Ark of the testimony
The Ark of the testimony,Psalm 22-24
Author Guardian
the book of psalms,reflections,poems,songs,psalmists,david the psalmist,
Lord Father in Jesus name the apostle and high priest whom we confess.(Hebrews 3:1)
we enter through the veil now and we come before you and your word and pray that the
words will iluminate and enter into every area of our being and that it would be
effective and put into action in my life and in our lifes in Jesus name amen
Did you know you are a Priest ?
Did you know you are chosen ?
Did you know as a Christian you are set apart ?
You can walk through the veil and into the holy of Holies !!
For the blood was shed and the curtain was torn , the veil that separated was torn in
two and now a Christian .....( Christ in ) a Christian can walk through and into Gods
presence !!
We in fact have Christ in us and we are Temples of the Holy Spirit.
You could say we are " Levites " we are set apart for special purposes, to be used to
serve our God.
And Jesus is the High Priest and we walk into the Holy Of Holies for God is Holy
Now we begin to look into Psalm 24 ...but firstly lets look at some scripture.
1 Peter 2:9 (New International Version)
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging
to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his
wonderful light.
Isaiah 61:6 But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as
ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you
will boast.
1 Peter 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for
a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ.
Revelation 1:6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father-- to
Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen
We enter within the veil
We can now enter into the holiest presence of God because Jesus received the wages of
sin on our behalf. However, in God’s wondrous grace we have been dressed with the pure
robes of His perfect righteousness. We can now boldly enter into God’s presence for
all eternity.
Hebrews 13 (New International Version)
11The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin
offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12And so Jesus also suffered
outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13Let us, then,
go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14For here we do not have an
enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
15Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the
fruit of lips that confess his name.
In through the we enter boldly approaching His throne, bearing a sacrifice the fruit
of our lips .........
You may ask what has all this got to do with Psalm 24 ? well lets continue and begin to
unravel and unpack Gods word and see the relevance
Numbers 4:15 "When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all
the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out, after that the sons of
Kohath shall come to carry them, so that they will not touch the holy objects and die.
These are the things in the tent of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry.
Deuteronomy 10:8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of
the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him and to bless in His
name until this day
You see God had instructed that only the levites should carry the Ark of the Testimony,
for the Ark of the Testimony needs many people working together and walking together and
people who are chosen and set apart.
We testify of Christ and the Ark of the testimony can be seen as symbolic of Christ
We preach the good news as Christians and we tesitfy of Jesus
Here we see the Ark of the covenant being carried by the levites and Gods prescence
We now are a Holy People and we are Gods Temple
You could say that we are the Ark of the Testimony
We have Jesus in us and He resides in us by His Holy Spirit
But only those who have been washed by the blood, only those who have been cleansed
by the Lamb, Only those who have been purified by the Holy Spirit, Only those who
have clean hands and a pure heart,
Only those who have the inside of the cup clean,
Only those who believe In Jesus and have sought after Him , and walk after Him, and
follow Him and know Him, they can enter through the veil, they can carry the Ark of the
Testimony
Do you remember Acts 19:13-16 ? certain men tried to cast out demons in in the name of
Jesus who Paul preaches ? and the demons attacked the men !! ?
Only the Levites were supposed to carry the Ark of the testimony you see
These were people who were designated to carry the Ark, what a great responsibilty,
What a responsibilty to carry the Ark of the Covenant, the ark of the tesimony
What a Covenant !!
What a service to serve the King of Kings !!
What an honour , what a privilege, but what a responsibility !!
What an accountability, what a task to carry upon our shoulders that yoke
That yoke would not be a yoke carried by one person nor by four but a family of people
In fact in the Levite community had different families designated to different
responsibilities
But all worked together as a body and all had their own responsibilies
And then we come to the Ark of the Testimony being carried off by the philistines in
1 Samuel 5 and we read
1 After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to
Ashdod, 2 brought it into the temple of Dagon and placed it next to his statue
. 3 When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen
with his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD.
So they took Dagon and
returned him to his place. 4 But when they got up early the next morning, there was
Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD.
[This time], both
Dagon's head and the palms of his hands were broken off and lying on the threshold. Only
Dagon's torso remained
You see people saw that the Ark brought blessing and they thought that they could
capture the Ark and so they would receive the same blessing
But we see, God is not to be used, and God will not bow to another.
You see every knee shall bow before God and every tongue confess
The Philistines thought that by capturing the Ark that they would receive the blessing,
They thought that God would be with them, but God does not bow to man, nor does God
bow to an idol. You see the Old testament is a fore shadow of things
The Ark of the testimony is a kind of Jesus, a type of, a shadow of, the philistines
could no more enter through the veil than anyone else can, for the only way to enter
through the veil is to know Jesus, how do you know Jesus , ? well first He calls you.
First you hear His voice
First you receive and you respond and you then with your heart, enter through the
curtain, you enter through the veil,He draws you, you go through the waters, you
escape from Egypt,
You pass through the waters, you ask Jesus into your life and you proclaim Him
Lord of Lords and King of Kings ,You testify of Him, He enables you to continue to
walk with Him and He gives you the strength and He gives you the Faith and He gives you
the insight and He gives you the power and He gives you the grace.
You know Moses walked up the Mountain and he talked to God face to face althought no
man has seen His face and lived, and yet it states
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
You see seeing God they will , but seeing God is not just with the eyes , but God gives
a sight of faith, He gives a sight that is not seen with the normal eye, He gives a
sight that enables us to see beyond eyesight and beyond the nornal sight to the super
natural sight
Because God is a God of the supernatural
When you really know a person you do not know them by what you see with your eyes but
you know them by what you see inside them, you know them by experience, you known them
by seeing past the normal and into their being
To really know a person is not by sight , it is not by normal sight , and this
can only come via God, and to hear is not to hear by the normal
hearing but to hear by the super natual hearing,
And to understand is not to understand
by the natural, for when we are in the Kingdom we understand by Kingship
understanding. we see how the King see's and we begin to have our eyes opened
In the new earth when we have passed from this life and into the next we will hear by
knowing and we shall see without eyes, and we shall hear without ears, for we shall know by
simply understanding and knowing and seeing through God
Now back to the Ark and we see that the Ark was being carried by a cart and we see that
David had copied the philistines and had put the ark onto a cart and we see that the
oxen carrying the load had stumbled they had stumbled on the threshing floor
The threshing floor should have been the last place where the oxen would have stumbled,!!
For the threshing floor would have been level,hard soil and yet the oxen stumbled and
Uzzah stretched out His hands and you may think well this was a natural thing, it was
a natural impulse....
Uzzah thought it was a good thing to reach out His hands to save the Ark as if Jesus
needed saving and you may think well why did God strike Him down dead. ?
You might also consider why do so many die in their sins ? why do all these good people
in thw world die and yet not be born again ?
Why is it that there is a divide ?
Why is there a threshing floor ?
Why is it that God allows these poeple to prosper and yet when they die they die ?
Why is it that these people reach out to to do good things and yet they are smited ?
Why are these good works smited ? why are they seen as dead before God ?
Why are mans best deeds like filthy rags ?
Why is it that these cups that are so clean on the outside and seem to do good, come to
the end of their lifes and are undrinkable ?
why is it that God even allows these people to be in the first place ?
Why did He allow me to have life ? why did He allow me to walk without Him for so many
years ?
Why does God allow the Uzzah's of the world ?
As if they could save themselves by good works , as if they could instinctively save
God and save themselves, as if they could take God and His works and do it all by
human effort !!
As if they could be saved by good works , as if they could reach out their hands and be
saved ? I wonder what happend to Uzzah ? do you think He was saved ?
Why did God let this man share in the abundance of life ? why did God allow this man
to share and be a part of His creation, Why does God allow those who do not know Him to
continue to live ? knowing that they will never come to Him?
why does God allow those who walk in darkness to continue to walk in darkness ?
So many questions are,nt there ? these questions can only be answered when we are given
insight by God
You see the world is full of Uzzah's !!
But back to the Ark ...
You see the Philistines in the end wanted to get rid of the Ark of the Testimony for
they saw that their god dagon was broken and nothing before the God of Gods and
Lord of Lords and so they put the Ark onto a cart with oxen
And David wanted to parade the Ark into the City of Jerusalem in the same way, He had
put the Ark of the Testimonty on a cart in the same way as the Philistines
You see obedience is better than sacrifice and David and His men were not doing things
in obedience to instructions
And David had forgotten, their he was marching and dancing and the man were rejoicing
and he was marching into the City and suddenly the oxen stumbled on the threshing floor
This was not an accident and the last place the oxen would and should have stumbled was
on the threshing floor
You see God is Holy, and He requires obedience,
When the Philistines captuered the Ark Of The Testimony they took it into the house of
dagon 1 Sam 5:2-5 and dagon the god of the philistines was found to be face down and
dagons head was broken off and his hands ( Note and his hands )
Every knee shall bow and every tonuge confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
When Moses went up to the mountain to talk to God, no unclean thing was to touch the
mountain for if anyone unclean touched the mountain or any beast they would surely die
Exodus 20:1-17 Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 "I am the LORD your God, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 "You shall have
no other gods before Me
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above
or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
Exodus 19
12 Warn the people that they are forbidden to touch any part of the mountain. Anyone
who does will be put to death,
When Moses was speaking to God and the people worshipped the Golden calf they had put
together all their possessions, these things such as ear rings and rings and jewelry
of all kinds were very valuable to the people,
These things would have been passed
down from generation to generation, you see it was'nt the golden calf that they
worshipped but the spirit behind the golden calf, they were worshipping the objects
most valuable to them
The material things that would have been more of sentimental value, more worth than
the gold itself, jewelry that would have been passed down from mother to daughter
father to son, they were worshipping the most valuable objects of material worth to them
Of course this happens now in our modern world all the time, where even material wealth
and possessions are sometimes seen as more valuable even than people
And so we come back to The Oxen stumbling on the threshing floor...you see this was a
barn floor
Matthew 3:12 - His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor,
gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
The last place you would have thought an oxen would have stumbled ?
The last place you would have thought the saviour of the world would have been born
was in a stable ?
Isaiah 8:14-15 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for
a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be
broken, and be snared, and be taken.
And so Uzzah reaches out his hands to steady the Ark in 1 Chronicles 13:9 and at this
time David was singing and dancing with the men playing harps, lyres, tambourines,
cymbals and trumpets.
They were rejoysing and in triumphant Procession they marched towards Jerusalem
Then suddenly Uzzah is killed , he reaches out his hands and is killed instantly
You see God is Holy and only the Levites should have caried the Ark of the testimony,
it should have been carried in the proper way , not with oxen but with many many men on
poles
Men designated by God for this purpose...
And so as soon as they reached the threshing floor the oxen stumbled and the cart tipped
and Uzzah is dead and David is hurt and instead of taking the Ark of the Covenant into
Jeruslam he takes it to the house of Obed-Edom
And the Ark stays there for 3 months and God blessed the house of Obed-Edom
And so finally David does as instructed by God and gathers together the levites
David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to
sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.
with the sounding of rams' horns and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres
and harps.
They marched into Jerusalem, and David danced before the Lord and before the Ark of
the Testimony, and what a testimony, what a responsibility, what a word to preach,
what an accountability, what a mission, what a commission ?
What a responsiblitiy and commission we have as Christians to testify and to preach the
good news as we carry with us the Ark of the testimony, for Jesus is in us
He is the rock that makes some stumble and others separate, he is the threshing floor
which divides, He is the sword that separates
And now we come to Psalm 24 and Psalm 24 was written as David moved the Ark of the
Testimony from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem, this Psalm was a celebration of
that event as David danced before the Lord and brought the Ark of the Testimony into
Jerusalem
This is a time of rejoising and singing for some as Jesus/God enters in and the Temple
is blessed, for others it is a bad thing, to the philistine who uses God for his own
selfish purposes and fame Jesus is not welcome
2 Corinthians 2:16
To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is
equal to such a task?
To some the Rock that saves is also the Rock that makes them stumble
For some who reach out their hands in good deeds and good works only find their works
are dead, only to maybe find they have reached the threshing floor of divide
To some who know Jesus and the testimony of Jesus it is a responsibility unto God to
serve the King of Kings and He to is responsible to us as a Father
To some who do not listen and take God things into their own hands ...they will find
once they get to the threshing floor they will find their works as dead
Only through Jesus and His blood can we enter into the Holy of Holies
Psalm 24 ends with WHO IS THE KING OF GLORY " .
" THE LORD STRONG AND MIGHTY, THE LORD MIGHTY IN BATTLE " .
As the time came for the people to enter into the Temple at Jerusalem the priests inside
( Levites ) would shout out " WHO IS THE KING OF GLORY "
And the peoples outside would shout back " THE LORD STRONG AND MIGHTY,
THE LORD MIGHTY IN BATTLE "
And this would repeat over and over until the Temple gates were flung wide
Lets fling wide the Temple gates and see the Lord of Glory enter in
For He is God among men, Emmanuel, He is The Ark Of The Testimony, He is the Ark of
the Covenant, He is the testimony that we carry and He is the one inside our Temple
Rejoice and dance as David danced and play musical instruments and sing a new song
from the heart and let the worship of your life resound as a testimony and let the words
of your mouth be a testimony,
But do not forget in the wrong hands the blessing can be
a stumbling block, for unless the Lord builds the house they labour in vain that build
it
Listen, seek, hear, be obedient, God does not always give to us first, it sometimes
requires action on our part, first do and then He acquips, first walk then He
strengthens, first ask then He answers, first go out ...then He gives, first act on
your calling and then he gives you the ability,
But first let Jesus enter into your Temple, your body, your life, your heart, the areas
of your life that He has'nt yet been given access to !!
He is knocking, He is waitng , He repeats over and over and over,
" Who is the King of glory ? "
He wants you to answewr, "THE LORD STRONG AND MIGHTY, THE LORD MIGHTY IN BATTLE "
He wants you to answer Him and ask Him into your life not just
once but every day as you open up the temple gates and let the King of Glory into every
area
Lets pray
Lord you are the Ark of the Testinomy that I have in me, you are the Holy One, you Are
the bread of life and the light of the world, help me and give me the ability to answer
my calling as I first reach out to you and carry the load with you, for your yoke is
easy and your burdon is light, but I am accountable to you and I will march into that
Holy City with rejoicing and dance before you In Jesus name amen
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