The Ark of the Covenant was the place where Israel could meet God. There is deep symbolism here and I will touch on but a few. The making of the Ark of both gold and wood is interesting. Gold would be the most expensive thing they had and wood in contrast the most common. Yet the place where God would meet man has both.
One of the reasons I feel that the Ark contained both was a practical one. A pure gold box would be too heavy as it was the mercy seat and the cherubim were gold and that would be heavy enough. The next practical reason was that it made it more durable. God isn't above being practical, after all, he knows who he's dealing with and we sometimes just need something simple that works.
The next reason for the box being gold and wood is that this is a picture of the one who was coming, Jesus Christ. Jesus who would be the one who gave us access to God was both gold (divine) and wood (human). Jesus also lived out the law perfectly so in a real way the Law of God was in him. Jesus was also the one that the angels looked down on.
The cherubim looked down as it were on the mercy seat and to the law that was underneath. This was the law that Israel was supposed to keep. Later God commanded the blood of the sacrifice to be placed on the mercy seat which was a reminder that the blood (ultimately Jesus' blood) stood between God and the law.
Photo by Igor Rodrigues on Unsplash
No comments:
Post a Comment