Ark of the Covenant

There are people today who believe they will find the ark of the covenant somewhere on this earth. Members of the Temple Mount claim to know where it is.   If these people were to read Scriptures and believe in God they would learn the Ark of the Covenant was seen in God's Temple in the heavenlies.  Therefore, it is not on this earth.

Hebrews 9:1-4 describes the physical House of God - 

Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was prepared. In its first room were the lampstand, the table, and the consecrated bread. This was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, containing the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

Revelation 11:19 refers to the spiritual House of God - 

Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.

When was the last time it was written of?

1 Chronicles 15:28

.... all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh with shouting, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and with cymbals and the music of harps and lyres.

King David prepared a place for the ark in Jerusalem as the House of God had not been built yet. When Solomon became king, he had his palace and the temple built. When it was finished:

1 Kings 8

Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of God to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its poles. 9-There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where Yahweh had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of the land of Egypt.

The jar of manna and Aaron's staff were no longer present inside the ark. This temple was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Babylonian Empire in 587 BC. What I have learned so far is that no remains of the destroyed temple have ever been found.

2 Kings 24:10 -

At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it. Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon.

So, in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive. As Yahweh had declared, Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the treasures from the house of God and the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple .... He carried into exile all Jerusalem—all the commanders and mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and metalsmiths—ten thousand captives in all. Only the poorest people of the land remained.

Somewhere from the time there is no longer any mention of the ark in Scriptures to this verse in Revelation Yahweh must have removed the ark of the covenant from this earth. A lot of gold treasures are mentioned as being taken to Babylon (Iraq) but there is no specific mention of the ark. No matter who took it or tried to hide it, the Ark of Covenant was seen in His heavenly temple.

Five Years to Build the Ark

What!?

I always thought it took at least one hundred years, maybe even 120 years - that's what the Bible says.

Yeah, but, wait.... there's more. 

We read in Genesis 5:28 that Lamech was 182 years old when his son Noah was born and that he died 595 years later.

In the writings found in the book of Jasher, page 14, we read that Noah was 595 years old when Lamech, his father died. It was then that Yah said to Noah and Methuselah to remind all people of everything He had spoken to them in the days gone by and to turn from their evil ways, but the people did not listen. That is when Yah told Noah that the end of all flesh has come before Him on account of their evil deeds and He would destroy the earth. He instructed Noah how to and where to build a large ark; what to use and how to store provisions etc.... By this time Noah's sons are grown and willing and able to help fulfill this command of Yah.  

Genesis 6:3 ~ Yah said, My breath shall not abide in man forever, since he too is flesh, let the days allowed him be one hundred and twenty years.

This is when Yah started the 120 year countdown to the Flood.  Noah started building the ark 115 years later, after his father died, and finishing when he was 600 years old. In Genesis 7:6 we read that Noah was 600 years old when the Flood came. He had the ark built and provisioned during those remaining five years.

Noah was in his 500th year when he began children and lived another 350 years after the flood (all the days of Noah came to 950 years then he died - Genesis 9:29). He was 502 years old when Shem was born.

In Genesis 11:10 we read that Shem was 100 years old when he begat a son, and this was two years after the flood... that would make him 97 years old when he boarded the ark. Japheth was Noah's first born, a year or two older than Shem and Ham was the youngest.

Genesis 9:24 ~ When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him.... (Ham saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers)

The call from Yah to repent went out 120 years prior to the flood gates opening. With the onset of the final 5 years those same unrepentant ones watched the building of the ark and still didn't get it ... and none of them turned from their evil ways. Oh, but when the rains started falling and the springs started flowing and the waters started rising - all things they had been told beforehand - now they start crying out to Noah to let them come into the ark, after Yah had already closed and sealed the door. It was too late for them to be saved.

Does this ring a bell with any of you? We too have been told the signs of the time of the end. We have been invited to the feast and we best be prepared to arrive before the doors are shut and locked, because then it will be too late to be saved. There will be those crying out to Messiah who will say, go away from me - I never knew you.

It dawned on me that Noah and Methuselah were the two end time witnesses of their day. They gave testimony for 120 years prior to the end of life as they knew it, preaching the Word of Yahweh and reminding people of what was and what was to be.

YHWH will Tell Us What to Do

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Noah is an example of a man who was told of impending danger and did what he was told. He was not concerned about how he might look to his neighbors. He did not put together a committee to discuss the issues. He did not even send the ark plans down to the closest engineer to see if the boat would be sea worthy or if changes should be made in its design. Noah simply acted on what he was told to do. He proved out his faith by putting it into action.

In the Book of Matthew, Y'shua tells us that there will be another day similar to those Mr. And Mrs. Noah faced. They would be days evil men and women following after every manner of sinful way they could devise. It would be a time in which man’s heart would grow so black and hard toward his Creator that judgment and annihilation would be the only way out. It would be a time to once again start over. The time spoken of would not be with another flood though, but rather with a time of great tribulation. This time it would not be a sudden event, but rather one in which man could have time to think about his actions. 

Noah reminds me that day by day I need to be consistent, and to put into action that which I believe. One man can make a difference to those around him if he never loses sight of what he has been called to do. His life is a reason to put our feet on the floor every morning with purpose and to know that we are given another day, not for ourselves, but to move one step closer to fulfilling His purposes for our lives. 

Noah did not see the concept of faith and preparation being two separate issues. Instead he seems to agree that faith without works is a rather useless thing. Noah did not hear the voice of Yahweh and decide to simply pray about it, but instead when he heard that voice he went to his workshop and began cutting the first board.

We can all be very thankful that Noah was not of the mindset that to prepare was a lack of faith. The earth would have been flooded, just as Yah had promised, but instead of Noah and his family living to tell about it, no matter how righteous they were, their lack of putting faith into action would have made them no more than another meal for some very full fish.