The Ark of the Covenant

Story:  The Ark of the Covenant

Passage: Exodus 25:10-22

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Ark of the Covenant. 

  

Notes:  The Ark of the Covenant is an interesting article.  It is the first item which God gives directions to build.  The purpose of the Ark is found in verse 22.  “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”  This was to be where God presided.  The Ark was to be a physical object designed to show God’s presence and His holiness.  The ark was to be made from acacia wood, but overlaid in gold.  The entire thing would be covered in gold.  This would be an incredibly beautiful and precious item!  It appears that God saw gold as the metal which best captures His holiness.  Even though the ark would be made of wood, it would be covered with gold.  It was to be fairly simple.  It was a golden box with a golden lid.  The mercy seat is where we started seeing some intricacy.  There were to be two golden cherubim made of a single piece of gold as the lid of the Ark.  Their wings were to overshadow the Ark and their faces were to face the center.  God said He would meet them from the middle of the mercy seat.  These heavenly worshippers were facing the center and worshipping.  The lid is called the mercy seat.  I don’t know exactly why it is called that, but I suspect it is because mercy has to be involved whenever God directly interacts with humanity.  This was the seat where He would show mercy to Israel.  This is the first indication of how much mercy is an aspect of God’s character!  The first item He wants built for the tabernacle is one which directly represents His presence.  There are three main concepts which He wants portrayed with this Ark: holiness, worship, and mercy.  I find that incredible!  God was going to make Himself present to imperfect Israel and the attributes He wanted portrayed in His presence were holiness, worship, and mercy.  One other aspect of the ark is that Israel was instructed to place their testimony in the Ark.  God wanted this item for His presence to contain proof of His presence.  He would provide testimony of His presence and this belonged in the Ark.  The Ark is referred to as both the Ark of the Covenant, and the Ark of the Testimony.

Questions:  Why was everything overlaid in gold?  Why was the Ark to be carried with poles?

Lessons:  Holiness, worship, and mercy are the focus of the Ark of the Covenant.  Take some time to just think about why God would choose these things to communicate through the Ark of the Testimony.

Laws About Altars

Story:  Laws About Altars

Passage: Exodus 20:22-26

Characters:  God, Israel

Summary:    God gave Moses a set of laws about altars.  First He repeated that they should never have any idols.  Then he said altars should be made of earth.  If it is made of stone, it must not be hewn, and there must not be stairs leading up to it. 

  

Notes:  God begins by reminding the people that they have heard His voice and seen His presence.  He uses this to remind them to not make idols.  His logic is basically that they had seen His power and majesty and heard His voice.  They know He is alive, so they should not worship something that is not alive.  We will see how they utterly fail at this later.  God specifies He wants an altar made of earth.  He wants a simple looking altar.  The glorious thing about an altar of God is not the altar itself, but the God who the altar is for.  Ultimately, the greatest sacrifice was made on an altar of two pieces of wood.  God promises in the middle of this passage to bless the people wherever they go.  If the altar is made of stone, it must not be cut stone.  The glory and praise for the altar should not go to anyone but God.  Rather that the material being crafted by a human, it is to be natural stone crafted by God.  There were to be no steps leading up to the altar so that their nakedness would not be exposed.  Going up stairs would reveal flesh.  It is hard to keep your legs covered going up stairs.  I believe this is symbolic of the fact that our flesh is in perfect conflict with His holiness.  Our flesh has no place at the altar. 

Questions:  Why could there be no stairs?  Why did God not want altars made of other materials?

Lessons:  We see in this passage that God is really emphasizing that He does not want us to worship idols.  This is a big deal to God.  In fact, our attitude towards worship in general is a big deal and it dominates a good portion of the law.  It is important that our worship and praise goes where it deserves.  We need to worship the creator and not His creation.

The Song of Moses

Story:  The Song of Moses

Passage: Exodus 15:1-21

Characters:  Moses, Miriam, Israel

Summary: Moses and the people of Israel sang a song of worship to God.  I will go through it in the notes.

  

Notes:   This song of worship was quite profound and it demonstrates how much the Israelites were affected by the visual display of God’s power.  The song begins by addressing God’s power.  He has cast the horse and its rider into the sea.  He is our strength and our song.  The Lord is a man of war.  His power is emphasized.  Then the song describes what had just happened.  It describes the Egyptians pursuing Israel into the sea and then God collapsing the waters on them.  It attributes the events to God.  Even though they were caused by a wind, it was a wind from God.  Next, the song recognized the superiority of God.  Who is like our God, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?  At His command, the earth obeyed.  The next section details His love, leadership, and reputation.  It is acknowledged that is was an act of love to lead them out of Egypt.  The surrounding people will tremble when Israel comes near out of the fear of God.  Israel will be brought to God’s dwelling place.  Then Miriam, Moses’ and Aaron’s sister danced and sang and the women joined in singing, “Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” This is the first line of Moses’ song.  This entire scene is like a real life musical!  The people began signing as a nation as soon as they were delivered.  After the men sang the song, the women danced and sang the chorus.  But the important thing was that the song was focused on God’s provision, power, and love.  If only the Israelites could remember this their entire lives!

Questions:  Was this song written by Moses?  Was it written later to express the feelings of Israel at the time?  What was the atmosphere of the people like at this point? 

Lessons: God is a God of war and a God of love.  His holiness demands war, but His grace, mercy, and love demands salvation and deliverance.  God is not just a God of war or a God of love, He is both!