Ark Of The Covenant Quotes

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment...But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment

I believe that we are arks of the covenant and our true nature is not rage or deceit or terror or logic or craft or even sorrow. It is longing.

God is always pressing forward with His people. The Ark of the Covenant represents the "Glory and Presence" of God.

The Ark of the Covenant is a Golden Rectangle because its rectangular shape is in the proportions of the Golden Ratio.

The Ark of the Covenant was more than a golden vessel that contained a few relics of the past; it was the physical reminder that the Creator of the universe himself had deigned to dwell among his people.

A vast tenderness swept him, and a great reverence. Now she belonged to him and her face was his to shield. In regret and joy he draped her, his personal Torah, which now must be returned to the ark to await their covenant.

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

a team of Japanese engineers had recently tried to build a 35-feet-high replica of the Great Pyramid (rather smaller than the original, which was 481 feet 5 inches in height). The team started off by limiting itself strictly to techniques proved by archaeology to have been in use during the Fourth Dynasty. However, construction of the replica under these limitations turned out to be impossible and, in due course, modern earth-moving, quarrying and lifting machines were brought to the site. Still no worthwhile progress was made. Ultimately, with some embarrassment, the project had to be abandoned.175

We look at the Ark of the Covenant and remember who we are.

ark of the covenant of the LORD,

14So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing  lthe ark of the covenant before the people,

9And Joshua set up [2] twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan,  bin the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.

Jefferson believed in the future, and why not? His own lifetime was testament to the possibility of political and intellectual progress. The past, he thought, should hold no magical, unexamined claim over the present. “Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched,” he wrote in 1816.40 They

So the manger has in some sense become the Ark of the Covenant, in which God is mysteriously hidden among men, and before which the time has come for “ox and ass”—humanity made up of Jews and Gentiles—to acknowledge God.

In the end, Noah's labor resulted in far more than a simple ark that stayed afloat. All those hours co-laboring with God led to something far greater: a rainbow, a promise, a covenant between God and every living creature on earth.

Normally, you don’t think about how many times you do laps. If you do, you start to get a little dizzy, go all Camus about the futility of the situation. Your laces on the right side start to get loose from always turning against them. Normally I switch it up, do a little fancy footwork and skate backward for a bit, but what if that messed up the youth magic? What if I sped up time instead of reversing it and my face melted off like the Nazis when they opened the Ark of the Covenant?

The others were staring at Eddie and Susannah with expressions of uncomprehending amazement; it was as if the interlopers had suggested to a bunch of born again Christians that they hunt up the Ark of the Covenant and turn it into a pay toilet.

8At that time  zthe LORD set apart the tribe of Levi  ato carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD  bto stand before the LORD to minister to him and  cto bless in his name, to this day. 9 dTherefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The LORD

To treat the founding documents as Scripture would be to become a slave to the past. “Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched,” Jefferson conceded. But when they do, “They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human.

To treat the founding documents as Scripture would be to become a slave to the past. “Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched,” Jefferson conceded. But when they do, “They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human.”33

For the first time, there’s no barrier between us and we make eye contact. All of a sudden, I feel like the character in Raiders of the Lost Ark—the one who watches in horror as the wispy, beautiful angels floating from the Ark of the Covenant morph into howling, homicidal demons. You know, right before he melts like a cheap candle.

The first glimpse of the power or function of the Shekinah is seen in the meaning of her name, which is derived from the Hebrew root Shakhan meaning ‘to dwell’. This meaning hints at her tangible presence as a visible manifestation of the light of wisdom in the books of the Old Testament, as the burning bush seen by Moses, in the Ark of the Covenant and in the Temple of Solomon. 

Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs? Where is your tribal memory? Sirs, in that gray vault. The sea. The sea has locked them up. The sea is History. First, there was the heaving oil, heavy as chaos; then, likea light at the end of a tunnel, the lantern of a caravel, and that was Genesis. Then there were the packed cries, the shit, the moaning: Exodus. Bone soldered by coral to bone, mosaics mantled by the benediction of the shark's shadow, that was the Ark of the Covenant. Then came from the plucked wires of sunlight on the sea floor the plangent harp of the Babylonian bondage, as the white cowries clustered like manacles on the drowned women, and those were the ivory bracelets of the Song of Solomon, but the ocean kept turning blank pages looking for History. Then came the men with eyes heavy as anchors who sank without tombs, brigands who barbecued cattle, leaving their charred ribs like palm leaves on the shore, then the foaming, rabid maw of the tidal wave swallowing Port Royal, and that was Jonah, but where is your Renaissance? Sir, it is locked in them sea sands out there past the reef's moiling shelf, where the men-o'-war floated down; strop on these goggles, I'll guide you there myself. It's all subtle and submarine, through colonnades of coral, past the gothic windows of sea fans to where the crusty grouper, onyx-eyed, blinks, weighted by its jewels, like a bald queen; and these groined caves with barnacles pitted like stone are our cathedrals, and the furnace before the hurricanes: Gomorrah. Bones ground by windmills into marl and cornmeal, and that was Lamentations - that was just Lamentations, it was not History; then came, like scum on the river's drying lip, the brown reeds of villages mantling and congealing into towns, and at evening, the midges' choirs, and above them, the spires lancing the side of God as His son set, and that was the New Testament. Then came the white sisters clapping to the waves' progress, and that was Emancipation - jubilation, O jubilation - vanishing swiftly as the sea's lace dries in the sun, but that was not History, that was only faith, and then each rock broke into its own nation; then came the synod of flies, then came the secretarial heron, then came the bullfrog bellowing for a vote, fireflies with bright ideas and bats like jetting ambassadors and the mantis, like khaki police, and the furred caterpillars of judges examining each case closely, and then in the dark ears of ferns and in the salt chuckle of rocks with their sea pools, there was the sound like a rumour without any echo of History, really beginning.

43For there  sthe Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the LORD, the LORD will not be with you.” 44 tBut they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, although neither  uthe ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses departed out of the camp. 45Then  vthe Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them and pursued them, even to  wHormah

Normally, you don’t think about how many times you do laps. If you do, you start to get a little dizzy, go all Camus about the futility of the situation. Your laces on the right side start to get loose from always turning against them. Normally I switch it up, do a little fancy footwork and skate backward for a bit, but what if that messed up the youth magic? What if I sped up time instead of reversing it and my face melted off like the Nazis when they opened the Ark of the Covenant?

The sons of God marry the daughters of men—Men turn to wickedness, the earth is filled with violence, and all flesh is corrupted—The Flood is promised—God establishes His covenant with Noah, who builds an ark to save his family and various living things.

Now let us analyze the other two occupants of the inner Sanctuary or Oracle. They are the two cherubim who guard the Ark ... [and] "The Molten Sea" ...There are also two other elements of the Temple of which they are the image, and these other two units are the Great Pyramid and the Inner Court (The Molten Sea = 137 = MG = Two Cherubim = Great Pyramid = Inner Court. All four of these elements are reflections of each other, and they constitute the real key to understanding the mystery of the Temple of Solomon. ..."The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord" [is] a mirror image of "The Great Pyramid of the Emperor" ....

Did you know that Ethiopia might have fifteen-hundred rock churches? Most are carved ou of rock outcropping. Some date back to the 13th century. Even the locals have forgotten where they are all located. Some are in caves, in the ground, and on top of tabletop mountains like Debre Damo. If the falashas wanted to hide the Ark, they would have lots of choices that were more secure than the middle of Axum.

In can feel God in everything, but especially in nature. But man needed to have a place to see the Lord, and thus the churches were built. It started with Solomon's temple so that the ark of the covenant had a place of quiet and rest, as well as the Israelites. I love churches – those places of encounter, exchange, community, and kindred spirits. But nonetheless, God shines the brightest in nature, and it's manifold beauty. He is everywhere. God is love. And if you feel love for another person, the revelation of God is revealed in its most beautiful way – it resembles the beauty of a flower or the swelling and swaying of a willow tree. Christian faith is gentle and kind. It is full of hope and love and tolerance for all the people wandering this earth. That's what I believe in, and that's what I have experienced.

For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18But  n I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.

They disregarded the Torah — either willfully, or because the knowledge of the laws regarding handling of the Ark was not properly taught generations to generation. They suffered the consequences for such disobedience. The Philistines are not beholden to our laws. They have no such sacred responsibility. However, they still were cursed because of their foolish boast that they’d been victorious over Yahweh — a notion that the pharaoh in Mosheh’s day learned by suffering his own plagues.

Jefferson described and criticized this impulse to attribute to the past “a wisdom more than human” and to treat “constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.”10 Madison’s principal reason for deifying the Founders was his belief that the people could not be trusted to intelligently rule themselves. Citizens must be taught through habit and tradition to obey constituted governmental authority, and reverence for the Founders served that purpose. Without it, the people might too frequently change their constitution, which would “in a great measure, deprive the government of that veneration which time bestows on everything, and without which perhaps the wisest and freest governments would not possess the requisite stability.” Experiments in the system of government were “of too ticklish a nature to be unnecessarily multiplied.” It was dangerous to “disturb the public tranquility by interesting too strongly the public passions.

Statues of Saints CHALLENGE “The Catholic use of statues of saints is idolatry.” DEFENSE Idolatry involves worshipping a statue as a god. That's not what Catholics do with statues. Statues of saints do not represent gods. They represent human beings or angels united with God in heaven. Even the least learned practicing Catholics are aware that statues of saints are not gods, and neither are the saints they represent. If you point to a statue of the Virgin Mary and ask, “Is this a goddess?” or “Is the Virgin Mary a goddess?” you should receive the answer “no” in both cases. If this is the case for the Virgin Mary, the same will be true of any saint. As long as one is not confusing a statue with a god, it is not an idol, and the commandment against idolatry is not violated. This was true in the Bible. At various points, God commanded the Israelites to make statues and images for religious use. For example, in the book of Numbers the Israelites were suffering from a plague of poisonous snakes, and God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole so that those bitten by the snakes could gaze upon the bronze serpent and live (Num. 21:6–9). The act of looking at a statue has no natural power to heal, so this was a religious use. It was only when, centuries later, people began to regard the statue as a god that it was being used as an idol and so was destroyed (2 Kings 18:4). God also commanded that his temple, which represented heaven, be filled with images of the inhabitants of heaven. Thus he originally ordered that craftsmen work images of cherubim (a kind of angel) into curtains of the Tent of Meeting (Exod. 26:1). Later, carvings of cherubim were made on the walls and doors of the temple (1 Kings 6:29–35). Statues were also made. The lid of the Ark of the Covenant included two statues of cherubim that spread their wings toward each other (Exod. 25:18–20), and the temple included giant, fifteen-foot tall statues of cherubim in the holy of holies (1 Kings 6:23–28). Since the Ascension of Christ, the saints have joined the angels in heaven (CCC 1023), making images of them in church appropriate as well.

In ancient times the days before the winter solstice were the most frightening time of the year—the sun was dropping lower and lower in the sky and the days getting shorter and shorter, not to mention colder and colder. If the sun continued its descent, life would end. The people truly feared this. But by the twenty-fifth or so of December they would have been able to ascertain that the days were getting longer again, that the sun was ascending. That’s what the original Christmas celebration was for—the earth had been saved, or reborn, for another year.

The most well known theory concerning the whereabouts of the Ark, made famous by the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, places it in the ruins of the ancient city of Tanis in Egypt. This theory proposes that the Ark was plundered by the Egyptians shortly after Solomon’s death. According to the Old Testament, the pharaoh Sheshonq I of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, raided the Temple, and plundered its treasures (1 Kgs 14:26). Sheshonq I established Tanis as the new Egyptian capital, and so it is here that Indiana Jones discovers the lost Ark in Steven Spielberg’s movie.

We let our ship blow and drift as it will. But it sweeps up and up, with the swiftness of light. In less time than it takes a flower to open, we are carried to the parapets of ancient Heaven. We find our great-leaved, heavy-fruited Amaranth Vine, climbing up over the closed gates and high wall-towers of Heaven and winding a long way into the old forest that has overgrown the streets. We find the new all conquering Springfield vine, spreading branches through the forest like a banyan tree. As this Amaranth from our little earthly village grows thicker, we see by its light a bit pf what the ancient Heaven has been. And it is still a solid place of soil and rock and metal. Where the Springfield Amaranth blooms thickest, shedding luminous glory from the petals in the starlight, this Heaven is shown to be an autumn forest, yet with the cedars of Lebanon, and sandalwood thickets, and the million tropic trees whose seeds have blown here from strange zones of the'planets, and whose patterns are not the patterns of those of our world. Among these, vineclad pillars and walls are still standing, roofed palaces, so gigantic that, when our boat glides down the great streets between them, they overhang our masts. And from branches above us these strange manners of fruits tumble upon our decks for our feasting and delight. And there are beneath our ship, as it sails on as it will, little fields long cleared in the forest, where grows weedy ungathered grain. Through hours and hours of the night our boat goes on, whether we will or no, through starlight and through storm-clouds and through flower-light. And the red star at the masthead and the sight of the proud face of Avanel keeps laughter in my bosom, and the heavenly breeze that blows on the flowers still sings to our hearts: “Springfield Awake, Springfield Aflame.” Out of the storm now, three great rocks . appear, giving forth white light there on the far horizon, and this light burns on and on. At last our ship approaches. We see the great rocks are three empty thrones. These are the thrones of the Trinity, empty for these many years, just as the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies were bereft of the Presence, when Israel sinned.

On reading a translated copy of the covenant, Philip V was horrified. The Muslim ruler of Jerusalem, through his emissary, the viceroy of Islamic Granada, was extending to the Jewish people the hand of eternal peace and friendship. The gesture was occasioned by the recent discovery of the lost ark of the Old Testament and the stone tablets upon which God had etched the Law with His finger. Both were found in perfect condition in a ditch in the Sinai Desert and had awoken in the Muslims, who discovered them, a desire to be circumcised, convert to Judaism, and return the Holy Land to the Jews. However, since this would leave millions of Palestinian Muslims homeless, the King of Jerusalem wanted the Jews to give him France in return. The guilty homeowner Bananias told French authorities that after the Muslim offer, the Jews of France concocted the well-poisoning plot and hired the lepers to carry it out. After reading the translation and several corroborating documents, including a highly incriminating letter from the Muslim King of Tunisia, Philip ordered all Jews in France arrested for “complicity . . . to bring about the death of the people and the subjects of the kingdom.” Two years later, any Jewish survivors of the royal terror were exiled from the country.   The

See? I long to be your spiritual guide. I really do, and I will. Love is my motive, rather than any elevated belief in my own knowledge, contemplative work, experience, or maturity. And may God correct what I get wrong. For he knows everything, and I only know in part.1 Now to satisfy your proud intellect, I will praise the work of contemplation. You should know that if those engaged in this work had the linguistic talent to express exactly what they’re experiencing, then every scholar of Christianity would be amazed by their wisdom. It’s true! In comparison, all theological erudition would look like total nonsense. No wonder, then, that my clumsy human speech can’t describe the immense value of this work to you, and God forbid that the limitations of our finite language should desecrate and distort it. No, this must not and will not happen. God forbid that I would ever want that! For our analysis of contemplation and the exercise itself are two entirely different things. What we say of it is not it, but merely a description. So, since we can’t define it, let’s describe it. This will baffle all intellectual conceit, especially yours, which is the sole reason I’m writing this letter. I want to start off by asking you a question. What is the essence of human spiritual perfection, and what are its qualities? I’ll answer this for you. On earth, spiritual perfection is only possible through the union between God and the human soul in consummate love. This perfection is pure and so sublime that it surpasses our human understanding, and that’s why it can’t be directly grasped or observed. But wherever we see its consequences, we know that the essence of contemplation abounds there. So, if I tell you that this spiritual discipline is better than all others, then I must first prove it by describing what mature love looks like. This spiritual exercise grows virtues. Look within yourself as you contemplate and also examine the nature of every virtue. You’ll find that all virtues are found in and nurtured by contemplation with no distortion or degeneration of their purposes. I’m not going to single out any particular virtue here for discussion. I don’t need to because you can find them described in other things I’ve written.2 I’ll only comment here that contemplative prayer, when done right, is the respectful love and ripe fruit that I discuss in your little Letter on Prayer. It’s the cloud of unknowing, the hidden love-longing offered by a pure spirit. It’s the Ark of the Covenant.3 It’s the mystical theology of Dionysius, the wisdom and treasure of his “bright darkness” and “unknown knowing.” It takes you into silence, far from thoughts and words. It makes your prayer very short. In it, you learn how to reject and forget the world.

Noah and the Flood 9These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, [3] for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. [4] Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, [5] its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16Make a roof [6] for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

The Ark was a humble piece of religious furniture which originally contained the covenant itself. It was dear to the Israelites, reminding them of their lowly origins, and standing for the pristine orthodoxy and purity of their theocratic creed. The Bible account gives later justifications for David’s failure to build a temple for it: God would not allow him, as he was above all a warrior, a ‘man of blood’; it was also said that he was too busy making war.172

Legacy of Love In the future, when your children ask you, “What do these stones mean?” tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. —JOSHUA 4:6-7     In your family’s history there are probably many examples of sacrifice—some you may know about, but many other sacrifices probably took place and were not recorded, mentioned, or elaborated on in family stories and journals. Consider how you have learned life lessons from those who did make sacrifices. What pleasures or luxuries or privileges do you enjoy today because of the toils and trials of past generations? How you honor such sacrifices becomes a part of your legacy to the next generation. If you are raising a family with God’s love and truth, that is honoring your life and the lives of those before you. If you are mentoring other women or girls, that is honoring the labor of many women of the past. When you have compassion on a stranger, that is honoring the acts of service that took place before you were born. We never want to let future generations forget what great sacrifices were made in order for us to be the persons, the families, and the nation we are. That’s why traditions are so important in life. They are attempts to pass on to future generations what of value has been passed on to us today. Joshua built a monument of stones so that the children of the future would ask about them and about their own heritage. What will your legacy be? What do you hope your children or your friends or your loved ones will carry with them after you are gone? Commit your ways to the ways of God, and your legacy will endure. It will become a heritage of faith and faithfulness that will help to encourage and inspire others. Your legacy won’t be in material possessions or in the details of a will. Your legacy will be discovered in the stones…the stepping stones…that created your path—each stone carved and polished by the Creator Himself. Prayer: Father God, remind me of the sacrifices made by those believers who persevered before

Every other Massachusetts town founded before 1660 was named after an English community. Of thirty-five such names, at least eighteen (57%) were drawn from East Anglia and twenty-two (63%) from seven eastern counties. Most were named after English towns within sixty miles of the village of Haverhill.2 As the Puritans moved beyond the borders of New England to other colonies, their place names continued to come from the east of England. When they settled Long Island, they named their county Suffolk. In the Connecticut Valley, their first county was called Hartford. When they founded a colony in New Jersey, the most important town was called the New Ark of the Covenant (now the modern city of Newark) and the county was named Essex. In general, the proportion of eastern and East Anglian place names in Massachusetts and its affiliated colonies was 60 percent—exactly the same as in genealogies and ship lists.

I knew that the first Europeans to arrive in Ethiopia had addressed the monarchs of that country as ‘Prester John.’ This use of the sacred relic as a war palladium – and as an effective one at that – was not, according to Archpriest Solomon [Gabre Selassie, Head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Britain], just something that had happened in Ethiopia’s distant past. On the contrary: ‘As recently as 1896 when the King of Kings Menelik the Second fought against the Italian aggressors at the battle of Adowa in Tigray region, the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant into the field to confront the invaders. As a result of this, Menelik was very victorious and returned to Addis Abada in great honour.’ I re-read this part of the reply with considerable interest because I knew that Menelik II had indeed been ‘very victorious’ in 1896. In that year, under the command of General Baratieri, 17,700 Italian troops equipped with heavy artillery and the latest weapons had marched up into the Abyssinian highlands from the Eritrean coastal strip intent on colonizing the whole country. Menelik’s forces, though ill prepared and less well armed, had met them at Adowa on the morning of 1 March, winning in less than six hours what one historian had subsequently described as ‘the most notable victory of an African over a European army since the time of Hannibal.’ In a similar tone, the London Spectator of 7 March 1896 commented: ‘The Italians have suffered a great disaster… greater than has ever occurred to white men in Africa.

According to Rabbinical tradition, the broken tablets of the covenant were deposited in the ark beside the new. In like [pg 005] manner the truths held sacred by the past, but found inadequate in their expression for a new generation, must be placed side by side with the deeper and more clarified truths of an advanced age, that they may appear together as the one divine truth reflected in different rays of light.

Solomon was commissioned by angels to build a temple for storing the Ark of the Covenant. He was offered any payment he could imagine, but he only asked for wisdom. To reward his humility, he was granted magic powers

For would it not have been a profanation of the Ark of the Covenant to maintain that everybody might seize it, carry it home, take it all to pieces and then give it what form he liked provided that it had some semblance of an ark?

I want to see if it contains the stone slabs written by the finger of God. I don’t want to take a chance on it shocking you.” Achava went to the rear of the plane and opened the box. “This is it—the original Ten Commandments. When we get it back to the Ark of the Covenant, our mission will be complete.

wonder what city the ‘Son of David’ is going to enter in triumph to claim his universal kingship? Why, Jerusalem of course, where he will claim the holy temple and demand eternal priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. And there you have it. The Messiah as prophet, priest and king. But why wait? Let us go there right now.” The wind whipped up around Jesus. Sand got in his eyes. He closed them tight and stood up from the ground. When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing at the pinnacle of the holy temple in Jerusalem with Belial beside him smiling. Beneath this roof, the holy of holies resided, where the cherubim images guarded the ark of the covenant, the very royal throne and footstool of Yahweh Elohim on earth. And that throne room was a shadow, a mirror of reality of Yahweh’s true throne room in the heavens above the waters. Thus, the saying, “On earth as it is in heaven.” It was a good sixty feet drop to the bottom of this temple. He could see the priests going about their daily sacrifices in the court below. Beyond, in the women’s courtyard and in the outer court of the Gentiles, Jews were milling about engaging in temple duties, completely unaware of these two observers peering down from the golden trimmed roof. Belial’s previous sarcasm turned smooth and testy.

Inside was the holy place, a huge candelabra, some incense stands, and then the curtained Holy of Holies where the Ark of Covenant housed their god Yahweh. Or at least that is all Longinus had been told by his rabbi informant.

then the Israelite’s secret weapon was brought to the fore of the lines: The Ark of the Covenant. The gold plated box glittered in the sun. It was carried on its poles by priests and accompanied by the high priest Eleazer. Caleb rose and Eleazer pronounced a benediction on him. “Caleb ben Jephunneh, Yahweh is with you! Yahweh is with Israel! Trust in him with all your heart and lean not on your own strength, but upon the Spirit of Yahweh Elohim! He will fight for you! Be strong and courageous! Do not fear this Seed of the Serpent!” Caleb turned to address the soldiers with Othniel proudly by his side. “Let all of Israel stand in awe and wonder, for our god will deliver us!” The men cheered. They believed him for the moment, as all good soldiers do. “Shout to the Lord and praise his name before the shadow of thine enemies!” The army of Yahweh responded with a shout that rang throughout the valley in such thunderous unison that it was now the Anakim’s turn to have their confidence shaken. It was a predetermined praise of Yahweh that they had been taught. And it almost sounded like the indomitable voices of the Seraphim before the throne of Yahweh, the sound of many voices as one.

As Caleb got caught up into his descriptions they turned more into a narrative as if they were right there in the tent watching it all. “Eleazer opens that curtain with trembling hands, protected by his incense, to stand before the ark of the covenant. The ark is about three and a half feet long by two feet wide and high, and made of acacia wood overlaid with finely crafted gold.

Joshua and Caleb had been anticipating for forty years. They stood side by side with the people of Israel behind them. They followed Yahweh’s very specific directions in how they would cross the river and enter into Canaan. They watched the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant to the water’s edge and step their feet just into the bank, waiting for a miracle. The miracle would have to deal with the fact that this was the springtime, when the river was flooded with a stronger current. At this location it was about one hundred and fifty feet wide and about twelve feet deep. Crossing thousands of people in riverboats would take many days. But Yahweh had promised a sign that he would be true to his word that he would not fail to drive out the inhabitants of the land before them. That sign began seventeen miles north of their location near the city of Adam. An earthquake shook the earth mounds around the river and a large landslide of debris tumbled down causing a temporary damming of the Jordan river. The water stopped flowing southward and dried up the riverbed where the Israelites were standing with the Ark.

As impossible as it seemed, he could feel a barrier protecting her. God killed Uzzah when he touched the Ark of the Covenant. James adjusted the position of his hands.

according to Alamoth; 21Mattithiah, Elipheleh, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah, to direct with harps on the Sheminith; 22Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the music because he was skillful; 23Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark; 24Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, were to blow the trumpets before the ark of God; and Obed-Edom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark. The Ark Is Moved to Jerusalem 25With joy David and the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom.† 26And so it was, when God helped the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, they offered seven bulls and seven rams.† 27David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who bore the ark, the singers, and Chenaniah the music master with the singers. David also wore a linen ephod.† 28Thus all of Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting and the sound of the horn, with trumpets and cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps. 29And it happened, as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the City of David, that Michal, Saul's daughter, looked out through a window and saw King David dancing and playing music; and she despised him in her heart.

If man had kept the law of God, as given to Adam after his fall, preserved by Noah, and observed by Abraham, there would have been no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision. And if the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which circumcision was a sign, they would never have been seduced into idolatry, nor would it have been necessary for them to suffer a life of bondage in Egypt; they would have kept God’s law in mind, and there would have been no necessity for it to be proclaimed from Sinai or engraved upon the tables of stone. And had the people practiced the principles of the Ten Commandments, there would have been no need of the additional directions given to Moses. The sacrificial system, committed to Adam, was also perverted by his descendants. Superstition, idolatry, cruelty, and licentiousness corrupted the simple and significant service that God had appointed. Through long intercourse with idolaters the people of Israel had mingled many heathen customs with their worship; therefore the Lord gave them at Sinai definite instruction concerning the sacrificial service. After the completion of the tabernacle he communicated with Moses from the cloud of glory above the mercy seat, and gave him full directions concerning the system of offerings and the forms of worship to be [365] maintained in the sanctuary. The ceremonial law was thus given to Moses, and by him written in a book. But the law of Ten Commandments spoken from Sinai had been written by God himself on the tables of stone, and was sacredly preserved in the ark. There are many who try to blend these two systems, using the texts that speak of the ceremonial law to prove that the moral law has been abolished; but this is a perversion of the Scriptures. The distinction between the two systems is broad and clear. The ceremonial system was made up of symbols pointing to Christ, to his sacrifice and his priesthood. This ritual law, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be performed by the hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Then all the sacrificial offerings were to cease. It is this law that Christ “took ...out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” Colossians 2:14. But concerning the law of Ten Commandments the psalmist declares, “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.” Psalm 119:89. And Christ himself says, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law.... Verily I say unto you”—making the assertion as emphatic as possible—“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew 5:17, 18. Here he teaches, not merely what the claims of God’s law had been, and were then, but that these claims should hold as long as the heavens and the earth remain. The law of God is as immutable as his throne. It will maintain its claims upon mankind in all ages.

The French monk named Pierre believed that God hid the Ark in a cave, his idea based on 2 Maccabees 2:4-8, an ancient writing excluded from the Bible. “How so?” Peter grew captivated with history. “Apparently, Jehovah enjoyed giving expensive gifts. The Cave of Treasures not only provided shelter for Adam and Eve, it housed God’s tokens of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” Pierre continued. “This particular passage in 2 Maccabees refers to Jeremias, also known as the Prophet Jeremiah. God commanded him to take the Ark of the Covenant to the mountain where Moses went up and saw the inheritance of God.

when Jeremias came to a hollow cave, he carried three things inside: the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Altar of Incense.” Peter was astounded, never having heard this version. “Some people followed Jeremias with the intention to mark the place where the Ark was stowed. The Prophet declared that the place should remain unknown until God gathered together the congregation of the people to receive them in His mercy.

Thus, Mary, after the Annunciation, goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country of Judaea. Elizabeth, as soon as she hears Mary arrive, “shouts out with a great shout” — the same Greek verb as the shout by which the Levites greeted the Ark of the Covenant when King David brought it into Jerusalem. And then John the Baptist, still in her womb, dances with joy, in the same way as David danced before the Ark. In other words: the missing holy objects are all coming back into the restored Temple, a process which will be complete when the Fire comes back, at Pentecost, and the wall of separation between Gentiles and Jews comes down shortly thereafter.

And so it was on that day. As the people prepared to pass over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant moved forward. As their feet touched the water of the Jordan, the waters that ran from upstream began to pile up. It was as though a huge dam had been built and the waters could go no farther. The people grew silent, and Caleb, who stood beside Joshua, said, “It reminds me of when God made a path through the Red Sea.” “That was a miracle in its day, but this is a miracle for us now.

And Joshua had stood on a high rock and cried out loudly, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you, and that He will certainly drive out before you the inhabitants of the land. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.” Then Joshua commanded that twelve men be chosen, one from each tribe of Israel, and that as the priests bore the ark into the water, the Jordan would be cut off. “As He dried up the Red Sea, so will He dry up the Jordan.

Then he stood and cried out with a ringing voice, “In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” When Joshua stopped speaking, a mighty cry of victory went up from Israel. Othniel was standing beside his friend Achan. “If God can dry up the waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, then He can do something about the walls of Jericho too, I expect.

In the words of Paul Johnson: The Temple, now, in Herod’s1 version, rising triumphantly over Jerusalem, was an ocular reminder that Judaism was about Jews and their history—not about anyone else. Other gods flew across the deserts from the East without much difficulty, jettisoning the inconvenient and embarrassing accretions from their past, changing, as it were, their accents and manners as well as their names. But the God of the Jews was still alive and roaring in his Temple, demanding blood, making no attempt to conceal his racial and primitive origins. Herod’s fabric was elegant, modern, sophisticated—he had, indeed, added some Hellenic decorative effects much resented by fundamentalist Jews who constantly sought to destroy them—but nothing could hide the essential business of the Temple, which was the ritual slaughter, consumption, and combustion of sacrificial cattle on a gigantic scale. The place was as vast as a small city. There were literally thousands of priests, attendants, temple-soldiers, and minions. To the unprepared visitor, the dignity and charity of Jewish disapora life, the thoughtful comments and homilies of the Alexandrian synagogue, was quite lost amid the smoke of the pyres, the bellows of terrified beasts, the sluices of blood, the abattoir stench, the unconcealed and unconcealable machinery of tribal religion inflated by modern wealth to an industrial scale. Sophisticated Romans who knew the Judaism of the diaspora found it hard to understand the hostility towards Jews shown by colonial officials who, behind a heavily-armed escort, had witnessed Jerusalem at festival time. Diaspora Judaism, liberal and outward-minded, contained the matrix of a universal religion, but only if it could be cut off from its barbarous origins; and how could so thick and sinewy an umbilical cord be severed? This description of “Herod’s” Temple (actually the Second Temple, built in the sixth century B.C. and rebuilt by Herod) is more than a bit overwrought. The God of the Jews did not roar in his Temple: the insoluble problem was that, since the destruction of the First Temple and, with it, the Ark of the Covenant, God had ceased to be present in his Temple. Nor would animal sacrifice have disgusted the gentiles, since Greeks, Romans, and all ancient peoples offered such sacrifices (though one cannot help wondering whether, had the Second Temple not been destroyed, it would today be ringed from morn to night by indignant animal-rights activists). But Johnson is right to emphasize that Judaism, in its mother city, could display a sweaty tribalism that gentiles would only find unattractive. The partisan, argumentative ambience of first-century Jerusalem, not unlike the atmosphere of the ultra-Orthodox pockets of the contemporary city, could repel any outsider, whether gentile or diaspora Jew. Perhaps most important is Johnson’s shrewd observation that Judaism “contained the matrix of a universal religion.” By this time, the more percipient inhabitants of the Greco-Roman world had come to the conclusion that polytheism, whatever manifestation it might assume, was seriously flawed. The Jews alone, by offering monotheism, offered a unitive vision, not the contradictory and flickering epiphanies of a fanciful pantheon of gods and goddesses. But could Judaism adapt to gentile needs, could it lose its foreign accent and outlandish manners? No one saw the opportunity more clearly than Luke; his gospel and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, present a Jesus and a Jesus Movement specifically tailored to gentile sensibility.

a team of Japanese engineers had recently tried to build a 35-feet-high replica of the Great Pyramid (rather smaller than the original, which was 481 feet 5 inches in height). The team started off by limiting itself strictly to techniques proved by archaeology to have been in use during the Fourth Dynasty. However, construction of the replica under these limitations turned out to be impossible and, in due course, modern earth-moving, quarrying and lifting machines were brought to the site. Still no worthwhile progress was made. Ultimately, with some embarrassment, the project had to be abandoned.

failure of logic in which absence of evidence, which was one thing, was in fact being treated as evidence of absence – which was quite another.

terra

Ark of the Covenant was.

19Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God.g Begin to build the sanctuary of the LORD God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the LORD.

Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel.

Sparx,” I said, breaking into his stream of geekishness, which was making Mark look like he’d found the Holy Grail inside the Ark of the Covenant, and Kyle and Madison look like they’d stumbled into CERN and found a lecture in progress in German.

Ten years ago Lukio fled Kiryat-Yearim, where he'd been adopted by the Levite family who guarded the Ark of the Covenant. Feeling betrayed by everyone, he returned to his birthplace in Philistia to become a famous fighter. Now the champion of Ashdod, Lukio has achieved every goal with the help of his ruthless cousin. But just as he is set to claim the biggest prize of all, the daughter of the king, his past collides with his present in the form of Shoshana, the girl he left behind. From Between The Wild Branches

This is the Ark of the Covenant?” Goodwin nodded affirmatively.  “It’s what these monks have been protecting for many hundreds of years.

The Lamb was coming. When the Lord visited the temple as a boy, it was not his first time there. On that same mountain, he had dwelt in the Most Holy Place, enthroned in his glory above the cherubim on the ark of the covenant. He had seen the generations of high priests entering behind the curtain on the Day of Atonement, watched the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, and seen his people represented as precious stones over the heart of the Levite (Ex. 28:15–30). He had heard as the people outside celebrated when the high priest reemerged with atonement completed, and he had always known that his hour would soon come. And so, it was to Jerusalem, four days before his crucifixion, that the Lamb of God made his way (Luke 9:51).

After Trumpets, we have the Day of Atonement.  This was the One Day a year that the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, going behind the Veil.  This Day coincides with the circumcision of Jesus.  Jesus goes on to live 33 ½ sinless years; He then circumcises the Veil from around the Ark of the Covenant.  Which we know the Ark represents the Heart.  The deeper meaning of circumcision is that of the heart.

The ark stood in the midst of Jordan, till the whole camp of Israel was safely got over into Canaan, Joshua 3:17, and so doth the covenant, which the ark did but typify.  Yea, Christ, covenant and all, stand to secure the saints a safe passage to heaven.  If but one believer drowns, the covenant must drown with him; Christ and the saint are put together as co-heirs of the same inheritance

At the very moment that the veil was rent, Israel’s national status and privileges were ended,14 along with everything that was connected to that special covenant relationship. Aaron’s priesthood was finished, the sacrifices were done, the tabernacle was no longer holy, and the tables of the covenant (Ten Commandments) in the ark of the covenant were no longer in force as the covenant foundation of God’s relationship to Israel.

The tablets of the covenant (Ten Commandments) in the ark represent the just demands of the law covenant. There you see the ‘just, holy, and good law’ of God. The lid of the ark covers the broken covenant of law inside the ark with the blood of atonement. There you see the free gospel of sovereign grace. There is not an ounce of grace or gospel in the law covenant document in the box. It is pure law, demanding perfect obedience as the condition of blessing and death as the consequence of disobedience. The blood on the mercy seat covers and hides the broken covenant and the sins against that covenant

Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched,” he wrote in 1816.40

some people may have difficulty applying these facts to their theological system. For instance, if a person says, “I believe the Ten Commandments are the rule of life for a Christian today,” that person should realize that he is also saying, “I believe the words or terms of the covenant given to Israel and kept in the ark of the covenant are the Christian’s rule of life for today.

I think Einstein was the one who said coincidences were God’s way of remaining anonymous.

Underlying all this controversy was a characteristically Western debate over holy images. The Opus Caroli Regis allowed veneration to be extended to certain material objects that it termed “res sacratae” (holy things). Among these were the Ark of the Covenant, saints’ relics, the consecrated eucharistic elements, the sign of the cross (but not its physical representation), and the Bible—objects regarded as having been sanctified by God and capable of mediating God’s presence or power.

Before the better things of the new covenant could be established, the old covenant things had to be perfectly fulfilled and done away with. Our kinsman redeemer was born under the covenant written on the stone Tables of the Covenant in the ark. He perfectly kept all of that covenant’s terms and earned the life and righteousness that it promised. He earned every blessing it promised because he kept every precept it demanded. He literally brought to the Tables of the Covenant the holy, sinless and obedient life it demanded. Every precept must be fulfilled. Every term had to be obeyed just as every prophecy had to be fulfilled. Not a jot or tittle could be left unfinished. On the cross our Lord’s mind went down through the Old Testament, and he saw one thing in Psalm 69:21 not yet finished (“They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Psalm 69:21). Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:28-30). The moment the last old covenant prophecy was fulfilled, our Lord cried out, “It is finished” and gave up his spirit. The rending of the veil was the evidence that the old was finished and the new had come.

But Dhu Nuwas’s letter gave birth to a rumor that still lives. The kingdom of Himyar had long ago spread across the old territory once governed by the Sabeans, whose queen had journeyed north to see the great Israelite king Solomon in his capital of Jerusalem. And Dhu Nuwas was said to have sworn his oath to the Christians on the Ark. Perhaps the Ark of the Covenant, lost long ago, had in fact been taken down into Sabea by descendents of the queen, and Dhu Nuwas’s oath meant that he had the Ark in his possession; and perhaps Caleb, plundering the capital city of Himyar after his victory, took the Ark back across the Red Sea into Axum. It is still rumored to rest there, in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, in the ancient capital of the Axumites.

Rational procedure is the ark of the covenant of the public philosophy.

All that was in the Ark of the Covenant is in us: the Bread of Life, the rod of priestly authority and the law of God. And the glory that was upon it now shines through us. Act like it! Strike with the sword—speak the Word! “Let God arise” through your intercession “and His enemies be scattered.

Separating the Ten Commandments as the law of the Old Covenant enables Barcellos to, on the one hand, agree that the Old Covenant is totally finished and gone, but, on the other hand, assert that the tables of the covenant, or the Ten Commandments, are still in full force and unchanged under the New Covenant. The law of the Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments, written on the tables of the covenant, remains, unchanged, but the Old Covenant is completely gone. When Barcellos identifies the New Covenant, he can say that it is the death knell of the Old Covenant because he has divorced the tablets of the covenant from the Old Covenant.103 The New Covenant replaces the Old Covenant, but it is the Old Covenant minus the Decalogue. He has denied that the actual treaty/covenant document (the tables of the covenant, the Ten Commandments), kept in the Ark of the Covenant, is a real part of the Old Covenant.

Orthodox theologian Brad Jersak describes a time of exhaustion in his own life, on the verge of burnout, when he learned to attend to his soul in ways that would surely have resonated with Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich, and the apostle Paul. It began with a strange fantasy—a dark cave with a crackling fire—that Brad started visiting regularly in prayer. Day after day he would simply imagine himself in this space, sitting silently with Jesus, sheltering from a storm outside, not even knowing if this counted as prayer. And then one day he “noticed” a surprising thing: the ark of the covenant had also materialized in the cave. This continued for weeks. All verbal prayer had given way to this internal, quiet vision. . . . I began to wonder if this was fruitful, if it was even prayer at all. Perhaps I should have started writing prayer lists again? But I had no heart for that. Even my forays into reading psalms ended with my forehead pasted in the pages of my Bible. All I

It was in my heart to build a house as a resting place for the ark of the Lord’s covenant and as a footstool for our God. I had made preparations to build, 3† but God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for My name because you are a man of war and have shed blood.

The pattern’s been the same forever: They come, they build, maybe they teach. There’s a brief period of maturity, sufficient that later cultures don’t understand how the growth could even be possible. Then, all at once, there’s a reset. Those advanced cultures — Egyptians, Mayans, and on and on — vanish, leaving a handful of dumb ancestors who grow up able to do none of the things the old cultures could.” He raised a hand and ticked off points. “Not just the megaliths, but monuments like the Nazca lines, Sanskrit texts describing Vimanas and other obviously flying craft, the writings in the Zohar of the manna machine, the list goes on. Maybe past visitors have just wiped memories and destroyed records to erase all this knowledge instead of invoking a mass extinction, but then why do we sometimes hear the Ark of the Covenant described as if it were a radiation weapon?

Siku moja, jambo baya litatokea. Labda babu yako au mnyama wako kipenzi atafariki au shangazi yako atagundulika na kansa. Labda utafukuzwa kazi au utaachika kwa mumeo au mkeo mliyependana sana. Labda rafiki yako kipenzi atapata ajali mbaya ya gari na utatakiwa kupeleka taarifa kwa ndugu na marafiki zake. Kutoa taarifa ya jambo baya kwa mtu ni kazi ngumu sawa na kupokea taarifa ya jambo baya kutoka kwa mtu. Kama umeteuliwa kupeleka taarifa ya kifo au ya jambo lolote baya kwa mtu fanya hivyo kwa makini. Toa taarifa ya msiba au ya jambo lolote baya kwa hekima na busara kama Ibrahimu alivyofanya kwa Sara kuhusiana na kafara ya Isaka, si kama Mbenyamini alivyofanya kwa Eli kuhusiana na kutwaliwa kwa sanduku la agano na kuuwawa kwa watoto wake wawili. Jidhibiti kwanza wewe mwenyewe kama umeteuliwa kupeleka taarifa ya kifo au ya jambo lolote baya. Angalia kama wewe ni mtu sahihi wa kupeleka taarifa hiyo. Pangilia mawazo ya kile unachotaka kwenda kukisema au unachotaka kwenda kukiandika. Mwangalie machoni, si usoni, yule unayempelekea taarifa kisha mwambie kwa sauti ya upole nini kimetokea.

Hakimu na Kuhani Mkuu wa Shilo Eli alipata matatizo makubwa wakati wa mgogoro wa Waisraeli na Wafilisti, kati ya mwaka 2871 na 2870 Kabla ya Kristo. Mara tu baada ya kupewa taarifa ya kifo cha watoto wake wawili, Hofni na Finehasi, na kutwaliwa kwa Sanduku la Agano la Bwana wa Majeshi lililohifadhi Amri Kumi za Mungu, Eli alianguka kutoka katika kiti chake na kufariki papo hapo akiwa na umri wa miaka 98. Aidha, mkwe wa Eli, mke wa Finehasi, alijifungua ghafla na kufariki alipopata taarifa ya kifo cha mkwewe na taarifa ya kuuwawa kwa mumewe na ya kutekwa nyara kwa Sanduku la Agano. Mwanajeshi kutoka Benyamini falaula angetumia hekima na busara kutoa taarifa ya kifo na ya kutwaliwa kwa Sanduku la Agano huenda Eli asingefariki, na huenda mkwewe asingejifungua mtoto njiti na huenda asingekufa siku hiyo. Kwani Sanduku la Agano lilirejeshwa nchini Israeli, na Wafilisti wenyewe, baada ya miezi saba tangu litwaliwe, na kifo cha watoto wa Eli yalikuwa mapenzi ya Mungu. Hivyo Eli asingeweza kuzuia kifo cha watoto wake, na Wafilisti wasingeweza kukaa na Sanduku la Agano milele. Lakini katika kafara ya Isaka ambapo Isaka aliamua kujitoa kafara mwenyewe kumfurahisha Mungu na baba yake kama Yesu alivyoamua kujitoa kafara mwenyewe kumfurahisha Mungu na baba yake wa mbinguni, Sara angekufa kama Ibrahimu hangetumia hekima alipomwambia anakwenda kumtolea Bwana kafara ya mwanakondoo wakati akijua anakwenda kumtoa Isaka mtoto wa pekee wa Sara. Hekima inatoka moyoni, busara inatoka mdomoni. Kwa vile suala la kutoa taarifa mbaya kwa mtu ni gumu kwa yule anayetoa na kwa yule anayepokea, hekima na busara havina budi kutumika.

God commanded that the stones engraved with the Ten Commandments, a jar of manna, and the rod of Aaron (who was the first priest of the old covenant) be placed within the ark. Each of these reminders of God’s covenant, placed within the ark, were themselves foreshadowing Christ. He was the fulfillment of the Law (see Mt 5:17; Rom 10:4), the Bread from Heaven (Jn 6:32–35), and the eternal High Priest (Heb 7:23–26).

The twelve stay. They eat a final meal with Jesus, and with his hands he tears the unleavened bread and holds it up to them. 'This is my body,' he says. 'Remember me.' And he tells Simon that the adversary has asked to sift them all like wheat, but their faith will be restored. The next day the Christ is lifted up at Golgotha, nailed to a tree, dead before sunset. And when his Spirit leaves him, the temple curtain rends, a veil between God and man. Left exposed in the holiest place is the ark of the covenant, and in that, the manna given to the Hebrews in the desert, life-giving for those who ate of it, but only for a short while here on this earth. And the people remember his words on the shore of Capernaum: 'Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.' His body, crucified, given for them so they may taste eternity. Three days later, resurrected, so those who believe can come to his banquet table and be filled. His followers obey. They devote themselves to the breaking of the bread. They remember him each time they eat of it, and offer thanks. They are sustained in the world and rescued from the world because God became man, and man became bread.

In a world full of wickedness and violence, did it ever worry Noah about the danger his family would be in during the trials of building the ark? Noah was righteous and standing against that wicked world. One would think he was a “target” or perhaps his family was a “target” for evil motives and possibly murder. But consider this wonderful verse of assurance given to Noah: But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark — you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you (Genesis 6:18).

(from chapter 20, "Bezalel") "Worship is an art, using the sensory to bring us into an awareness of and attentiveness to the mystery of God. Worship has to do with practicing a way of life that is immersed in the salvation and revelation of Yahweh. Bezalel led the people whom Moses had led out of Egypt into making and worshipping in a sanctuary, a place designed to keep them aware and responsive to a way of life in which all their senses were brought into lively participation in the stuff of creation and the energies of salvation. he designed a worship center, the ark of the covenant, in which all visibilities converged into an Invisibility: Yahweh - a presence, a relationship - who can only be worshipped and never used.

Perhaps five thousand miles of desert and mountains and ocean separated him from his family. But sometimes their faces were so real he felt he could reach out and tousle their hair….

Government in America no longer served the populace but rather had become a living, voracious being itself—it existed to serve the vast numbers of people who worked for it. And to ensure that the electorate never turned on it, it handed out entitlement payments—bribes, really—to a huge percentage of the population. Life in America had become an Ayn Rand novel.

The white powder of gold stuff?” Cam asked. “Yes. I was in the lab all night working with it.

He grinned back at her as she closed the door. Men were easy. Even those destined for greatness. Give them beer and sex, and they were happy.

It’s not paranoia if everyone really is out to get you.