemorative of the wilderness journey, were no longer contained within it. Comp. Hebrews 9:4. Who can express the joy of those thousands who had assembled in that “holy and beautiful house,” when Jehovah answered the fervent prayer: “Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; thou, and the ark of Thy strength.”