Ark of the covenant

The ark of the covenant was given to us by the true God, and it was a way that the true God communicated with us. We know that because we were told it was "Of the covenant". A covenant gives rules for a relationship.

God is NOT God of one nation as the idols are. We have many so called Christians today who tell us that God often spoke to Israel and no one else, but over and over in scripture we are told strangers are included.

When scripture tells us the history of a people and a time, God does not whitewash what the people did. Scripture tells of men having many wives, it tells of people using a golden calf in their worship, there is even cannibalism told of. God's purpose in telling us of how it was is not to have us go out and get a golden calf and eat other people.

The ark of the covenant held the ten commandments, and was guarded over by a special class of angels that were pictured there is gold.

No one knows there the ark is now. Some thing it was burned when the temple was burned, but it was gold and gold does not burn. In Rev.11:19 it speaks of it being in heaven.

what is the point of this thread? "Ark of the covenant", ok what about it?

Some of the posts on this thread reeks of pure ignorance concerning the ark and it's purpose---->to call it paganism is idiotic....

If God commanded them to build it why would some believe it is a graven image ? What did the ark represent as far as the gospel hid in parables seeing without parables Christ spoke not . Why was the book of law (the Bible)placed on the side of the ark and not in it ?

What does that represent ? The hidden Mana as the power of God we have in these earthen bodies of death but is not of us, seen ?

It was good to read your quote from Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

This for me is the true God, the God of the universe, and the God of all nations. Then there is the god of this world, the material world where things rust and rot away. These things are not eternal, they belong to the god of this world, and as someone asked, "where is the ark of the covenant now?" Well, where is it? It has gone, and like all material things it was not eternal, it has perished, the same as all those things, graven by the hand of man, that belong to the god of this world.

If people make the effort to study the way the people lived and thought in the different times of the people God was using to explain Himself, the OT is much more basic than the NT. It explains the nature of God, how we and our world was created, and the forces that it is operated by.

The NT makes it easier for us to live God's way because we are given what Christ did for us and he gives forgiveness in a straight forward easy way. Every single thing in the NT uses the OT principles God gave. It was written to a people who knew scripture, and for new people coming to be members, they were expected to go to synagogue to learn.

People today who know of God only through the OT know only commentaries on the OT.

Please don't forget that we are no longer under the Old Covenant. It ended with Jesus our new High Priest. He gave us a New Covenant. Perhaps that says something about the old Ark of the Covenant?

But God forgave them and gave them, and us, another chance.

Today there is no difference in how the Christian lives and the people who live without God in their lives. The church of the first Christians was called The Way and after only about 500 years it was comply gone. Our churches today are very different.

The ark of the covenant held the ten commandments, holy and precious. Today Christians often say those commandments were written in stone to show that they were not of the heart rather than written in stone to show that they were eternal. They say that is something isn't written in the new testament it isn't binding to us and meant for Israel. They don't feel adopted or connected to God, but have created a new way, contrary to what Christ taught, that says obeying Christ is not obeying God.

In Revelations 11:19 it says: 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.

This is what I was saying about heavenly things being eternal, while the physical things of earth fade away. As you say the truth of them, as in God's commandments, remains forever. The image in Revelation is of God’s heavenly throne as depicted by the earthly mercy seat on the ark of the covenant and one day we shall see Him on the great white throne sitting in judgement. In the meantime we need to live as God would have us live in love and harmony with our neighbours, although that takes two, but that is the difference between how we live our life and how the godless live their lives. In the meantime we need to look forward to the heavenly glory that is to come and not backward to that which has gone. May God bless.

By restoring the ark, I felt that I could understand god well. All the ten commandments are for the protection of marriage, all the good things are around marriage, all the bad things are around marriage, and this is the style of the ark.

That is a wow thought. I will be pondering it.

Our entire society is built up from marriage. Families become communities that become nations. When dictators destroy good government, history tells us that they work at destroying the power of the family.

The power of the family is almost gone in modern society. Families are meant to support each other and be a trustworthy base for our lives. Today young married people cannot depend on their marriage and each person must prepare for being separated from family ion old age.

Almost every single person alive today is influenced more by media and books than by what they learn of God.

Regardless of the origin of the instructions, the description of the actual 'ark' describes a very typical Egyptian chest of the time. Considering these are people who just left Egypt and had been there for several generations, they would have likely been very familiar with such objects and presumably, those among them who were artisans, probably knew how to construct such a chest.

Obviously, this one was built to specific size requirements, but the only real difference was that the figures on top were Hebrew cherubim as opposed to the Egyptian winged sphinx.

There are a number of these types of chests that were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun; you don't really need to search too far to get a good idea what the ark would have looked like.

Not really anything more 'pagan' than anything else the Hebrews borrowed from the Egyptians during their time there.

I was going to post a photograph of the one found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, but I wasn't sure where I had saved it and my picture doesn't have a sphinx on it, so I couldn't see much point in going to a lot of trouble. Yes, there was a strong Egyptian influence, they had been brought up with the Egyptian gods for 400 years, in fact ancient people 'magpied' other nations gods, gave them a different name and claimed it was their god, saying 'my God is bigger than yours."

One of the interesting things I found was that In the biblical family tree a parent named his child which is "cherubim" ,I can't rember where the family tree , but I know cherubim which means that not the Egyptian winged sphinx

God does not borrow ideas or traditions from the Pagan world. The ark in which the book of the law (the bible) was placed on the outside was used as a parable of the unseen to describe that hidden spiritual understanding on the inside. Only God can see the heart of the matter, as the one and only witness against us. (sola scriptura)

Deuteronomy 31:25-27 King James Version (KJV) That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death?

cherub

noun
pl.

1. BIBLEone of the winged heavenly beings that support the throne of God or act as guardian spirits: Ezek. 10
2. CHRISTIAN THEOL. any of the second order of angels, usually ranked just below the seraphim
3. a representation of one of the cherubim as, in early art, a winged angel clothed in red or, later, a chubby, rosy-faced child with wings
4. a person, esp. a child, with a sweet, innocent face

My mother used to call me her little cherub. (Yuk)