'The Ark of the Covenant'
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And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. (Exodus 25:10)
The Ark of the Covenant was constructed from the hard, thorny acacia wood found in the wilderness. It was covered within and overlaid with pure gold. The Ark typifies the Lord Jesus Christ who is "very God of very God and very man of very man." Because the Ark typifies the Lord Jesus it typifies also each son of God who has been changed into the image of Jesus.
In order to be changed into the image of Jesus we must become "wood of His Wood" and "gold of His Gold." It is not possible for corrupt man to imitate God except in an elementary, crude, and partial sense. The only manner in which the "Omega," the "maturity" of Christ can be fulfilled in us is by our partaking of Christ. It must be His Substance and Nature in us or we will come short of the Glory of God.
The Ark of the Covenant contained three items: (1) the golden pot of manna; (2) Aaron’s rod that budded; and (3) the two stone slabs inscribed with the Ten Commandments (Hebrews 9:4).
These three items represent the Character of Christ, the character that will be ours when the Word of God has been brought to maturity in us.
The jar of manna (Exodus 16:33) held a portion of the manna that had come down from God to feed His people from the time that they left the leeks and garlic of Egypt until they had access to the corn of Canaan.
The manna is the portion of Christ that is fed to us each day of our Christian pilgrimage. We have enough grace for one day, enough to overcome the evil of that day.
Our desire for security, to be hedged about with material goods, resists the concept of the manna. We do not want to trust the invisible God to feed us as He does the sparrows or to clothe us as He does the lilies. We seek after riches so we will not have to trust God tomorrow for our food and shelter. The accumulation of money is a substitute for trust in God.
God’s way is to lead us carefully and slowly through the wilderness of testing. Every son of God must be tried in the same manner in which Jesus was tried. One of the trials concerns trusting God and thanking Him for the provision for the moment.
The believer in Christ who finds it difficult to trust God for his needs will miss the will of God. He will occupy his days attempting to "build bigger and better barns." The mature son of God is learning to trust his Father in Heaven for all that is required at any given moment.
God humbles us by "feeding us with manna." He is teaching us not to lean on our own resources or money, our strength, our wisdom or even our own faith, but to depend on His riches, His strength, His wisdom, His faithfulness.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. (Deuteronomy 8:2,3)
One of the temptations that faces every son of God is that of turning stone into bread. If we have supernatural power, if we have in our mouth the creative power of the word of faith, why don’t we use our faith to obtain food, shelter, and the other necessities of life?
It is not God’s will that we use our God-given abilities to lay up for ourselves treasures on the earth or even to provide our needs—except as He directs. Rather, it is His will that we look to Him in every situation so that He may give us what He knows to be best for us.
On some occasions God may allow us to go hungry for a season—and not only for food! God is teaching us to be content with what He provides day by day. The son of God lives, not by resources that he stores up against an unknown future but by the ever-present Word of God that always is directed toward his preservation and blessing.
When the lesson of the manna has been mastered, when our fear that God will forsake us in our hour of need has been overcome, then we live in dependence on the Lord for every aspect of our existence—great and small. We trust in God for the satisfying of every need, and God does supply all our needs through His riches in glory by Christ.
Furthermore, as we learn to delight ourselves in the Lord He gives us the desires of our heart.
God satisfies our needs and desires in His time, in His manner, as He will.
The Christian in whom the Word of God has come to maturity is joyful in the knowledge that each day is the day that the Lord has made and that He who clothes the flower of the field and feeds the sparrow in the tree surely shall supply the needs of His own children.
The Ark of the Covenant contained also Aaron’s rod that budded. Aaron’s rod that budded speaks of the eternal priesthood, of those whom God has chosen, of learning to rest in the flow of the power of incorruptible, resurrection life.
Aaron’s rod has to do with presumption, with the temptation of the pinnacle of the Temple, with the "high hills jumping" (Psalms 68:16), with submission to the government of God. (Remember Korah, Dathan, and Abiram!)
We learn submission, to be a servant, through the cross of Christ. Aaron’s rod was a forerunner of the cross. When the Word of God has come to maturity in us the cross can be seen in us. No son of God will be allowed to rule with Christ until the question of presumption, of self-will, has been settled for eternity.
No human being is eligible to become a living stone in the Temple of God and of Christ until self-will, self-love, self-seeking, presumption, have been crucified in him.
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, along with many others of the leaders of Israel, exemplify the danger of maintaining an attitude of self-seeking while following the cloud and the fire.
Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and on, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: (Numbers 16:1,2)
Why did these nobles rise in rebellion against Moses and Aaron?
They rose against Moses and Aaron as did the Pharisees against Jesus because of religious envy. They wanted to be important in the work of God.
And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? (Numbers 16:3)
The rebels cared nothing about the congregation of the Lord. Like the priests and Pharisees of Jesus’ day they desired to be prominent, to govern the Lord’s people according to their own wishes.
God’s answer to their "concern" for the Lord’s people was to bury them alive.
God then directed Moses to take twelve rods, one for each of the tribes of Israel, and to write the name of the chief man of the tribe on the rod to stand for his tribe. Aaron’s name was written on the rod of Levi (Numbers 17:1-3).
Then the twelve rods were placed before the Lord in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle of the Congregation.
The next day, Moses went into the Tabernacle. None of the rods was changed except the rod of Levi, the rod on which Aaron’s name had been written. Aaron’s rod had brought forth buds, blossoms, and almonds.
Aaron’s rod was kept in the Ark of the Covenant as a "token against the rebels" (Numbers 17:10). So there must be created in the Christian’s heart an eternal insurance against rebellion, against disobedience to the Father’s will.
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