Temple Articles
Will the Real Ark of the Covenant Please Stand Up?


From Ron Wyatt to Rood and Rieves to an Orthodox rabbi in 1967,
many have claimed to have found the real ark of the covenant.
But have they?


A few years ago the Christian world was all a stir when Ron Wyatt made the wild claim that he had found the Ark of the Covenant. Claiming he found it in a cave beneath the crucifixion site, he said he could not retrieve the Ark because Israel's authorities would not allow it. Since his claim, others have used his sole testimony to make even wilder claims of their own. Michael Rood claims he knows where the Ark is located. Rood coupled Wyatt's testimony with a sensational theory about the pillars of the first Temple operating a secret door to a secret room where the Ark was hidden. His tale is quite imaginative, almost like a page out of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" - perhaps they can use it in a sequel. If that were not enough, now a fellow named Rieves is traveling about with Wyatt's theory and again creating a stir among believers. While Rood and Rieves are all sensational in their homiletic delivery, their scholarship is shoddy and based on the testimony of one man. Scripture tells us in the mouths of two or three witnesses let all things be established.

The Christian world was again astir over reports that an Orthodox Rabbi had found the Ark after the 1967 war in Israel. He claims he knows where it is from the ancient writings. The place he claims the Ark rests is lengthy distance from where Wyatt claimed he saw the Ark. Could there be two Arks? Or three? Because yet another story places the Ark in a church in Ethiopia. No one, of course, is allowed to see it though.

While these stories are sensational, and even entertaining, what we are left with after listening to these three wild claims is the hounding question -- is the Ark behind curtain number one, curtain number two or curtain number three? These stories and their tellers generate a circus atmosphere because they are either based on a sole eyewitness or conjecture with no Biblical foundation.

The fact is the last known sighting of the Ark of the Covenant was during the period of the First Temple. If we use the Biblical criteria of "in the mouths of two or three witnesses let all things be established," we can say for a fact that no one has seen it since. If you want to believe Wyatt, Rood or Rieves then why hasn't the Ark been retrieved? Why hasn't there been a single piece of evidence brought forward. Or, if you believe the Ethiopia story it leaves you with the same question - if you have it, why not prove it?

If you believe that the Rabbis know its location from the ancient writings, then ask yourself, why did the ancient Rabbi's who wrote those writings not produce it for the second Temple? The second Temple had no Ark. Indeed, why didn't Rabbi Yeshua speak of it? Rabbi Yeshua did not speak of it because he knew the words of Jeremiah and believed them as fact.

Let me tell you what I know for a fact about the Ark of the Covenant, this I know because the Bible tells me so - in the Messianic Kingdom there will be no Ark of the Covenant.

In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares the LORD, "men will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the LORD', and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. (Jeremiah 3:16-17)

The Ark of the Covenant will not come to mind nor will it be remembered because the very thing it foreshadowed will be among us - the Glory of God - the Throne of God - the entrance to Gan Eden will all be here and the Messiah will be King over the earth.

Exodus chapter 25 tells us Moses was to make the Tabernacle and its furnishings like the pattern he was shown on the mountain. He saw a Heavenly Tabernacle! When Messiah returns the pattern will no longer be needed because the real thing will be among us. You only need a picture of your spouse when he or she is away, you only need a replica if you do not have the original. The Ark of the Tabernacle and of the first Temple was only a copy of the original and the original will be with us in the Kingdom. This I know for the Bible tells me so:

Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. (Ezekiel 37:26-28)

Of all the people of the earth, we the disciples of Yeshua should understand these verses and not be taken in by wild claims about the Ark. The Ark was the vehicle for the covenant that was written on tablets of stone - it was the vehicle for the jar of manna found in the wilderness, and it was the vehicle for the staff of Aaron that budded, a resurrected branch. We should understand that the Living Word and the New Covenant we carry in our hearts is far superior to those tablets of stone. We should understand that we carry with us the Bread of Life that we found in the wilderness of this world and we will never hunger again. We of all people should understand that we carry with us the power of the resurrected Branch of the L-RD. We of all people should know we do not need the Ark that was carried in the wilderness.

So dear friends, we will always have sensational preachers with their far out stories, and there will always those among us with itching ears waiting for their next wild tale. But, as for me and my house, we are not going to be tossed about. No, we opt for scholarship not sensationalism. We believe the Bible, not traveling storytellers. Instead of chasing wild tales we are going to culture the greatest gift ever given to man - our relationship with Messiah. We are going to spend our time becoming more like Him. Everything else pales in the light of this.

Kehilat Sar Shalom

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