Introduction

Read Exodus 25:10-22

The Ark of the Covenant is the best-known item in the Tabernacle, renowned for its mysterious powers against the enemies of Israel, 1 Samuel 5-6. The Ark of the Covenant resided in the Holy of Holies, the innermost room of the Tabernacle.

Access was only permitted once per year, on the Day of Atonement. Access was restricted to one person only, the high priest. He had to come into the Holy of Holies with the blood of a goat, on behalf of his own and the people of Israel’s sins.

The Ark itself was a small box made of acacia wood, overlaid with gold. It measured 1.15 metres long, 0.7 metres wide and 0.7 metres high. It was carried by two long bars, also made of acacia wood overlaid with gold.

The Ark was God’s throne in His dwelling place in the Tabernacle. Most people associate the Ark of the Covenant with judgement and wrath, and rightly so. The day is soon coming when God will judge the secrets of people’s hearts, Romans 2:16, and “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth”, Romans 1:18. “He who formed the eye, do you think He cannot see? Or He who planted the ear, do you think He does not hear?” Psalm 94:9.

But, there was a cover on the Ark, known as the Mercy Seat, or Propitiation Cover.