Dear Friends,
Today I want to look at a passage in Jeremiah 3 concerning the Ark of the Covenant.
Jeremiah 3:14-18
14 "Return, faithless people," declares the LORD, "for I am your husband. I will choose you--one from a town and two from a clan--and bring you to Zion. 15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. 16 In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares the LORD, "men will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18 In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your forefathers as an inheritance
In verse 16 we see the Ark of the Covenant being mentioned by Jeremiah. The Ark of the Covenant was extremely important for Israel and the worship of the Lord. It was kept in the Holy of Holies which is the place where the High Priest entered once a year on Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement to present the sacrifice first for his sin, and then for the sin of the people of Israel. This oft mentioned Ark was the “mercy seat” of God, the place where God received the atoning sacrifice. In the New Testament the book of Hebrews gives us a great summary statement for the Ark.
Hebrews 9:1-5
9:1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 2 A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, 4 which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.
After Jerusalem fell in 586 B.C., the Ark of the Covenant was no longer mentioned in the Temple or the rebuilding of the Temple. Some believe that Jeremiah took the Ark and hid it in a cave that he covered in hopes that the Ark would be kept safe there until the temple could be re-established. Some suggest that the hiding place was under the Temple Mount where the Temple stood, and others suggest that the hiding place was on or near Mt. Nebo where Moses viewed the Promised Land, before his death. Mount Nebo is in modern Jordan a little east and south of Jericho. The point is that the Ark is missing.
In the Second Temple time period which is 515 B.C. until 70 A.D. the Ark is not in the Temple. What was in the Most Holy Place? Hmm. Where is the Ark today? Indiana Jones notwithstanding, no one is certain. There is a Christian Church in Ethiopia that claims to have the Ark, but no one outside of this congregation can confirm this. The whole time of nearly 600 years of the Second Temple the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place and sprinkled the blood of the lamb on what? When Jesus came and died on the cross the scripture mentions that the veil in the Temple was torn from top to bottom at the time of Jesus death. Matthew 27:50-51
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
That would have revealed that the Most Holy Place was empty, and in three days so would be the tomb!
Blessings,
Pastor Mike
Jeremiah spends his life and ministry warning the people of the southern Kingdom (Judah) that the Lord is going to allow them to be destroyed in a very similar way in which the Northern Kingdom (Israel) had been destroyed some 100+ years before. The destruction of the Northern Kingdom happened in the year 722 B.C. and the destruction of the Southern Kingdom happened in 587-586 B.C. He warned the people that the Lord would do for them as He had done for the Northern Kingdom. Most of the people paid no heed to what Jeremiah had to say. How hard it is when the servant of God speaks and seemingly no one listens. In Isaiah 6 we read of the prophecy and vision of Isaiah. When Isaiah answers the call of the Lord he asks how long? The Lord answers until the cities lie in ruin. Will the people listen? The answer is they will be ever seeing and not perceiving; they will be ever hearing and never understanding. In other words the answer is no. Jeremiah faces the same difficulty some 100+ years later.
Early in chapter three (3) the Lord likens the sin of Israel to adultery. He says that Israel has committed adultery and that He waited for them to come to their senses, repent of their decision, and return to their first love. They remain unrepentant and so God gives them a certificate of divorce. God believes that Judah will learn its lesson from the example of Israel, and return to the Lord. But they do not. Here is what the Lord says.
Jeremiah 3:8-11
8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. 9 Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. 10 In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD.
11 The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.
Why do we continue to do the same thing over and over? Someone once said, “Intellectual idiocy is doing something the second time expecting different results than were achieved the first time.” This is the story of Israel (Northern Kingdom) and Judah (Southern Kingdom). My question from verse 11; what is the difference between faithless and unfaithful? God calls Israel faithless and Judah unfaithful. Meshuwbah is the Hebrew word which means apostasy. Apostasy means a total departure or renouncing of one’s faith. This is the word that is translated “faithless” as in Faithless Israel. The second Hebrew word that we need to examine is Bagad which means to act treacherously, deceitfully, faithlessly, or to offend. This is the word that is translated “unfaithful” as in unfaithful Judah. Why doesn’t Judah learn from the example of Israel? See what happens when one is disobedient to the way of the Lord.
Now, the question becomes what does the Church learn from the example of Israel and Judah? Hmm. Where did we put that dunce cap?