PonchoWest
Can you hear me now
What was in the Ark of the Covenant and why those items?
Hebrews 9
Heb 9:1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
Heb 9:2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the sanctuary.
Heb 9:3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
Heb 9:4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
Heb 9:5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
In all the scripture this is the only place that mentions what was in the Ark of the Covenant and I know that there are people who claim some other items where in the Ark but if so God would have mentioned them here but with these 3 items and the Ark itself you will see just how precise Gods word is and why things in the Old Testament happened the way they did. God in His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge gave us a blue print of His plan to redeem mankind and the Ark is in fact a blueprint of a Born-Again, blood bought, child of God.
The items:
1. Golden pot that had manna in it.
2. Aarons rod that budded
3. The Tables of the Covenant (Gods Law)
Now to get the true beauty of each of these items we need to look at the stories behind each of them.
The golden pot that had the manna in it came from the event in the wilderness where God provided the nation of Israel with food each morning but each evening the manna would turn bad which would cause the Jews to have to get a new batch each morning. Exo 16:15 There is a whole blueprint of part of Gods plan in each one of the items and will look into them latter but for now I need only to get an over view of each item to show the blueprint God laid out in and with the Ark of the Covenant.
Aaron’s rod that budded is the story of God using the rod to choose the tribe that would be the priesthood. Note this is the very same rod that God used to overpower Satan’s sorcerers with the story of Moses coming before Pharaoh to request that Pharaoh let the nation of Israel go. Exo 7:11 And again there is much more going on in that story then what you see on the surface but will get into that latter because when you see what’s going on behind each story it brings so much more power to each one of the items in the Ark.
Now the Tables or tablets of the Covenant are what we know as the Ten Commandments but did you know that there was more than just ten sentences on the tablets, OH yeah it had the “statutes and judgments” written on them?
Exo 24:12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
Exo 32:15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
Exo 32:16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
But when Moses dropped the first set he cut out of stone the second set for God to write on and took them up the mountain with him, and then he ended up having to write down all that God had said. See God has a sense of humor. Note, that the first time Moses came down from the mount the skin of his face did not shone; it was the second time that the skin of his face shone. I’m wondering why but that’s another study for yet another time.
Exo 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
Sounds like something my dad would have said…LOL!
Exo 34:4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
Exo 34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
Exo 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Side note: Gen. 24:4
What, commandments, statutes and laws was God talking about since this was way before the making of the ”Ten Commandments” movie by Cecil B Demill. But seriously, this shows that Gods overall plan for mankind is more than us obeying the Ten Commandments, NOT that I’m teaching in any way that we should ignore them but rather that we need to have a better understanding why God gave us the Law. To me every word or communication that came from God is part and parcel to the Law, Commandments and Statutes.
Gen 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Gen 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
The Commandment, Statutes and Law are a kind of, getting to know who God is document wheather spoken or written down the point is it’s God telling us, this is who I am and what I’m about and since in the New Testament we find Christ telling us that we are to be like him, then for us to know the Commandments, Statutes and Law has more meaning other then “Just another set of rules”.
Now from the very beginning of human history we see that no matter what God did mankind was bent set on, quote, “doing his own thing”. But God for knew ALL of this and yet he, throughout history kept offering mankind the Law, Statutes and Commandments or his self portrait. And each time mankind would reject it but God told us what his solution was to this dilemma.
Ezek 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
Ezek 11:20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezek 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Ezek 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
There are other passages that show that Gods plan is for Him to take the stone heart of mankind out and to replace it with a heart that will have the ability to know Him and how do we know Him? By the reading or the consuming of His words which we call the Bible which is a book of, laws, Statutes, Judgment, ordinances, commandments and Covenant.
Now the Ark of the Covenant it’s self is a container where in lies GOD and that’s putting it in its simplest form. Now in the New Testament or what it should be called, the New Covenant God goal is to inhabit the soul of all that look to His work on the Cross and except that act to redeem them back to Himself. Jesus told Nicodemis that he had to be born again and that the act of being born again simply is the act of the Spirit of God taking up residence in a person’s dead soul, bringing about a new life or new creation what we call, being Born-Again. Again because after the fall of Adam, the soul of every person after that event was dead due to Adam disobeying God, keep in mind that God knew this was going to happen otherwise we would not read in the Bible that Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
1 Pet 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1 Pet 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Jesus was NOT plan B; all this was done so God could restore man back to Himself and done in such a way as to let mankind choose that plan over his own attempts to come back to God.
So we have a picture of the dwelling place of God on earth, Man, and in it we see Gods word which is just what He said he would do, so what and how do the other two items fit into all this.
Well let’s take a look at the jar of gold that had the manna in it. First thing I would like to know is why a Jar of gold. Why not just a jar made from clay? It’s not like the tables got a covering of gold so why just the jar which contained the manna? Well to put it simply, Adam was formed from the dust of the ground or dirt so you see it’s true we all are just little dirt bags. Anyway, the jar or a receptacle made from dirt and then covered with gold is a picture or an example of man. The gold covering would be, yeah you guessed it, God but more precisely it’s the shed blood of God or God come in the flesh, Jesus.
So we have a picture of redeemed man sitting in the Ark which is a picture of man as a house for God itself, the difference is what’s inside the jar, the manna. What is manna; strangely enough that’s just what the people asked when they first saw this stuff, “what is it”? Well as far as what it was made of we don’t really know but we do know it was a bread like substance because it could be backed, which is what God told them to do with it at one point in relation to the Sabbath. Since they could not collect it on the Sabbath, which would be work, God told them to back it for that Sabbath day. Other than that one day a week the Jews had to go out each day and collect what they needed for their family for that day only and when they disobeyed God and tried to hoard it for the next day, I guess they figured if they kept some for the next day then they would not have to go out into the desert heat and collect more the next day but for whatever reason they found out the next day that the “what is it” had turned bad. And when you learn what the manna was a picture type of, which some of you may have all read guess, you’ll see that so much of how God used this manna fits so well with how the “bread from Heaven” fits in today’s world.
John 6:33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
John 6:48 I am that bread of life.
John 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
John 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
OK, Jesus is telling us that the manna eaten in the wilderness is a bread like substance but more importantly, if you eat or cause this bread to be on the inside of you then you will live forever and that this bread is “ME” or my flesh. And yes the people standing around where thinking the same thing some of you are thinking, “eat human flesh”. In the act of being “Born-Again” like Jesus told Nickodemis, the very Spirit of God comes into a person and brings back to life the dead spirit that’s in every person ever conceived and that’s even in babies who never made it out of their mothers only they are “Born-Again” by default because they never actively sinned even though they are still conceived with the sin nature, passed down from Adam. Anyway, you can only be born-again by the act of taking in to yourself the Holy Spirit or consuming Him. And all this is by faith, that being your faith in what you read in the Bible or whether someone tells you what it says and you act on it.
So now we have a picture of a man as a vessel or home where by God lives and in that vessel we have a picture of a person who is covered by the blood of Christ and inside him is the spirit of Christ and in that house also we see Gods Law, Statutes and commandments or the description of who God is. So how in the world is Aaron’s rod going to fit into all this.
Question, what did Aarons rod do? Well yes it did gobble up the staffs of Pharaohs wizards and there is a place in this example for that event but for now it’s the thing God did with that same staff when God chooses Aarons blood line to be the order of Priests that would serve God in the temple.
Num 17:8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.
The rod here is what a Sheppard uses to keep the sheep from wondering as well as a number of other uses, it was like a Swiss Army Knife, it did everything. But all it is, is a dead stick of wood, it has no life in it, now it did at one time in its past but now it’s dead. Much like mankind and more to the point the nation of Israel. After the fall of Adam man was spiritually dead but God still used it as a tool the same way a Sheppard uses that dead stick of wood. But, Aarons rod came back to life, to the point that thing was sticking out of the ground blooming flowers and producing fruit. Question, did Aaron make that staff bloom and produce fruit? Well, no, God did the doing here all Aaron and Moses did was to obey God. Keep in mind that there was eleven other staffs in that tent sticking out of the ground and none of them came back to life only Aarons. And all this was because the people bickered among themselves as to which tribe would take on the role of Priests in the temple, Never mind that God told Moses back on the mountain that it was Aaron tribe.
So now we have a picture of a dead thing coming back to life by the Power of God and it finds itself in the Ark along with the other items which are pictures or blue prints of what Gods going to do with Israel and all mankind.
Ezek 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Ezek 18:31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Ezek 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
It is only by the Power of the Holy Spirit that the dead spirit is brought back to life and that’s how a person is made Born-Again.
1 Cor 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Cor 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
The parable of the two sons, the boy was dead to the father not dead as in ten feet under the ground dead. Israel and mankind is dead due to that sin nature we get from the first man Adam and made alive thanks to the second Adam, which is Christ Jesus.
Luke 15:24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Luke 15:32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
Dead to the wages of sin, in other words sin, that thing which drove a wedge between God and man has been dealt with through and by the work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection.
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Cor 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Rom 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Rom 5:16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
Rom 5:17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Rom 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Rom 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Rom 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
The Ark of the Covenant and the 3 items in it paint or draw a very good likeness of Gods plain and remedy to the situation brought about by the first man Adam and solved by the second Adam who is Christ. When you come to Christ and recognize that you’re in desperate need of some kind of remedy to this, for lack of a better word, Yuck, in your life you whether by hearing or reading the story of Jesus, ask Him to bring you into this new relationship will be Born-again like the dead stick of wood. By taking in or consuming Christ as the Bread of life you’re eating that manna that’s in the Ark. By acting on what you hear or read and becoming Born-Again you will have the very word of God in you and not because you made it so but because God is the Word and the Word is God. What do you think you will see when your eyes look upon the Word of God in Heaven…? J-E-S-U-S, God in the flesh.
I highlighted the last to bible quotes or part of them because it never fails, whenever I’m talking with someone about the Born-Again relationship we have with God one of the first things out of the mouths of those who believe salvation comes by way of the “law” is, OH, so your saying I can do anything I want to and I don’t have to obey God’s rules? To which I replay.
1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Cor 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1 Cor 6:13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
Hebrews 9
Heb 9:1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
Heb 9:2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the sanctuary.
Heb 9:3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
Heb 9:4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
Heb 9:5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
In all the scripture this is the only place that mentions what was in the Ark of the Covenant and I know that there are people who claim some other items where in the Ark but if so God would have mentioned them here but with these 3 items and the Ark itself you will see just how precise Gods word is and why things in the Old Testament happened the way they did. God in His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge gave us a blue print of His plan to redeem mankind and the Ark is in fact a blueprint of a Born-Again, blood bought, child of God.
The items:
1. Golden pot that had manna in it.
2. Aarons rod that budded
3. The Tables of the Covenant (Gods Law)
Now to get the true beauty of each of these items we need to look at the stories behind each of them.
The golden pot that had the manna in it came from the event in the wilderness where God provided the nation of Israel with food each morning but each evening the manna would turn bad which would cause the Jews to have to get a new batch each morning. Exo 16:15 There is a whole blueprint of part of Gods plan in each one of the items and will look into them latter but for now I need only to get an over view of each item to show the blueprint God laid out in and with the Ark of the Covenant.
Aaron’s rod that budded is the story of God using the rod to choose the tribe that would be the priesthood. Note this is the very same rod that God used to overpower Satan’s sorcerers with the story of Moses coming before Pharaoh to request that Pharaoh let the nation of Israel go. Exo 7:11 And again there is much more going on in that story then what you see on the surface but will get into that latter because when you see what’s going on behind each story it brings so much more power to each one of the items in the Ark.
Now the Tables or tablets of the Covenant are what we know as the Ten Commandments but did you know that there was more than just ten sentences on the tablets, OH yeah it had the “statutes and judgments” written on them?
Exo 24:12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
Exo 32:15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.
Exo 32:16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.
But when Moses dropped the first set he cut out of stone the second set for God to write on and took them up the mountain with him, and then he ended up having to write down all that God had said. See God has a sense of humor. Note, that the first time Moses came down from the mount the skin of his face did not shone; it was the second time that the skin of his face shone. I’m wondering why but that’s another study for yet another time.
Exo 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
Sounds like something my dad would have said…LOL!
Exo 34:4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
Exo 34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
Exo 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Side note: Gen. 24:4
What, commandments, statutes and laws was God talking about since this was way before the making of the ”Ten Commandments” movie by Cecil B Demill. But seriously, this shows that Gods overall plan for mankind is more than us obeying the Ten Commandments, NOT that I’m teaching in any way that we should ignore them but rather that we need to have a better understanding why God gave us the Law. To me every word or communication that came from God is part and parcel to the Law, Commandments and Statutes.
Gen 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Gen 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
The Commandment, Statutes and Law are a kind of, getting to know who God is document wheather spoken or written down the point is it’s God telling us, this is who I am and what I’m about and since in the New Testament we find Christ telling us that we are to be like him, then for us to know the Commandments, Statutes and Law has more meaning other then “Just another set of rules”.
Now from the very beginning of human history we see that no matter what God did mankind was bent set on, quote, “doing his own thing”. But God for knew ALL of this and yet he, throughout history kept offering mankind the Law, Statutes and Commandments or his self portrait. And each time mankind would reject it but God told us what his solution was to this dilemma.
Ezek 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
Ezek 11:20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezek 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Ezek 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
There are other passages that show that Gods plan is for Him to take the stone heart of mankind out and to replace it with a heart that will have the ability to know Him and how do we know Him? By the reading or the consuming of His words which we call the Bible which is a book of, laws, Statutes, Judgment, ordinances, commandments and Covenant.
Now the Ark of the Covenant it’s self is a container where in lies GOD and that’s putting it in its simplest form. Now in the New Testament or what it should be called, the New Covenant God goal is to inhabit the soul of all that look to His work on the Cross and except that act to redeem them back to Himself. Jesus told Nicodemis that he had to be born again and that the act of being born again simply is the act of the Spirit of God taking up residence in a person’s dead soul, bringing about a new life or new creation what we call, being Born-Again. Again because after the fall of Adam, the soul of every person after that event was dead due to Adam disobeying God, keep in mind that God knew this was going to happen otherwise we would not read in the Bible that Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
1 Pet 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1 Pet 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Jesus was NOT plan B; all this was done so God could restore man back to Himself and done in such a way as to let mankind choose that plan over his own attempts to come back to God.
So we have a picture of the dwelling place of God on earth, Man, and in it we see Gods word which is just what He said he would do, so what and how do the other two items fit into all this.
Well let’s take a look at the jar of gold that had the manna in it. First thing I would like to know is why a Jar of gold. Why not just a jar made from clay? It’s not like the tables got a covering of gold so why just the jar which contained the manna? Well to put it simply, Adam was formed from the dust of the ground or dirt so you see it’s true we all are just little dirt bags. Anyway, the jar or a receptacle made from dirt and then covered with gold is a picture or an example of man. The gold covering would be, yeah you guessed it, God but more precisely it’s the shed blood of God or God come in the flesh, Jesus.
So we have a picture of redeemed man sitting in the Ark which is a picture of man as a house for God itself, the difference is what’s inside the jar, the manna. What is manna; strangely enough that’s just what the people asked when they first saw this stuff, “what is it”? Well as far as what it was made of we don’t really know but we do know it was a bread like substance because it could be backed, which is what God told them to do with it at one point in relation to the Sabbath. Since they could not collect it on the Sabbath, which would be work, God told them to back it for that Sabbath day. Other than that one day a week the Jews had to go out each day and collect what they needed for their family for that day only and when they disobeyed God and tried to hoard it for the next day, I guess they figured if they kept some for the next day then they would not have to go out into the desert heat and collect more the next day but for whatever reason they found out the next day that the “what is it” had turned bad. And when you learn what the manna was a picture type of, which some of you may have all read guess, you’ll see that so much of how God used this manna fits so well with how the “bread from Heaven” fits in today’s world.
John 6:33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
John 6:48 I am that bread of life.
John 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
John 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
OK, Jesus is telling us that the manna eaten in the wilderness is a bread like substance but more importantly, if you eat or cause this bread to be on the inside of you then you will live forever and that this bread is “ME” or my flesh. And yes the people standing around where thinking the same thing some of you are thinking, “eat human flesh”. In the act of being “Born-Again” like Jesus told Nickodemis, the very Spirit of God comes into a person and brings back to life the dead spirit that’s in every person ever conceived and that’s even in babies who never made it out of their mothers only they are “Born-Again” by default because they never actively sinned even though they are still conceived with the sin nature, passed down from Adam. Anyway, you can only be born-again by the act of taking in to yourself the Holy Spirit or consuming Him. And all this is by faith, that being your faith in what you read in the Bible or whether someone tells you what it says and you act on it.
So now we have a picture of a man as a vessel or home where by God lives and in that vessel we have a picture of a person who is covered by the blood of Christ and inside him is the spirit of Christ and in that house also we see Gods Law, Statutes and commandments or the description of who God is. So how in the world is Aaron’s rod going to fit into all this.
Question, what did Aarons rod do? Well yes it did gobble up the staffs of Pharaohs wizards and there is a place in this example for that event but for now it’s the thing God did with that same staff when God chooses Aarons blood line to be the order of Priests that would serve God in the temple.
Num 17:8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.
The rod here is what a Sheppard uses to keep the sheep from wondering as well as a number of other uses, it was like a Swiss Army Knife, it did everything. But all it is, is a dead stick of wood, it has no life in it, now it did at one time in its past but now it’s dead. Much like mankind and more to the point the nation of Israel. After the fall of Adam man was spiritually dead but God still used it as a tool the same way a Sheppard uses that dead stick of wood. But, Aarons rod came back to life, to the point that thing was sticking out of the ground blooming flowers and producing fruit. Question, did Aaron make that staff bloom and produce fruit? Well, no, God did the doing here all Aaron and Moses did was to obey God. Keep in mind that there was eleven other staffs in that tent sticking out of the ground and none of them came back to life only Aarons. And all this was because the people bickered among themselves as to which tribe would take on the role of Priests in the temple, Never mind that God told Moses back on the mountain that it was Aaron tribe.
So now we have a picture of a dead thing coming back to life by the Power of God and it finds itself in the Ark along with the other items which are pictures or blue prints of what Gods going to do with Israel and all mankind.
Ezek 18:30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Ezek 18:31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Ezek 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
It is only by the Power of the Holy Spirit that the dead spirit is brought back to life and that’s how a person is made Born-Again.
1 Cor 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Cor 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
The parable of the two sons, the boy was dead to the father not dead as in ten feet under the ground dead. Israel and mankind is dead due to that sin nature we get from the first man Adam and made alive thanks to the second Adam, which is Christ Jesus.
Luke 15:24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Luke 15:32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
Dead to the wages of sin, in other words sin, that thing which drove a wedge between God and man has been dealt with through and by the work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection.
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Cor 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Rom 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Rom 5:16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
Rom 5:17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Rom 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Rom 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Rom 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
The Ark of the Covenant and the 3 items in it paint or draw a very good likeness of Gods plain and remedy to the situation brought about by the first man Adam and solved by the second Adam who is Christ. When you come to Christ and recognize that you’re in desperate need of some kind of remedy to this, for lack of a better word, Yuck, in your life you whether by hearing or reading the story of Jesus, ask Him to bring you into this new relationship will be Born-again like the dead stick of wood. By taking in or consuming Christ as the Bread of life you’re eating that manna that’s in the Ark. By acting on what you hear or read and becoming Born-Again you will have the very word of God in you and not because you made it so but because God is the Word and the Word is God. What do you think you will see when your eyes look upon the Word of God in Heaven…? J-E-S-U-S, God in the flesh.
I highlighted the last to bible quotes or part of them because it never fails, whenever I’m talking with someone about the Born-Again relationship we have with God one of the first things out of the mouths of those who believe salvation comes by way of the “law” is, OH, so your saying I can do anything I want to and I don’t have to obey God’s rules? To which I replay.
1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Cor 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1 Cor 6:13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.