1. The Ark of the Covenant
The Mercy Seat

2. The Ark From: http://www.arkcovenant.com/

3. The Contents of the Ark
The Covenant God made with His people – The Commandments
The Staff of Aaron
The Manna, the Bread from Heaven

4. The Covenant
(Exo 25:21 NRSV) You shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I shall give you.
(Exo 25:22 NRSV) There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant, I will deliver to you all my commands for the Israelites.

5. The Significance of the Covenant
God’s Covenant is not so much about commands, as it is about relationship!
God did not say, “You do this, this and this or you will go to Hell”, but rather, “you do this, this and this, and I will be your God and you will be My people.
The Covenant is understood to be the tablets that the Israelites received at the hand of God through Moses

6. Aaron’s Staff
(Num 17:10 NRSV) And the LORD said to Moses, "Put back the staff of Aaron before the covenant, to be kept as a warning to rebels, so that you may make an end of their complaints against me, or else they will die."

7. Not Just any Staff
This was supposedly the staff that consumed the staff of the pharaoh's magicians
This was the staff that was held over the Red Sea as the Israelites were ultimately delivered from pharaoh’s grasp
This is the staff that was used to the Moses and Aaron to shepherd them to the promised land

8. The Manna
(Exo 16:33 NRSV) And Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD, to be kept throughout your generations."
(Exo 16:34 NRSV) As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the covenant, for safekeeping.
(Exo 16:35 NRSV) The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a habitable land; they ate manna, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
(Exo 16:36 NRSV) An omer is a tenth of an ephah.

9. The Bread from Heaven
This is the bread that came down from heaven to sustain the people in the desert.
While it sustained them in the desert, it did not give them eternal life

10. The Tent
Moses would enter the tent and find himself in God’s presence.
He would have to cover his face because he would be radiant with light around his head
St. Jerome mistranslated to original that talked of “rays of Light” and said “horns of light”… this led Michelangelo to sculpt Moses with horns

11. Michelangelo’s Moses From:http://www. cptryon

12. Seeing God
A great fear of the Israelites stemmed from the belief that one would die if they saw God!
Moses was believed to be truly a friend of God

13. From Tent to Temple The Latin word for “tent” is “tabernacle”
When the Israelites would find stability, they would ultimately build a Temple
Inside the Temple and its central feature was the Holy of Holies.
Behind the “veil” was kept the Ark, the very mercy seat of God.
Josephus recounts that smoke from the sacrifices were constant, and regardless of wind direction, the smoke would ascend vertically at all times

14. The Temple In the Holy of Holies was kept the Ark The Ark’s contents
The tablets of the Law
The Staff of Aaron
The cup of manna

15. The Last mention of the Ark (Jer 3:14 – 19 NRSV)
(Return, O faithless children, says the LORD, for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they shall no longer say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD." It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one be made. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will. In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your ancestors for a heritage. I thought how I would set you among my children, and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful heritage of all the nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

16. Where is the Ark Today?
When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a room in a cave in which he put the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense; then he blocked up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: "The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.
Maccabees 2: 5-7