#11 The Ark - House for the Ark

1 Chronicles 17

david desires to build a house for the ark of the lord

And it came to pass, as David sat in his house talking to Nathan, the prophet, he said to him, “Look, I dwell in a very nice cedar house, but the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD remains in a tent.” Nathan said, “Do what is in your heart, for God is with you.”

“And it came to pass the very same night, that the word of God came to Nathan saying, “Go and tell my servant, David, ‘Thus saith the LORD: You shall not build me a house to dwell in, for I have not dwelled in a house since the day I brought up Israel unto this day. I went from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another. In all the places where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of them, or to the judges of Israel whom I commanded to feed my people, and say, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”

“Now say this to my servant David, ‘Thus saith the LORD of hosts: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture, and selected you to be a ruler over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have walked, and I have cut off all your enemies before you, and I have made your name greater than all the men that are in the earth.”’

“It shall come to pass, when your time has expired, and you are buried with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before you. But I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. And his throne shall be established for evermore.”

Psalms 89:3-4 “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations.”

Acts 2:29-30 “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.”

God tells David that he is not the one to build him a house but rather as he says, God is going to build his "house" by raising up one of David’s offspring, one of his sons who will build God a house and God will establish his throne, his rule forever.

As we will see, this promise is not referring primarily to David’s son Solomon or the temple he built for God in Jerusalem. Rather, as the OT prophets indicate and as the NT confirms, this Son of David was to be much greater, far greater than any merely human descendant of David ever could be. The house he would build is not a house made of bricks and stones, and the throne he will rule upon is no mere earthly throne. This Son of David and the house he will make is infinitely more impressive than any human being or human construction.

1 Kings 8

The ark of the lord brought to solomon’s Temple

Then King Solomon called for all the elders of Israel to come to him in Jerusalem. He wanted them to bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, (to the temple he had built in Jerusalem). So all the men of Israel came together with King Solomon during a feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

All of the elders of Israel came, and the priests and the Levites took up the Ark. They carried the Ark of the Lord, the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and all the holy vessels.  King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel gathered before the Ark of the Covenant. They sacrificed so many sheep and oxen no one could count them all.

Then the priests put the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord in its right place, to the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims. The wings of the cherubims were spread out over the place of the Ark, so that they covered it and its carrying poles.

There was nothing in the Ark but the two tablets of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb. That was where the Lord made his covenant with the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt.

Now in the time of Solomon, when the temple was being dedicated we read "there was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone."

At an earlier point in Israel’s history there were other items in the Ark of the Covenant. Earlier, inside the ark were the golden pot that had the manna (Exodus 16:33), Aaron’s rod that budded (Numbers 17:6-11), the tablets of the covenant (Exodus 25:16), and the book of the law that Moses commanded the Levites to put in the Ark (Deuteronomy 31:25-26). We don’t know what happened to the golden pot of manna, Aaron’s rod, and the book of the law written by Moses, but they were not in the ark when Solomon set it in the most holy place.

When the ark was carried from place to place, or during its captivity by the Philistines, it is probable that they were lost, as we never hear of Aaron’s rod again. Later the book of the law is found during a restoration of Solomon’s temple, and Revelation holds a wonderful and mysterious promise, it says, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna…”  (see insert “The Hidden Manna”)

The glory of the lord filled the temple

And it came to pass, when the priests left the Holy Place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD. The priests could not continue their work, because the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the LORD.

Then Solomon said, “The LORD said that He would dwell in the thick darkness.  I have surely built a house for the LORD to dwell in, to settle in, and abide in forever.”

Then King Solomon turned, and blessed the congregation of Israel, and all the congregation of Israel stood. Then Solomon said, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who spoke to my father David, and now has fulfilled it, saying, ‘When I brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, I chose not to build a house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.”’

He said, “It was in the heart of my father, David, to build a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. But the LORD said to David, my father, ‘You did well that it was in your heart to build a house unto my name, nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son that shall come from your loins, he shall build the house unto my name.”’

“And the LORD has fulfilled his word that He spoke to my father David. I have been raised up from my father David, and now sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and I have built a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.”

“And I have made a place in the house of the LORD for the Ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of Egypt.”

David’s son, Solomon, did build a massive temple, built over a seven-year period in Jerusalem. However, the text itself shows us that this is not the son, nor is this the house to which God was ultimately referring.

Four times God says that what he is going to do for David’s son will last “forever.” Also, God says that he will never take his love away from this Son of David the way he took his love away from Saul, the corrupt king who preceded David. Yet, if you were to read the rest of the OT it is quite clear that Solomon’s reign did not last forever, that the house he built did not last forever, and that God did in fact remove his love from Solomon just like he did from Saul, because Solomon proved to be a faithless king, worshipping the false gods of the surrounding pagan nations.

Solomon and the temple he built, like the whole history of Israel, are but a foreshadowing, a type of the ultimate Son and house that was to come – King Jesus! (See Matthew 2:1-2)

(See insert Jesus Christ, King)