#12 The Ark's Last Recorded Whereabouts

2 Chronicles 34

The ark’s last recorded whereabouts

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and did not turn from doing right. And in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still very young (sixteen), he began to seek after God of David his father. And when he was twenty years old in his twelfth year to reign, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places.

King Josiah watched has he had the altars of Baalim broken down, the idols destroyed, the groves cut down. And all the carved and molten idols he had broken into pieces, and made dust of them, and he scattered them upon the graves of them that had sacrificed to them. And he burned the bones of the priests upon their altars. He cleansed Judah and Jerusalem, and the surrounding cities of all the idols throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

When Josiah was twenty-six, during the eighteenth year of his reign, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

And the men did the work faithfully.

 Later, when they brought the money into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses. Hilkiah told Shaphan the scribe, about the book he had found in the house of the LORD, and gave it to him. When Shaphan reported to the king about the work being done on the house of the LORD, he told Josiah about the book given to him by the priest. And he read the book of the law to the king.

When the king heard the words of the law, he was very upset and tore his clothes. He commanded Hilkiah the priest, Shaphen the scribe, and some others to go and enquire of the LORD for him. He was very concerned about the words he had heard in the book of the law. He feared the LORD’S wrath because they and their fathers before them had not kept the word of the LORD nor had they followed what was written in the book.

Hilkiah the priest, and others that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, and told her all that the king had said. She then told them, “Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, ‘Tell the man that sent you to me’, Thus saith the LORD, ‘Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and the people there, all the curses that are written in the book.”’

“I will because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, they have provoke me to anger, therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and it shall not be quenched.”

“As for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the LORD, you shall say to him, ‘Thus saith the LORD God of Israel: Because you heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place, and against the people there, you humbled yourself and tore your clothes, and did weep before me, I have heard you.”’

“Behold you will go to your grave in peace, and will not see the evil that I will bring upon this place or the people there when I do.”

So they brought this word to king Josiah. And the king sent and brought together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And he went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah, all the people of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people great and small. And he read to them all the words of the book of the covenant.

And the king stood and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to do all the things that were written in the book. And he made all that were there to stand to it, and they did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

And Josiah took all the abominations out of the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve the LORD their God. And all the days of Josiah did they not depart from following after the LORD, the God of their fathers.

As we discussed earlier the only thing found in the Ark at the dedication of the temple Solomon had built were the two stone tablets. Not being found were the manna, Aaron’s rod, and the book of the law. In Deuteronomy 34 we discover the book of the law is found by a priest in Solomon’s temple while being restored.

2 Chronicles 35

Now King Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month. And he set the priests in their duties and encouraged them in their work of the house of the Lord.

Then he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the Lord: “Put the Holy Ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You no longer need to carry it back and forth on your shoulders. Now spend your time serving the LORD God and his people Israel. Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses, according to your divisions, following the written instructions of David king of Israel and Solomon his son.” 

“Then stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brethren, and according to the division of the father’s house of the Levites. Slaughter the Passover offerings, purify yourselves, and prepare to help your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord given through Moses.”

Never since the time of the prophet Samuel had there been such a Passover kept. None of the kings of Israel had ever kept a Passover as Josiah did, involving all the priests and Levites, all the people of Jerusalem, and people from all over Judah and Israel. This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.

Revelation 11:19

Mentions the Ark as being in heaven

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the Ark of His Covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.

This verse has led some to speculate that the ark was taken up to heaven to be preserved there. But the ark that John sees in his vision of heaven is probably not the same ark that Moses constructed. We know that the articles in the tabernacle were “copies of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 9:23) and that the sanctuary itself was but “a copy and shadow of what is in heaven” (Hebrews 8:5). Revelation 11 deals with the sounding of the seventh trumpet, which ushers in a final round of judgments upon the earth. John’s glimpse of the ark is probably meant as a reminder that God has not forgotten His people, that He is present with them, and that true worship will soon be restored.

Since the ark represented God's presence, and it held witnesses to God's power and promise, it is natural to find the presence of God, His power, and the witness to His promise in heaven.