The Ark of the Covenant symbolized the covenant God made with Israel. It contained the two tablets of the law, Aaron’s staff, and a jar of manna. But its real significance and usage was with the lid. The lid was called the “mercy seat” and is where the iconic pair of winged Cherubim sat. Once a year the high priest would enter the holy of holies and sprinkle the blood of animals seven times on the lid. This atonement was done on Yom Kippur and appeased God’s judgement for our sins. But the real question is if it was so important, what happened to it?
The last mention of the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament is found here:
Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You need not carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. – 2 Chronicles 35:3
Any commentaries you read will find the Ark’s ultimate fate inconclusive, and most will say that Nebuchadnezzar plundered it or it’s buried in ruins. But was it really lost? Does the Bible really provide zero closure for such a monumental relic? I believe the answer is quite simple and everything we need to know is in the verse above. We don’t need a theology degree to know what God is telling us here, and where the Ark of the Covenant is in the New Testament.
So where is it?
We have three hints given to us from the passage above:
- The Ark is in God’s house
- The Ark is no longer a burden to the people
- God desires obedience over sacrifice
In a vision, we see in the New Testament confirmation that the Ark is indeed in God’s house:
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm. – Revelation 11:19
But what’s really interesting is the man who claimed a similar thing:
“Why were you searching for me?” Jesus asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” – Luke 2:49
Likewise, God telling us in the Old Testament that the Israelites didn’t need to carry the Ark anymore is a powerful turning point. The Israelites were used to the burden of the Ark. It was an incredibly dangerous artifact:
When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God. – 2 Samuel 6:6-7
For simply touching the Ark, God killed Uzzah. You can imagine how nervous and cautious people had to be whenever they were around it. Yet now God is saying that no one has to carry it on their shoulders anymore. This was a great and deadly burden lifted from the Israelites. In the New Testament, only one man ever lifted our burden of the law:
“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:30
Finally, the last part of the verse from 2 Chronicles says “Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel.” In the New Testament we find this command repeated many times:
“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” – Romans 12:11-13
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” – Galatians 5:13
“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” – Hebrews 6:10
Who fulfilled this command perfectly? Who served both God and God’s people without failing once?
“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” – John 6:38
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” – Mathew 15:24
“For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed.” – Romans 15:8
Part of this promise to the patriarchs is that the Ark of the Covenant would no longer be a burden, that is, that the law would not be a burden anymore. You might have already connected the dots here, but if you haven’t, I believe that the New Testament very clearly shows Jesus as being the new Ark of the Covenant. All the evidence we need lies in Jesus’ tomb:
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. – John 20:11-12
Why would John specifically identify the location of the angels? They were on either side of where Jesus’ body had been, in the exact same formation as the Cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant:
On this mercy seat in the tomb, Jesus’ blood was spilled once and for all, between the Cherubim. This is how God chose to speak to Moses, and today, it’s how Jesus speaks to us:
When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him. – Number 7:89
How is it possible for the Ark of the Covenant to be connected to Jesus, and spiritual matters today? How could Jesus’ sacrifice have been enough to do away with the old practices of Yom Kippur and the regular animal sacrifices? The New Testament makes this very clear:
He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.
But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. – Hebrews 9:20-28
Jesus is the true Ark of the Covenant. The one we see in the Old Testament was a copy of a heavenly thing, and it symbolized God’s mercy but also the burden of the law. Jesus is the true heavenly image of God. He dwells in his Father’s house, he takes away our burdens, and he asks that we serve God and those around us.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. – 1 John 4:10
The Ark of the Covenant was never a box, it is a man:
“He is the image of the invisible God.” – Colossians 1:15
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” – Hebrews 1:3
“Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” – 1 Corinthians 1:24
Then Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said: “O LORD God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.” – 2 Kings 19:15
Dave Aldon 