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15.08.2018 Feature Article

The Mystery About The Whereabouts Of The Ark Of The Covenant

The Mystery About The Whereabouts Of The Ark Of The Covenant
15.08.2018 LISTEN

The Ark of the Covenant was a sacred chest God commanded the ancient Israelites to make. The holy chest stored and protected the Testimony - the Ten Commandments, written on two stone tablets.

It was a chest made of acacia wood, overlaid with pure gold inside and out. God commanded Moses to put in the ark three items: a golden pot of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the Ten Commandments.

No ordinary person can touch the Ark of the Covenant. The story of Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant can be read at 2 Samuel 6:1-7 and 1 Chronicles 13:9-12. As the ark was being transported, the oxen pulling the cart stumbled, and a Levite named Uzzah took hold of the ark. God’s anger burned against Uzzah and He struck him down and he died.

Uzzah’s punishment does appear to be extreme for what we might consider being a good deed. However, there are the reasons why God took such severe action. Besides God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them.

However, what happened to the Ark of the Covenant is a question that has fascinated theologians, Bible students, and archeologists for centuries. Recorded in (2 Chronicles 35:1-6; cf. 2 Kings 23:21-23), in the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah of Judah ordered the caretakers of the Ark of the Covenant to return it to the temple in Jerusalem.

That is the last time the ark’s location is mentioned in the Scriptures. Forty years later, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem and raided the temple. Less than ten years after that, he returned, took what was left in the temple, and then burnt it and the city to the ground. So what happened to the ark?

Was the Ark of the Covenant destroyed together with the city? Or it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar? The latter can’t be possible because God will not allow king Nebuchadnezzar to take possession of the holy chest. But then we come to the same question again: where is the Ark of the Covenant? Can God take possession of the Ark miraculously? This hasn’t been written anywhere in the scriptures.

Since no one knows about the whereabouts of the Ark of Covenant, it is assumed was hidden before the invasion. But where did they hide it? Where is it today? Here are several theories of its location:

  • Hidden in a cave on Mt. Nebo in Jordan. The non-canonical book 2 Maccabees describes what supposedly happened to the Ark before the Babylonian invasion.

  • Taken to Ethiopia, The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant. Through the centuries, Ethiopian Christians have claimed that the Ark is being guarded in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in the small town of Aksum, in their country's northern highlands.

  • Hidden under the Temple Mount A second-century rabbinic work called the Tosefta states that King Josiah hid the Ark, along with the jar of manna and the rod of Aaron which budded. This was done to prevent them from being carried off into Babylon, as had already happened to the other vessels.

These are just some of the theories regarding the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, but no concrete information or investigation has led to the discovery of the Ark. Thus; the truth about its existence and location will always remain a mystery.

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