Ark of the Covenant
Am I the only person who has never realized that the ark of the covenant is so called because it is "the ark, in which is the covenant of YHWH that he made with the people Israel" (2 Chron 6:11)? Specifically, that "There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where YHWH made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of Egypt" (2 Chron 5:10). So, the ark's covenant is the ten commandments written on the two tablets.I guess I had always thought of the phrase "ark of the covenant" to mean that the ark itself was the thing that was "of the covenant," not that the "covenant" was something in the ark. Am I alone on this?
I've never thought of that before. It fits with what I was reading in "The Christ of the Covenants," in which Robertson was pointing out that the 10 Commandments can be referred to as "the covenant" during this period.
But weren't thereother things as well: Aaron's budded staff and a pot of manna (Heb. 9:4)?
Posted by
andrew |
8:29 AM
Good question: Carson writes in For the Love of God, Vol. I: "As an aside, the chronicler mentions that at this point only the tablets of the Law still rest in the ark of the covenant. Presumably the pot with manna and Aaron's rod that had budded were removed when the ark was held by the Philistines." (Meditation for Dec. 5, on 2 Chron 5:1-6:11)
Posted by
Jacob |
8:56 AM