Youth Sermon 20/07/2023

The Bible: The Ark of the covenant.

The ark of the covenant as we touched on it abit lastweek I felt it was a necessary to speak more
about it and lets go abit deeper into it and what its about basically.

So its firstly mentioned in The Book of Exodus. Just a quick ground story on Exodus. The book of
Exodus basically explains the rise of Moses and how he lead God’s people the isralites out of Egypt
and it explains how Moses got the 10 commandments.

It was instructed by God to allow Moses to build the ark of the covenant on Mount Sinai. The bible
gives such specific detail into the size and what was built on it and was used. The materials used was
part wooden, part metal and part pure gold. It was then formed into like a chest like structure. 2
cherubims on either side and to wooden poles so to say on either side to carry it

In the ark of covenant was 3 very powerful and important tools that the powerful men of God used
during this. It said to have contained the 10 Commandments which Moses had possession of them.
Arons rod. It is said to be believed that Arons rod also contained miraculous power together with
Moses rod. Arons rod is mention in the bible in the book of Numbers 16-17 and Exodus 4:14. The
third item that is said to be contained in the ark is a golden pot that had manna. Manna was a type
of food that was miraculously supplied to the people of israel in the wilderness. It was also said it
supplied spiritual nourishment.

The reason for the creation of the ark of the covenant was for God to communicate to Moses and the
high priests. The benefit of the ark was that it carried Gods tangible presence with them wherever it
went with them. It was so powerful that it could not be carried like you were moving or carrying a
normal wooden cupboard or chest. The 2 poles either side of it was there to help carry and move it
along. Inbetween the cheribums is where God presence will be filled and could not be touched.

The priests would then be kept in the tabernacle. Only the high priests had access to the ark.
Sacrifices would then be made to received Gods’s presence and blessings.

The philistines had heard of this and the isralites and philistines got into battles and the priests had
come up with an idea to take the ark of the covenant with them to the battlefield thinking that it
would of helped them but God presence left the ark when this happened and suffered a huge loss on
in the battle.

The reason why Gods presence left the ark was that the people of Isael had indulged themselves in
wordly activities and walked very far away from God and going against the commandments. So when
the Philistines defeated the Israelites it was then stolen by them and taken away. It was then used
again in many other wars and stolen from many others. It actually made its way back to the isralites.

Because of the ark being in so many hands it now said that it is lost and no one knows where it is,
Some say it is in ethopia some say it is in Southern Africa.

But basically in a nutshell the ark of covenant was very important object in the old testament to
Carry Gods’ presence and that it would be his people the people of Israel.
I conclude in saying in todays day and age we don’t need a physical object to justify Gods presence in
our lives and to seek a blessing or comfort. We now have access to Gods presence freely if only we
have faith and trust in him and to follow in Gods plan for our lives. As you can see what happened to
the isralites when they wanted to go to war and when they needed help from God. God turned his
face. Because of the sin that was being caused. So to like us the moment we want to turn to the
world and all it has to offer us God will turn his head like how he turned his head towards isralites
who where considered Gods chosem people in the bible.