As you can see, this is a continuation of this morning’s message. My earlier purpose was to convey the idea that the Ark of God’s Covenant was a type of Christ Jesus. It was a picture, a figure, a foggy mirror of the Incarnate Son of God. But it would be a mistake to picture it as nothing more than a prophecy of the coming Saviour.
Secularists might have said, even in Moses’ day, that the Ark was nothing but a golden box. It was in indeed a depository; a medium sized safety deposit box. Inside were placed a copy of God’s law, a bit of God’s food and a token God’s government. But despite meaning the same thing, it is better to call it the “Ark of the Covenant” than simply “box.”
The wood with which it was made whispers the story of Jesus’ humanity. The gold which covered the wood shouts out Christ’s deity. The four rings, the crown of gold encircling it, the mercy seat above it and the Cherubim on the Mercy Seat; every physical aspect of that Ark tells a story about Christ. And everything that was ever kept within the Ark speak of Christ. But so does the history through which it passes. When the Ark was with the Philistines at Ashdod and Ekron it was a type of Christ. The Ark was a blessing to the house of Obededom because it represented the Lord. And it was a curse to the people of Bethshemesh for the same reason. It was the Lord of the Ark who brought down the walls of Jericho. And it was before the Ark that Joshua and other national leaders fell when confessing their sin. Whereas others might have seen the Ark in some physical sort of way, the saints of God with our eyes of faith need to see the Lord Jesus.
Between the scripture we considered this morning and Numbers 10, other scriptures speak of the Ark. We have the plans for the construction the Ark in Exodus 25 . It was then put together as God proscribed, by Bezaleel in Exodus 37. The tables of the law were placed inside in Exodus 40, and it was moved into the Tabernacle. Clear and full instructions had been given for its moving and covering in Numbers 3 and 10. It had been anointed with the sanctifying oil in Exodus and it was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then instructions had been given in regard to the sacrifices on Day of Atonement.
Now in Numbers 10, the Ark departs from it’s ordinary place and Israel moves away from Sinai. During the next few days, the Ark, along with the Pillar of Cloud and Fire, will lead Israel in their travels toward Kadesh-Barnea. It was from that place that the twelve spies were sent into the Promised land, searching, recording, gathering and returning forty days later. We know the story, including the fact that Israel refused to take the Lord’s gift of grace. When God responded to their unbelief, declaring that this generation would perish in wilderness, the people changed their minds and determined to storm the land. Ah, but the Ark did not move, and Israel entered the land ahead of God’s will. Israel was slaughtered and left numbers of fresh graves in borders of the land.
For the sake of a 21st Century lesson, I would like to tie these texts together. They paint a picture of the presence and the absence of the Lord in people’s daily lives. When the people followed the Ark; when they followed Christ, they prospered. When the Ark of the Covenant was not among them some sort of disaster fell. There is nothing more practical and important than this.
Please take your thoughts back to chapter 10. The Pillar of Fire which had been diffused and motionless for a year began to gather itself together in an upright shaft, leaning northward. Immediately the priests nervously covered all the furniture of the Tabernacle. Some of the Levites took down the curtains and walls of Israel’s place of worship. Then the Ark was lifted between four strong servants of God, and the nation began move forward. Then Moses loudly prayed: “Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.” Later, a few miles clown the road when the pillar stopped moving, Moses again could be heard: “Return O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel.”
My theme this afternoon is this: This is how our day should begin and end. Without the reality of these things in our lives, we, too, may be slaughtered at Kedish and Hormah. We need to live in the shadow of the Ark of the Covenant – the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tying the two thoughts of verses 35 together we have a pattern set before us.
“Rise up Lord. We need thee.” But wait minute here. Before Israel knew that they were to move, the pillar began move. Wasn’t Moses asking the Lord to do something He was already doing? And wasn’t the Ark of the Covenant, the symbolical presence of Christ already among the people? Yes, indeed, both these things were a fact in Israel. But together they remind us of a very important twofold attitude: And they begin with an earnest desire for the BLESSINGS of the presence of God.
Do you accept as true, the doctrine of the omnipresence of God? Aren’t you, as a Christian, indwelt by the person of the Holy Spirit? There is so much lost by those who have no assurance of those two things.
David’s meditation on these things is awesome: Psalm 139:1-14: “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
It is great to know that the Lord is beside the saint of God in valley of the shadow death. And he’s there in the valley of the Columbia and the Spokane too. He is with us in our greatest joys and our happiest moments, as well as our sorrows and pain.
But the ever-present God will not manifest His presence except in answer to the heart of the saint. Sure, the Ark is there deep in the confines of the Holy of Holies. That glittering sarcophagus was in the very heart of the camp of Israel. It is always there. Ah, but is it’s antitype, our Saviour, at the very heart of the Israelite? That is where the Lord’s interests lay. As I said this morning, “the heart is the heart of the matter.” Beginning and ending every day, beginning and ending every endeavor; starting and finishing every effort – there the Lord desires to be. He doesn’t want to be the alpha and omega of only the lump of creation. He wants to be the alpha and omega of every good thing in your life. To begin, continue and end with God is the secret of a joyful beginning, of a patient continuance and of a triumphal ending. People say, “My Christian life is not what it once was; the joy isn’t there; the challenge is gone.” “Moses isn’t as Spirit-filled as he was last year.” “The congregation isn’t as enthusiastic as it used to be.”
Why isn’t the blessing of the Lord in my life the way that it once was? Let me ask you, does your day begin as Moses’ did? “Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.” When we get out of bed in the morning, do we deliberately set the Ark of the Lord in the forefront? Did you come to the house of God today pleading for the filling of the Holy Spirit? Did you follow the Ark – or did you simply come out of habit or fear of what others might think? Did you ask God to pull out the cork in your life, to empty you of all that might be displeasing to Him? Did you come to the dinner table intending to eat whatever spiritual food He put on your plate?
For most people this is a step on the ladder that we never climb. But it is possible to always have the Ark of the Covenant guiding your steps. It is possible always to have the presence of Christ filling and empowering your heart. The Lord desires that far more than we do. But too often we refuse to follow the Ark, or we want to run into the land when the Ark remains behind.
Consider Moses’ first prayer.
“And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.” We know it to be true, but we often forget that the divine presence is the source of our spiritual energy. We will never preach a sermon with power without the power and blessing of Christ. We will not teach, pray, sing, witness, testify, comfort or encourage with any degree of effectiveness unless the Lord arises and does battle first in our hearts .
And the operative power of Christ will not be given unless it is sought with humility and surrender. “O Lord, there are enemies to be scattered, please arise. There are backbiters, criticizers, doubters, dissemblers and deceivers to silence. There are heretics, blasphemers, unbelievers, and murders of souls to be stopped. And Lord, there appear to be the demons of Hell right here in my own heart.” Do you pray for decisive victories in your life and the lives of others? Surely you know that there is a lack of perfection in your life. Undoubtedly you realize that to be the lighthouse God wants, our church needs the Ark of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. But have YOU sought these things? “Rise up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee, and bring us your blessings.”
It must be noticed that Moses prays that the LORD’S enemies be scattered, not his own. Sometimes we confuse God’s enemies with people who are actually our enemies. I have known Christians who cannot forgive, and thus who hate other Christians. Some of them wouldn’t even be found in the same room, or the same church, as their brethren. It doesn’t hurt the ones they call their “enemies,” but it sure hurts them. It is important that when we call for the arising of Christ, that we are not that enemy. The problem with Israel in Chapter 14 was their own sin and enmity with God. Before we pray with Moses, we need to see whether our heart is in tune with Christ. We must take God’s cause as our own; we must wear the likeness of Christ. We must be in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant.
And by the way, sometimes what we think are God’s enemies are really His blessings. That disease is sometimes the Lord’s tool of choice. That surgeon inflicting his pain on us, may save our lives. Sometimes the Lord knows we need a thorn in the flesh to make us cling to Him more closely.
The second part of the prayer gives us a pattern for when the day is finished.
“And when (the Ark) rested, he said, Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel.” This I fear is something that few Christians ever really consider. Sure we need Lord on Sunday, when the preacher is battling against satanic sinners and apathetic saints. We want the Lord at our side as we face some new Goliath in our lives. But what about the times of relaxation and rest?
Statisticians say that more people are hurt in home accidents than in cars or on the job. And the majority of car accidents occur within ten miles of home. Aren’t there more saints lost to the service of Christ in moment of relaxation than in battle? That’s when the disgruntled get together to share their backslidden opinions. That’s when we listen to some worthless piece of heretical material on the internet. That’s when the we turn to U-tube or Netflix some movie and Satan spreads his perversions.
Look all the havoc wrought in lives of Bible saints during their moments of relaxation. Look at David on the rooftop resting when he should have been at the site of Israel’s battle. Had he been repeating either of Moses’s prayers? Was he praying “Return, O LORD, unto the many thousands of Israel” as he stared at Uriah’s wife? Was Eve hard at work or diligent in prayer when the serpent sashayed up beside her? Did she plead for the presence of Christ as Satan whispered in her ear? Joseph’s brethren were laying back resting when they hatched the plan to sell their brother. We need to take care that the Ark is in the center of lives when we rest as well as when we work. Someone has said, “Work without God unfits us for rest with Him; rest without God unfits for work with Him.” A day is made up of day-time and night-time hours; the Lord cares about them all. A lifetime is made up of thousands of each.
We can test any work, any activity, and relaxation, any amusement by whether or not we can honestly set God’s Ark in their midst. Dare some Christian ask the Lord to bless his lottery gambling? Can we ask Him to honor the work that we do when that work honors His enemy? In chapter 14 Israel without asking, expected God to bless their battle – He refused.
Oh how we need the Ark of the Covenant the center of our lives. I mean right now, and then I mean as you ready yourself for bed; even as you sleep. Then we need to take time to call Him into the center of our hearts for all our activities tomorrow. “Rise up Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered,” – even those deep within my own heart. “Lord, help me to place the Ark of thy Covenant in the Holy of Holies of my heart. “