MANNA IN THE ARK
God is a God of deliverance and freedom. This is a lesson he teaches us through the people of the past. When the children of Israel were delivered from Egyptian bondage, they were led to the wilderness of Sinai. God was leading them and teaching them things that they needed to know about him, for they were in their infant stage of development. Their understanding of who God is was limited.
Everything that we read about in the Old Testament—and especially is this true regarding the exodus from Egypt and the giving of the law at Sinai—had a better covenant in view. The covenant of Moses was a type or a shadow. It pointed to something better that was coming a long time in the future. For now, the people had to be taught about the holiness of God and the seriousness of sin.
God gave them a provisional place of worship, called the Tabernacle, which, although it was basically just a big tent, held the truth of God’s holiness that they needed to learn. If you do not keep in mind that God was preparing the way for Jesus to enter the world and that everything he did during this time was to teach people about and to prepare for the New Covenant of Christ, you will never understand anything that is going on in the Old Testament.
There were two rooms in the Tabernacle, and each of them was very significant. The Holy Place was where the priests ministered daily. It was the “outer room.” The “inner room” was the Most Holy Place. The only one allowed entrance into the Most Holy Place was the High Priest, once a year, on the Day of Atonement.
The Most Holy Place—the “Holy of Holies”—represented the presence of God. The lesson is clear: no one enters the presence of God except the High Priest. That High Priest was a picture of Jesus who is our High Priest today and forever, and if you read Hebrews chapter 10, you have the full revelation of what all of that was about. We enter the presence of God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You mean the High Priest was about Jesus? The Tabernacle was about Jesus? All of the sacrifices of the Old Testament were about Jesus? Yes, yes and yes.
Inside this inner room, the Most Holy Place, was a chest called the Ark of the Covenant. There is much to learn from this Ark, lessons that are relevant to those who are in Christ today (Rom. 15:4; Heb. 9:9). A lot of people know this only as the artifact Indiana Jones once sought. But it was a real object, and a highly significant one in the development of the people of God and their understanding of who their God is. We understand more about him by reflecting upon some of these things, as well.
Several important and significant items were contained within the Ark of the Covenant: Aaron’s staff (Num. 17:10), a small pot of manna (Exodus 16:32-33), and the two stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written. Hebrews 9:4 states this: “Which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.” The cover of the ark was called the mercy-seat (Exodus 25:17), above which were two golden cherubim, expressive of a particular classification of angels (Exodus 25:18; Gen. 3:24).
The lessons learned from the objects in the Ark of the Covenant are many. It would take a significant volume to explore all of these details, but let us consider just a few things that will hopefully serve as an impetus to further reflection on the part of each individual believer in Jesus.
The Ark of the Covenant contained some of the manna with which God had fed Israel in the wilderness. Here we are reminded of the grand and glorious truth that God is our provider. “Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes to us from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17) God gives us life, breath and everything else we have (Acts 17:25). He provides us physical life and, through Jesus Christ, he gives us eternal spiritual life.
The manna reminds us of a very significant time in Israel’s history when God took care of them on a daily basis, literally feeding them with bread from heaven. The Israelites were wanderers in a barren wasteland for forty years. How did they survive? God kept his promises and provided for them. There were millions of people in this group, and yet, God gave them daily food. This “bread from heaven” was divinely given fresh each day (Exodus 16:4-15).
So when the Tabernacle was set up, a small vessel of this manna was placed in the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 16:33-34). Its presence served as a reminder that God is the only true and living God and he takes care of his people. We need to trust him. He has proven time and again that he is able to take care of us and that he is willing to do so. God’s people continually rebelled against him, and it is interesting that somehow the manna disappeared, for when the temple that Solomon built was dedicated, the only thing in the Ark was the stone tablets.
We live under the new and “better” covenant to which the old and lesser covenant pointed. Everything in the Old Testament points to our life in Christ. The lesson we need to learn is that God has always taken care of his people and he will do so today. God providentially and powerfully works to take care of us. When we seek the kingdom of God first, everything else is taken care of (Matt. 6:33; Phil. 4:19).
Dewayne Dunaway
