What was the Ark of the Covenant for? In Exodus 25, God gives the plans for the Ark of the Covenant — the most sacred object in Israel. Dr. Toby Holt explains what the ark was really for, and what it pointed to. God asks for the people's finest materials, and the ark is the first item described — because His glory would rest on it. The true focus is the "mercy seat" on top, between two golden cherubim, where God promised to meet His people. Holt corrects the popular fascination with the ark's contents, pointing instead to the mercy seat, fulfilled when Christ's blood was shed.

Questions this study answers:

1. What was the ark, and why was it important? The sacred chest at the center of the tabernacle, where God's glory rested. The whole structure pointed to it.

2. What was the "mercy seat"? The gold lid on the ark, between two cherubim, where God met His people and atoning blood was sprinkled. It pointed to Christ.

3. Where is the ark today, and does it matter? Its location is unknown, and it does not matter — Jesus has fulfilled what the ark and mercy seat pictured. He is now our meeting place with God. "And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat…" — Exodus 25:22 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

Everyone has heard the Ark of the Covenant

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which was kept in a special part of God's temple called the

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Holy of Holies. But not everyone knows what this Ark

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was created for or what it's fascinating history is.

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That will be the focus of today's study in Exodus 25.

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As we start off this morning, let me ask you a question.

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Which do you think there are more of?

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Which do you think there are more of?

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The stars and the universe around us,

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or all of the grains of sand on all the beaches of this world combined?

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Now think about that.

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I don't want anyone shouting it out.

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Just think about that.

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Which is there more of?

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All the stars and the universe combined,

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or all the grains of sand on all the beaches on this globe?

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Which are there more of?

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I wondered this thing, and we have this wonderful tool called Google,

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and Google pointed me towards astronomy.com.

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What they concluded is that the total amount of stars in the universe around us

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compared to the total amount of grains of sand on all the beaches of the world around us

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is nearly the same.

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Nearly the same.

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Somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 billion trillion.

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Plus or minus a few trillion for what that's worth.

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Now, here's a related question.

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How long do you think it takes for light to travel from, say, one edge of that universe to the other?

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How long will it take before it gets from one edge of the known universe to the other edge?

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How long will it take?

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The speed of light is pretty fast, so how long will it take to get from one end to the other?

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Well, again, the short answer by folks who know a lot more about these things than I do is this.

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It takes an infinite amount of time because it can't be done.

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The universe around us is expanding at such a rate that the speed of light from one end to the other

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will never enable it to reach the other side due to that expansion.

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Now, what's the point of all this science here?

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The point is this.

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The universe around you is a lot larger than you or I can possibly comprehend.

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The universe around us is a lot larger than we can possibly comprehend.

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the universe around us is an ocean of stars so vast that it makes our planet nothing more than

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a speck of cosmic dust among it. And if our planet, if our planet is a speck of dust, what does that

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make you? If our planet is like an atom upon a speck of dust, upon the tip of the tiniest pin

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that's ever been created. If that's our planet, then where does that put us? How do we rate?

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If you were to contrast the molecular composition of your own body against the molecular weight and

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composition of the known universe around you, I can tell you there aren't enough zeros. There's

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not enough math, period, to draw the contrast for how small you and I are in comparison to the scope

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of the created realm around us.

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Even if you were to add all of us together,

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we don't move the needle at all.

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Now, the psalmist in Psalm 8,

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he told us this.

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None of this is a shock.

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He said this in Psalm 8.

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He said, when I consider the heavens,

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when I consider the heavens,

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when I consider the work of your fingers

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and the moon and the stars,

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that which you have ordained,

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what then is man

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that you would be mindful of him

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and that you would visit him?

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See, the psalmist, he might not have had access to Google.

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He might not have had astronomy.com at his fingertips.

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And yet, he's asked the same question.

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He says, in the scope of all that, against the backdrop of the created realm,

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what in the world is man that you, God, that made all that, should care about me?

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Or that you should bother to visit, deign to visit, condescend to visit,

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that which is infinitesimally

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smaller than not

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only the universe, but especially smaller

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than you? Who is

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man that we're worthy of this?

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You know what the answer to that is?

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Man is nobody

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except that

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God, out of his volitional love

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for us, has made us somebody. He's

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formed us in his own image and has determined

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to love us and save

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us, to redeem us. But we

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take that for granted all the time.

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We have no real grasp how big he is, and we have no real grasp how small we are.

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If anything, if anything, modern evangelicalism has probably narrowed that divide.

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Pictured him as a cosmic good buddy in the stars.

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This guy sits on the clouds just above us.

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Or worse yet, just this genie who does what prosperity teachers think he should do when he should do it.

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Even the church world that should know better across past hundred years

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has deflated the air out of God, so to speak, and lowered him and simultaneously raised us up.

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Like, who are we?

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here in heavens if there's any shock we will have when we cross the threshold of heaven

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is when we first get the faintest hint of the scope of our god and of his kingdom and in which

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we fully have the air deflated out of us to understand who we are against that backdrop and

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yet and yet even though that's true yet still he loves us and he proved that love for us by giving

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that which was most precious to himself his own son's blood shed on calvary we are small he is

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great and yet and yet he's given that which is most precious to himself now in today's passage

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what we're seeing is that this god who has the right and the authority the privilege and the

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transcendent power to reign from on high and only to look down on us at a distance although he could

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do that he doesn't do that and today's text god tells his people let's make a tabernacle let's

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make a meeting place and i will dwell amongst you my people there although i am a god whose

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transcendence and eminence fills all of creation i'm going to dwell in a very special way intentionally

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purposely with you now if you look at the whole scripture that's not a new concept in the garden

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of eden god could have just created mankind spun it like a top stood back to see how things turned

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out said oh my what's that snake doing and the like he could have been from a distance just aloof

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looking down to see how we would turn out spoiler alert we wouldn't have turned out very well and

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yet what did he do he looked down he made us and then then scripture says that he went and dwelt

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with those that he made we know that because Adam and Eve were accustomed to hearing him walking in

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the garden he walked with him in the cool of the afternoon he walked and talked with his first

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people. And across the Old Testament and certainly in the New Testament, we see that this is a God

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that although He's great and transcendent, He wants to be with you. He wants to be with me. He

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wants to be with His people. We see that in the Garden of Eden. You see it in the tabernacle. You

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see it in the temple. You see it when the God of all glory came down from His throne to be born in

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a manger and to go to a cross. We see that this God, whose name is Emmanuel, which means what?

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God with us. We see that that's not incidental, that that name fits like a glove. God with us.

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That's the tabernacle. I will be with you. I'm not going to be a satellite in orbit of you.

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I'll be with you. So let's build the tabernacle. All right, let's return. Let's see about this

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tabernacle. Let's see God's blueprint for this. As we look at verses one through nine, I'm going

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to read these and then we'll work our way through the balance of today's text. Verse one,

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Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

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Speak to the children of Israel that they might bring me an offering.

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From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take my offering.

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And this is the offering which you shall take from them.

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Gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, scarlet thread, fine linen, goat's hair,

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ramskins dyed red, badgerskins, acacia wood, oil for the light,

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spices for the anointing oil, for the sweet incense,

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onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.

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And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them, according to all that I show you.

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That is, according to the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of its furnishings, just so you shall make it.

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Just a quick note there.

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God says, all right, we're going to build the tabernacle, and here's the components of the tabernacle,

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and I'm going to tell you exactly how it is to be measured and arrayed, right down to the T.

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This is the basis for what we call the regulative principle.

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Does God care how you approach Him in worship?

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Yes! Yes, I know that's a leading question.

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John Kitsch, does God care how we worship Him?

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Absolutely. Pastor Fitch, does He care how we worship Him?

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Yes, from one end of the book to the other.

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God cares, and He has told us how we are to approach Him,

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and we see this in verses 1 through 9.

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All right, so as we said at the outset,

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the God who transcended the people of Israel was not content

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just to stare at them from above.

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This is not the God of the deists, the God that you can't know who's out there somewhere in the ether.

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Rather, this is the God of theists, theism.

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This is the God who wants a relationship with those who he's made.

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And so verses 1 through 9, he gave them a blueprint for this tabernacle.

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Now, as you consider the building materials that are there, what stands out to you about these building materials?

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Well, there's at least one thing that should stand out.

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What stands out is the quality of that which was to be willingly offered.

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What stands out is the quality.

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See, the objects in verses 1 through 9,

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they represented the finest materials of the age.

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God didn't ask them for aluminum.

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He didn't want a linoleum floor.

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God had a very clear picture of what he wanted,

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and it was costly.

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It was the gold, the bronze, the silver, and the like.

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He told his people, he says,

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hey, hey, give that which is best,

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not that which is least.

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Now, why is that? Is God like the televangelist who just wants to get their hands on the people's

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money? Well, no. The cattle on a thousand hills are his, right? All the gold's already his.

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Let me ask you, in heaven, what's the asphalt of heaven? What are the streets made of?

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Gold, right. In heaven, it's like the least building material. Think about that for a minute.

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In heaven, the asphalt is made out of gold. The least building material that they pave the streets

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with is this here it is of great value to us and he says that's what you should bring not because

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he needs it but because the people needed to give it the people needed to learn to give god their

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best not their least and that would be a mistake they'd make throughout the ages remember the book

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of malachi i don't know like two years ago we did a study of malachi the number one problem well

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they had a lot of problems. But among them was this. When the people would make offerings to

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God, they were like, we love God. He's our man. God's our God. He's awesome. So what are we going

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to give him? And they thought, well, we do the sacrifices. We give the sheep and the goats and

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such. However, in the time of Malachi, they would seek out those sheep and lambs that were the most

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worthless ones in their flock to give him. The idea was that God wouldn't care so much, right?

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It's a lamb. It's a lamb. It's going to be dead in a minute. What's the difference?

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Why do I take my prize lamb or goat or what have you when this three-legged buck tooth thing will

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do? Its death will be satisfactory, won't it? So that's the thought process they had. That's also

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the thought process by which people would give God aluminum or something, some talc or some terrible

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composite in order to build his tabernacle in this context. God doesn't want that.

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God wants your best. Do you give it to him? Now, sometimes that's financial. Absolutely.

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It doesn't have to be, though.

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Think about Abraham.

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God says, Abraham, Abraham, will you give me a sacrifice?

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Abraham says, yes.

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What was God calling upon Abraham to sacrifice?

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His son.

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Now think about that for a minute.

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Give that which is best.

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Give that which is the apple of your eye.

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It's not like God said, hey, Abraham, you know that guy over there?

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I think he's got a kid.

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It didn't say, give some other dude's son.

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He says, give yours.

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Give that which is costly.

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That's what you would offer.

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Now, of course, in that picture, God substituted a different sacrifice for the son,

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which ultimately points us to Jesus.

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But the point is this.

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Abraham, or God's people in this case, or throughout Scripture,

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they're called to give God our best.

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It's our time, our treasures, our resources, what have you.

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We usually don't.

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We usually don't.

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We give them the equivalent of what we found in the couch cushions often.

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Maybe not monetarily, but sometimes with regards to our time.

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We give them that which is left over.

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That's not the point here, and it wasn't the point then.

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The point then was that what you worship God with should involve giving Him your best,

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sacrificing that which has some meaning to you.

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Otherwise, what kind of sacrifice is it?

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And that's the picture here.

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And if you take issue with that, that God would ask you to give that which you don't want to give,

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Remember this, when your life was on the line, he gave that which was best for you.

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If you would withhold from God that which has meaning to you,

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if you would treasure up and hold and hoard and store that which has meaning to you,

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consider this, when your life was on the line, that's not what God did.

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He gave that which was most precious to himself.

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His own son's blood poured out on Calvary in order to save you and to redeem you.

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That is a precedent that's reasonable to follow.

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Give God our best.

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And that's what we see in these first nine verses.

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Let's look at verses 10 through 16.

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And they shall make an ark of acacia wood.

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Two and a half cubits shall be its length.

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A cubit and a half its width.

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A cubit and a half its height.

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See this specificity here?

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God cares how they approach him.

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And you shall overlay it with pure gold.

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Inside and out you shall overlay it.

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And you shall make it a molding of gold all around.

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You shall cast four rings of gold for it

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and put them in the four corners.

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Two rings shall be on the side,

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two rings on the other side.

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You shall make poles of acacia wood

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and overlay them with gold.

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You shall put the poles into the rings

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on the sides of the ark

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that the ark may be carried by them.

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Remember, no one was supposed to touch it.

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They carry it with the poles.

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And the poles shall be in the rings of the ark

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and they shall not be taken from it.

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And you shall put into the ark the testimony,

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the tablets that were going to come,

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the testimony which I will give you,

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meaning it was yet to come

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that the tablets would arrive.

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You know, when a bank is being built in a new city or a new community,

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do you know what the very first consideration is as they're planning?

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Are you going to build a bank, the first bank of Gulfport or Wiggins or what have you?

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Are we going to build a bank?

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What is the first consideration that's given with regards to that construction and the engineering and the like?

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Well, it involves the vault.

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When you think about the nature of the bank, the first thought is where is the vault going to be

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and how is it going to be situated, and then they build out from there, or at least they engineer

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out from there. The vault is the centerpiece. The focus is on the vault, not where you're going to

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put the bathroom, not where the water cooler is going to go. Where the vault is going to go is

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that which is most important. Well, in the same way, the very first thing right out of the gate

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in God's blueprint, before he gets to the lampstands and showbread and like, is the ark.

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The object that was to be the centerpiece of the tabernacle is the first thing that God addresses

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when talking about the tabernacle you know for all the beauty of everything else that would be

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in the tabernacle the ark was the centerpiece why because that's where the glory of god would come

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down the glory of god would reside between the two cherubim facing inward upon the mercy seat

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on the ark that set it apart from everything else all right let's read about this mercy seat that

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was upon the ark as we look at verses 17 through 21 all right verse 17 you shall make a mercy seat

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of pure gold two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width you shall

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make two cherubim of gold of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat

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make one chair but one end and the other chair but the other end and you shall make the cherubim

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at the two ends of it one piece with the mercy seat i mean it's all this one piece verse 20 and

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the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they

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shall face one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be towards the mercy seat, and you shall put

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the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give

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you. You know, I alluded just a moment ago to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Obviously, in a work of

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fiction, there's going to be issues that theologians and the like will have with it, and they'll say,

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that's not right, and so forth. Well, one thing definitely stands out with regards to the ark. If

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you remember in the movie you know the ark sitting there and that's you know the mercy seat and

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everything mercy seats the afterthought the concern with regards to the ark was well what happens when

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you open it up well dear heavens did you read what this says what's going inside is the tablets and

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later in hebrews 9 we would read that aaron's staff and a pot of manna would go in and and

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there's a lot of important meaning to those things as well but the glory of god didn't hide in the

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ark, the glory of God was manifest on the mercy seat on the top of the ark. The movie put all the

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thought to what goes in and no thought to really what was on the top. And that was the focus of

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what we see here in this passage. This is the emphasis. The mercy seat is the focus of the ark

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itself. Now, why? Well, like I just said, it's because that's where God dwelt, between the

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cherubim on the top. All right, let's consider the significance of this mercy seat. We'll linger on

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it with our remaining time this morning, we're going to linger for a little while in verse 22.

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Verse 22, and it is there on the mercy seat that I will meet with you, and I will speak with you

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from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony,

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about everything with which I will give commandment to the children of Israel. So God has told them

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this is how the ark is to be constructed. This is what it's supposed to look like. Here's the

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precise measurements. Here's how it's to look like. And then in verse 22, he gets to the capstone

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statement. He says, when you're done with it, when it's completed, it is there that I will meet with

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you. And it's there that I will speak with you. Now to Moses, Moses had just run half marathons

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up Sinai for the past little while. Moses had had to travel to go to seek God. Much like the ancient

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Greeks had this picture of the gods on the top of Mount Olympus or what have you, and you got to

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travel on bloody kneecaps to crawl up to get to him. Well, what does God tell Moses here?

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He says, no bloody kneecaps. He says, I'm coming to you. You make this, and it's there that I will

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meet with you. Now, let's briefly, I'm going to return to the mercy seat in a moment,

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but let's briefly remember that the ark itself, the ark itself was a holy throne, so to speak,

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for God, and because it was his throne here on earth, so to speak, God had imbued it, as he did

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very rarely, he did this with a physical object, he imbued it with a certain gravitas, or a certain

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power, a certain holiness, right down to the touch, and right down to the effect it would have

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when it was carried from place to place. Do you remember, do you remember when the walls of Jericho

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came a tumbling down. What was at the front of the procession around Jericho?

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Again, it's a leading question. The ark. When God's people, the armies, took out the Midianites,

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fierce Midianites, what led the way? The ark. You see the ark crossing the Jordan. You see that the

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ark is God's presence. It represents or typifies God's presence, and he did indeed meet with him

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on the altar seat of the ark. The ark, therefore, was something you don't mess around with. The ark

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did have, did have a power that was granted to it. It was holy enough that you just didn't touch it.

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There was a guy, you might remember his name. His name was Uzzah, poor Uzzah. One day, Uzzah's

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helping on the transport team of the ark, and it begins to slip and to fall towards the mud. And

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poor Uzzah, thinking fast, he reaches out and tries to grab the ark and tries to touch it.

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and what happened he died now that seems like wow here's poor Uzzah trying to help this ark

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from not getting muddy he didn't want a dingy dirty ark he was just trying to help out

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the mistake that Uzzah made was to think that his sinful hands were somehow more clean

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than the mud on the floor beneath him that's not the way it worked he was far dirtier than the mud

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would ever have been. The ark led the path for God's people. The ark was at the front as they

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went around Jericho. The ark was not to be touched, for it was holy. Now, the ark at one point, do you

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remember the story of the ark being captured? The ark was captured. We think, how can this be?

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You know, heavens to Betsy. The ark captured. How can this be? Do you remember who captured it? It

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was the Philistines. Now, how did that turn out? First, you have to remember with the ark,

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God had told the people that he would meet with them there in the ark,

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which set them aside from every other nation on the globe.

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As an aside here, there was no other nation that could point to their own campsite

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and say, God lives here.

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Israel could say that.

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There was no other nation on the globe that could say,

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you see that tabernacle, you see that tent of meeting, God dwells there.

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Everyone else had to appeal vertically.

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They could point and say, this is where God dwells.

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they had been given have been granted a privilege that no other nation had had and yet it was a

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privilege that they frittered away what happened with the philistines well as you remember i think

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it's a first samuel chapter six the first samuel chapter six the people had gotten naughty that's

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the best way i can put it the people had gotten naughty and even there the main leader the judge

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his name was eli poor chubby eli eli was filled up on the fats of the land and his sons the priests

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we're just worthless. With that said, in 1 Samuel chapter 6, the Philistines are going against God's

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people, and God allowed the Philistines to take the ark. And when the messengers came back to tell

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poor Eli this, the messengers said this, said, Eli, put down the sandwich. Israel has fled before

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the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter amongst the people. And your two sons,

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Hophni and Phinehas, they're dead, and the ark of God has been captured.

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Then it happened, it says here in 1 Samuel 4,

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then it happened when the messenger made mention of the ark of God

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that Eli fell off the seat backwards by the side of the gate,

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and his neck was broken, and he died, for he was very heavy.

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Even when word had passed that his own sons had died,

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That's not what caused him to stagger back off his seat and to fall and break his neck.

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It was when the messengers said that the ark is gone.

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The ark is taken.

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You see, even though the people were derelict, even though they were wicked,

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even though they had lost the plot, even though this was true,

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they still knew what the ark historically had represented.

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It was God's presence among his people.

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And so what did it say that the ark was gone?

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Eli knew what it said.

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It was the equivalent of Ichabod, the glory has departed.

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Eli knew the significance of what this would mean, and he died moments later.

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Now in time, the ark would be returned.

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Remember the Philistines, they brought the ark into the temple of Dagon, this like half-fish god.

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You know, it's funny how all the pagan gods were always like half-person, half-animal.

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Well, this was like this fish god that they had there in the temple of Dagon.

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The ark is there, and this thing keeps falling over,

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and ultimately its head and hands are cut off at the threshold of the temple.

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And then they begin to realize that maybe this ark and the god of the ark is more powerful than Dagon and all of our other idols.

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And in due time, I think, boils and other terrible things broke out.

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And so ultimately, the Philistines said, this is terrible.

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We're cursed because we own this thing, not blessed.

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We are cursed.

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Stick it on an ox cart, slap the oxes, and send them back to Israel with this thing.

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The point is this, that the ark was significant.

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The ark had power that had been imbued within it because of the manifest presence of God.

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with that being said let's return to the mercy seat when we think about the power of the ark

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the power was in the presence of the one who dwelt upon it now the mercy seat was not only

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where god met with israel but it had one other function it was not only where god met with the

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high priest it was not only where god met with his people but yearly it was sprinkled with blood

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from the sacrifice upon the seat itself. Now, when you think about it, think of the gold and the

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onyx stones and all those badger skins and all the amazing things in the tabernacle. Think of

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the ark itself, how pristine and beautiful this thing was, and yet God says at these intervals

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we're going to sprinkle it with animal blood. Sprinkling something with any blood doesn't sound

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that appealing, but with animal blood. What was this about? Well, here's the thing, and this is

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going to be, I guess, the balance of our time here. The ark was more important than just being

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an ark and just occupying the seats which God would meet with his people. It was also a shadow

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and type of something greater than itself. Now, what do I mean? Well, let's wrap with this thought.

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One week ago, we celebrated Resurrection Sunday, which is the day, of course, when we celebrate

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that our Lord Jesus Christ defeated death, that he was crucified, died, and was buried, but he didn't

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stay buried. Three days later, he arose. The stone was moved. Jesus was gone. Now, do you remember

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who was the first one to see the risen Jesus? Mary Magdalene. Remember, she saw him there in

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the garden. In John 20, we see it was Mary Magdalene. Early Sunday morning, Mary had gone

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out to the tomb, only to find that the stone had been rolled away, which was the first shock that

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she had. The second shock was probably even greater, that at least initially, the tomb was

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empty. Except that it wasn't really

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empty upon closer inspection here. In fact, it was quite full for a tomb.

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Why? Because who was there? Two angels.

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Ah! So Mary Magdalene

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looks into the tomb. Jesus is not there, but there's two angels.

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Now where are they seated? Well, the scripture says in John 20 that they were

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positioned at either side of the very burial

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slab that still held Christ's blood. The very slab in which his beaded and scarred body had

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been placed, clearly the blood would have speckled all upon it. That's where the two angels were

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seated, one to either side. What do you think this is a picture of? It's a picture of the mercy seat.

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Think about it. The mercy seat where God met with his people was to be sprinkled with blood,

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the cherubim on either direction facing inward. Here, the moment Jesus is resurrected, he has

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risen. Mary Magdalene looks in. She sees the slab on which his own blood has been splattered, and she

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sees angels on either side. This was the fulfillment of everything we're seeing in Exodus 25. John 20,

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this picture of the two cherubim, two angels sitting on the very slab on which Jesus' dead

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body. His blood had been spattered. This was a picture of everything we see in Exodus 25.

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In fact, it's more than a picture. It's the fulfillment. The mercy seat pointed forward to

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this. This moment in time was the culmination of everything that the mercy seat was about.

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The mercy seat was about God meeting with his people. Well, God never met with his people in

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greater clarity and with greater authority and presence than he did when he met with him in the

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person of Jesus Christ in their midst. That was a far greater revelation than him meeting with one

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guy behind a veil periodically. You understand that? When Mary, of all people, when Mary Magdalene

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looked at the grade slab bracketed with these two angels, you have a woman who would have had

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no chance or opportunity to have met with God before. A woman who would have had no chance to

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meet with God in his tabernacle is the first to see the fulfillment of what the priesthood had

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long anticipated. In other words, when Mary looked at the bloody stone, one of the people who would

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have been kept at arm's distance prior, was invited not only to see where Christ's blood

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had been shed, but moments later, she heard Christ speak her very name, Mary, Mary. Again,

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John 20 is a great fulfillment of Exodus 25. This morning, when it comes to the ark, you put the

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ark of the covenant in your sermon title, everyone wanders away. Are we going to talk about where the

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ark is and the like? Actually, I did a whole class on that last, I think last spring, if you're

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if you're interested. But if you're one of those people who's caught up in, where is the ark today?

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Those people who are interested in finding the lost ark, don't be. And here's the reason why.

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The ark was never the end in of itself. Even if you found the ark today, which you won't,

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it'd do us no good because we have the fulfillment. This is why I don't want another temple. This is

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why no one should want another temple in Jerusalem. You understand this? Jesus is the temple. We did

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study this in our study of Ezekiel. The old shadows and types, if they were to return and

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start sacrificing goats and calves and animals and heifers and donkeys and pigeons and whatever,

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if they were to sacrifice all those things again in a third temple in Jerusalem, it would be

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no good to your eye. Why? Because Jesus said it is finished. He is the final sacrifice. The book

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of Hebrews talks about this at some length. The temple was never an end to itself. The Passover

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was never an end to itself. The ark was never an end to itself. All of it pointed forward to the

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person and work of Jesus Christ. And because of that, I don't care where the ark is. Well, here's

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the thing. I know where it is, and so do you. Do you know where? You confessed it earlier this

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morning in our call to worship. You can look at your bulletins. You can find where. Let me read

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to you. Revelation 11, 19, we're given a peek into the heavenly realm. And that passage tells us this

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about the ark. Then the temple of God was opened in heaven and the ark of his covenant was seen

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in his temple. And there was great lightnings and noises and thunderings and earthquake and great

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hail. The ark of the covenant is not in Cairo. It's not in Tannis. It's not in Ethiopia. It's in heaven.

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And you know what else is in heaven?

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God's people.

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For all of eternity, for all of eternity,

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the Ark will continue to represent there what it did here.

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The access, the access that we have to God the Father

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through the person and work of his Son.

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You and I do not need another Ark.

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We do not need the original Ark.

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We have that which is better, Jesus Christ.

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Let's pray.