God's Masterpiece Part 3 – The Ark and the Kingdom

God slowly started gathering His scattered children into one family through one covenant after another. He chose a people for himself and showed them who He was. He revealed that He was the One God, completely apart from all created things. He taught them that He was and is and will be the Great I AM.

Through each covenant, He revealed more of who He was and prepared His family to be ready for the day, when in the fullness of time, He himself would assume human nature and as a man would walk among them.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life"

But to do that He first had to prepare His people for what was coming. He promised a kingdom and worldwide blessing to the patriarch Abraham. He had the judge Moses institute blood sacrifices and harsh punishments to show the seriousness and consequence of sin. Especially bearing in mind that the Mosaic punishments compared to the ultimate consequence of sin (absolute separation from God) was just a slap on the wrist. He showed how Holy He was by giving special instructions on how to build the Ark of the Covenant, on which His glory and power was to overshadow and rest.

The Ark was made of an incorruptible wood and covered with pure gold. Inside the Ark rested three things – the Rod of Aaron (representing the priesthood), the stone tablets of the Law (representing the Word of God), and the manna (the bread that came down from heaven which God gave to feed His people on the journey to the promised land). The ark was without blemish and beautiful.

After the Shekinah cloud, or the cloud of God’s glory, overshadowed the ark, no man could enter the sanctuary and the tabernacle. If any man barring the priest touched the ark, he was struck dead on the spot.

Later, when David became king, God once again made a covenant where He promised an everlasting throne to the Davidic dynasty. The time of the son of David, Solomon, was the most glorious time for the kingdom of Israel.

But the Davidic kingdom was unique. Every son of David who became king had only one queen. Since Solomon had many wives, the queen was his mother. Every king of the Davidic line had a queen mother who sat on a throne beside him. Solomon himself paid respect to his mother by bowing down before her and honouring her. The queen mother was known as Gebirah or the Great Woman.

But the people of Israel were unfaithful to Yahweh and therefore were conquered, exiled and scattered. But God had again spoken through His prophets of a Saviour, the Son of Man who would restore the kingdom and bring it to an even greater glory than of the time of Solomon. Thus, centuries later there was an expectation among the people of Israel, that the time of the fulfillment of God’s promises was about to come. They had suffered and been through a lot and were now under the yoke of Rome. The Messiah (the anointed one, which was the term used for a king of the Davidic line) would come soon, the prophets had said.

The people probably expected a warrior born in a rich and powerful family. Lucifer too was looking for this Child and his mother, the Woman who would humiliate him. He knew, because of the prophets of Israel and Judah, that a virgin would bear a child. He must have thought, if he could just find and bring down this Woman, he could score a victory over God.

But the Lord God, Yahweh had a greater and more glorious plan. Because God pre-existed His mother, He could be both her creator and Saviour. He could make His mother the most perfect and most beautiful human who could ever exist. He had hinted of what He was going to do when He designed the Ark of the Covenant.

What the people of Israel may not have expected (although it was prophesied) was that God himself would be their saviour and king, and He himself would fulfill all the covenants; and His glory was to overshadow a person who was the true Ark of the Covenant.