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.

Rest in Peace

We don't Die and go to Heaven

Once again Scriptures, the Word of God, answers our question about what happens when we physically die.

Quote from Life Hope and Truth:
While it may be comforting to those struggling to cope with the death of loved ones to think of them as 'looking down from heaven, this belief is false. Instead, God’s Word comforts us with the fact that there is no suffering in the grave. And since there is no thought for those in the grave, there can be no awareness on their part of the passage of time. When they are resurrected, it will be as though they have awakened from sleep.
End Quote

Psalm 146:3 Put not your trust... in mortal man who cannot save. His breath departs (physical death) he returns to the dust (in the grave) on that day his plans come to nothing
Ecclesiastes 9:5 ... the living know they will die but the dead know nothing, they have no more recompense, for even the memory of them has died. Their loves, hates, jealousies have long since perished and they have no more share till the end of time (when Y'shua returns) in all that goes on under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever is in your power to do,do with all your might. For there is no action, no reasoning, no learning, no wisdom in Sheol (the grave) where you are going.

John 6:39-40: (Y'shua is speaking) “This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

It is appointed for all of us to die, but when Y'shua returns to the earth at the last day, his followers who have died will be raised from their graves and given eternal life.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 ... you should not mourn over them who have fallen asleep (died), like other people who have no hope... :14 For if we believe that Y'shua died and rose again, even those who sleep, will Elohim, by Y'shua bring with him. :15 and this we say to you by the word of Messiah, that we who may survive and be alive at the coming of Messiah, will not precede them who have slept. :16 Because our Master Y'shua will himself descend from heaven with a mandate and with the voice of the chief Messenger (angel) and with the trumpet of God; and the dead who are in Messiah will rise first and then we who survive and are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet our Messiah... And so comfort yourselves one another with these words...

We cannot 'rise' to meet Messiah when he returns If we are already in heaven... The dead rise first and the living witness this before they are gathered up as well.

Job 3 (he's about had enough and curses the day he was born and asks why he did not die at birth) ... :13 for now I would be lying in repose, asleep and at rest (dead and buried with those who have died before me)

Y'shua, Son of God, says in John 3:12 - I have explained earthly things and you do not believe. How then will I explain heavenly things? And no man has ascended into Heaven except he who descended from Heaven.

Quote from Bible Info: The Bible compares death to sleep more than fifty times. After death we are asleep, we are unconscious; we are not aware of the passing of time or of what is going on around us. That is what death is like as well. The Bible says, “for the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing… their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, NKJV, see also Psalm 146:4; 115:17). It makes sense that after Lazarus was raised from the dead, he doesn’t share what he saw or experienced. He didn’t have anything to tell, except that once he was dead, and now he is alive! He didn’t experience hell or heaven. He was simply “sleeping” in his tomb. Peter on the Day of Pentecost said the same of King David. “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day…For David did not ascend into the heavens…(Acts 2:29, 34).

John 5:28 Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming when all those who are in the grave will hear his voice!

Once you realize we don't die and go to heaven but we Rest in Peace here in the earth for a time, some questions on other topics may arise. Let me know and we can do another study.