Ever since I was a kid, I was taken to church and taught all the Bible stories learning about how God created this world and the entire universe. Oh, the stories were very interesting, and filled my heart with love for God, and for all the powerful things He has done and created! I also learned about the way he teaches us to live, a way that brings us out of darkness (lack of knowledge) into His wonderful light (knowledge and wisdom).

But one story kept rolling around in my head, creating in me a sense of mystery and the desire to understand what that story was all about. God had Moses build this place of worship in the desert, after leaving Egypt, to very specific instructions. It was called the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting, where priests would enter regularly and perform their duties daily and even yearly.

In the back of this tabernacle, there was a room called the “Holy of Holies” or “The Most Holy Place” where God met man over a gold box called the Ark of the Covenant, and blood was brought from a sacrifice to be sprinkled on the top of this powerful little piece of furniture.

This little box was very powerful in that once it was made, no one was allowed to touch it, ever! That’s why it was to be carried on poles when they moved from place to place through the desert on their way to Canaan. God punished anyone who did touch it by putting them to death. Uzzah was struck down in I Chronicles 13:9 when King David was having the Ark brought to Jerusalem and he reached out to steady the Ark as the oxen stumbled, because it was in danger of falling off the cart they were hauling it on.

I often wondered, why did God strike down this man for trying to save the Ark from hitting the ground? Wasn’t he doing a good thing? Remember that the Ark was to be carried by the priests on poles that were inserted into the rings along the side of the Ark and were never to be removed. The Ark was not to be moved on a cart.

But there is also another time when the men of Israel touched the Ark. Before Israel had a king, they had gone out to fight their enemies, the Philistines in I Samuel 4, and the Philistines captured the Ark. The Philistines soon began to understand the power of the Ark as it destroyed their god Dagon. They moved it to another town, and that town soon suffered from tumors, so they moved it again to another town, and that town was overrun with rats. So the Philistines sent the Ark back to Israel on a cart led by two cows that had never been yoked. When that cart came to Beth Shemesh of Israel, some men looked inside and they were struck down dead.

When reading these accounts about the power of the Ark, my interest in learning the “why” grew stronger and stronger.

So I began to study scriptures about the Ark of the Covenant, its size, its design description, the word used for ark in the Hebrew, and the articles placed inside. What I found was amazing!

Stay tuned for the next few weeks as we will begin to unravel this great mystery, and I guarantee you will be amazed at what God was doing.

We invite you to join us at College Hill Church of Christ, 1102 College Blvd., every Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. for worship or follow us on Facebook at College Hill Church of Christ in Alva, Oklahoma. We are a fellowship of believers that follow God’s Word and love all who worship with us!