Ark of the Covenant (An Edited Talk)

What lessons can we learn from studying the ancient Israelite tabernacle? Why was the Ark of the Covenant so important to the nation of Israel?

Read Exodus 25:9. (Show picture in Workbook)

The Ark was made of acacia wood and completely overlaid with pure gold. An artistic “border of gold” served as a crowning wreath “round about upon it.” The second section of the Ark, its cover, was made of solid gold, and not just wood overlaid with gold. Furthermore, it was the full length and breadth of the chest.

Also mounted on this cover were two golden cherubs of hammered workmanship, one at each end of the cover facing each other; their heads were bowed, but their wings extended upward as they overshadowed the Ark. (Ex 25:10, 11, 17-22; 37:6-9) The cover was also known as the “mercy seat” or “propitiatory cover.”​ See Ex 25:17; Heb 9:5. Compare the footnote.

So the Ark, this sacred chest, was the preeminent and supreme object of the tabernacle and the whole camp of Israel. (The last biblical mention of the Ark is in Revelation 11:19)

But who showed Moses how to design the Ark? Jehovah did, and since he gave Moses the pattern or design, notice that Moses was obligated to make the Ark exactly as Jehovah specified.

For example, the Ark's dimensions were supposed to be 2.5 cubits long, 1.5 cubits wide, and 1.5 cubits high (c. 111 × 67 × 67 cm; 44 × 26 × 26 in.).

Just like Noah with the ark that floated on the waters, so Israel had to make the Ark of the Covenant strictly according Jehovah's guidelines. One lesson we learn is the necessity of implicitly obeying Jehovah: we should keep his comamnds to the best of our ability. However, a second lesson we can learn is from Exodus 25:21-22.

The Ark served as a holy archive for the safekeeping of sacred reminders or testimony with the principal contents being the two tablets of the testimony, that is, the Ten Commandments. (Ex 25:16); “[a] golden jar having the manna and the rod of Aaron that budded” were added to the Ark but were later removed sometime before the building of Solomon’s temple. (Heb 9:4; Ex 16:32-34; Nu 17:10; 1Ki 8:9; 2Ch 5:10)

The Ark was associated with God’s presence throughout its history. Jehovah promised: “I will present myself to you there and speak with you from above the cover, from between the two cherubs that are upon the ark of the testimony.” “In a cloud I shall appear over the cover.” (Ex 25:22; Le 16:2) Samuel wrote that Jehovah “is sitting upon the cherubs” (1Sa 4:4); hence the cherubs served as “the representation of the chariot” of Jehovah. (1Ch 28:18) Accordingly, “whenever Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with [Jehovah], then he would hear the voice conversing with him from above the cover that was upon the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubs; and he would speak to him.” (Nu 7:89) Later, Joshua and High Priest Phinehas also inquired of Jehovah before the Ark. (Jos 7:6-10; Jg 20:27, 28) However, only the high priest actually entered the Most Holy and saw the Ark, one day a year, not to communicate with Jehovah, but to carry out the Atonement Day ceremony.​—Le 16:2, 3, 13, 15, 17; Heb 9:7.