The Ark of the Covenant

While working on a new Daniel commentary, I came upon Daniel 1:2 where it says, "And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.”   Notice that it says that the "Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand."

This clearly means that God was allowing Judah to be punished.  Why? - Idolatry and disobedience.  Jeremiah speaks of this in detail in Jeremiah 25:1-9, 11-12; and 29:10-11, which we will discuss at length when we deal with the seventy weeks in chapter 9.  

Note also that it says that King Jehoiakim only took “part of the vessels of the house of God.” Obviously, things were left behind for one reason or another. The most obvious piece seemingly left was the Ark of the Covenant. That is a substantial piece to be left out of the narrative. Remember that it also originally contained the stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written, Aaron’s rod that budded, and some manna which sustained the Israelites in the desert for forty years (Hebrews 9:4).

The last time Scripture mentioned it was forty years before the Babylonian invasion, which was somewhere around 622 BC, when King Josiah had returned it to the temple (2 Chronicles 35:3). 

So, what happened to it? There are many theories, including that it was simply not mentioned, it had been hidden in expectation of the capture by Jeremiah or some of the priests, or that it was possibly destroyed. 

Interestingly, the apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees 2:4-8 suggests that it was the former and even says that Jeremiah hid it in a cave on Mount Nebo, which is modern-day Jordan, where Moses first saw the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 32:49). We have yet to find any archeological evident of that.

Others suggest that it was hidden beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem because there was not enough time to get it out of the city prior to the invasion. 

We do know that it will surface during the time of Jacob’s Trouble; i.e., Tribulation, because Daniel himself tells us that after the Antichrist breaks his covenant that he is going to make with the nation of Israel, the “sacrifice and oblation” will cease (Daniel 9:27).    

With that said, some would also argue that the finding the original ark is not really necessary, because a new one could be made according to the dimensions as given in Exodus 25.

Born Again?

Can members of the Body of Christ today be born agian? 

 

North Greenville University Global Impact Week

We are on the campus of North Greenville University this week for their annual Global Impact Week. What a privilege to be able to represent so many artisans around the world! 

Four Churches

There are four churches identified in the Bible and we  run into problems when we try to say they are the same. 

1. The Church in the Wilderness (Acts 7:38) which is the church that had been called out of Egypt. 

2. The Kingdom Church in the Gospels (Acts 2:47) and most of the book of Acts that was made up predominantly of Jews, but also contained Gentile proselytes. 

3. The Mystery Church revealed through Paul justified freely by grace. The Body of Christ (Colossians 1:18; Romans 11:25, 16:25; Ephesians 3:1-2; 1 Timothy 1:15-16). 

4. The Tribulation Church that will be made up of those who will seal their fates in their own blood by not accepting the Mark of the Beast which are made up of the congregations mentioned in chapters 2 and 3 of the Revelation. They are those who will accept the Gospel of the Kingdom that will be preached again by the 144,000 as per Matthew 24:13-14.

The Table of Nations

Speaking of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, you need to read The Genesis Record by Henry Morris. By the way, it would not make the list of most politically correct books in today's world.  Morris writes about how in Genesis 6 we are told that Noah had three sons (Genesis 6:10). Then in Genesis 10, we have what is called the Table of Nations which describes where each of these sons and their descendants settled after the flood (Genesis 10:1). In short, Shem's descendants are known as Shemites and they settled in what today is the Middle East. It is felt that through Shem's descendant, Joktan, came the Orientals and through his descendant, Peleg came the Asians. Thus, all Jews, Asians, and Orientals are considered to be Shemites. Ham's descendants are known as Hamites and they settled in what today is known as Africa. Japheth's descendants are known as Japhites and they settled in what today is known as Europe. Also, linguistically, through Shem came the Semitic languages; through Ham came the Afro-Asiatic languages, and through Japheth came the Endo-European languages. Religiously, through Shem came Judaism, through Ham came Islam, and through Japheth came Christianity. It goes on and on. Fascinating study! (Chapter 16, The Book of Acts Rightly Divided)