I was recently browsing Twitter, yeah, I know, but God will use any available tool, even me, but I was browsing and someone posed the question, “Who has in their possession the Ark of the Covenant?” In that mysterious way that I cannot explain, I immediately had the understanding that we, the chosen, are the Ark of the Covenant.
I know what you’re thinking, I once thought the same, but if you continue to view that book in a literal sense you are missing the mark. The words we use every day don’t mean what we think they mean, and this is a prime example. I advise you to make it a habit to research the etymology of the language used in the bible in order to find the meaning in the time it was written. I’ll also remind you that much of the bible is allegorical, it’s parables. The Word is hidden from all but those who seek.
So let’s explore the biblical myth of this Ark of the Covenant. A basic search will tell you that the Ark of the Covenant contained "the golden pot that held manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant (the ten commandments)." If you look at the modern definition of the word “Ark”, you’ll find a reference to the ship that Noah built, a box, a container, and you’ll be referred back to the Ark of the Covenant. That’s a whole lot of words to tell you absolutely nothing of real value.
You’ll also find references to a “sacred” box or container or something that affords safety and protection. All true, there’s no lie there, exactly, because if you can harness the God Within, you can give much power to any object if your belief is strong enough. The lie is in the fact that you’ve been taught to believe that somewhere out there in this world is hidden a literal gold plated wooden chest that houses the power of God, is a mighty, powerful weapon of war, among other things, and man has been searching high and low for it for thousands of years. Another example of the church directing your attention outward instead of inward as Jesus told us to do.
In Old Testament times, an arc was a box deemed sacred by the Hebrew, one of which sat in every one of their synagogues, and was representative of the presence of God among them. You know, like the cross in our churches today is representative of the blood of the lamb. There are millions in the United States alone and the physical cross itself holds no real power. In fact, worshiping the cross is exactly the same as worshiping, say, the guillotine of the Elizabethan age or the electric chair of our own time. Put in its proper context, the cross is a symbol of torture, death, and judgment from the time of Jesus. So, the Ark is representative of an intangible essence, not a literal, physical, anything, and the Ark itself, the presence of God among us, is the fulfillment of God’s promise. Manna is, in its literal sense, sustenance from heaven, which itself flows from the Ark, or the presence of God.
Aaron’s rod that budded, was a phrase used in the Bible to denote evidence of the exclusive right to the priesthood of the tribe of Levi, however, the earliest known use of the word “bud” was somewhere around the early 1500’s and meant “to push forward or to thrust” (Germanic). Later it came to mean a “bag or a purse” (Old Saxon), and it continued to evolve into the word we know and understand today. Did this fabled rod exist at all, and if it did, what was really its significance? I offer you this; in ancient tribal times, the chief of a tribe, or head of a nation, was denoted by the staff that he carried with him. It indicated his place in society and afforded him protection and safety in his travels. It was rough out in them streets.
There’s a very enjoyable story about the explorer Livingstone and his experiences with a particular African tribe, wherein the tribal chief actually gave him a tribal staff as a show of their solidarity, and none in all of Africa would cross Livingstone because of it. Even now our leaders wear various symbols to identify themselves. The President has the presidential seal on their vehicle, military rank is declared by various pins, sashes, badges, etc. We recognize the authority of police officers by their badge. Medical personnel by uniform and stethoscope, etc., etc. Could be as simple and uncomplicated as that. The bible is nothing if not full of hyperbole.
If you have read your bible closely, studied all the teachings of Jesus, you’ll know that He referred to these tablets of the covenant, the ten commandments, as the laws of man; they did not come from God. Not the God of the current understanding of followers of the church, anyway. He further stated that the old covenant was dead and encouraged us to embrace His new covenant [if such a covenant is required by you]. Amazing how stubborn the self righteous can be.
And lest ye forget who Jesus was, let me remind you. Jesus was the whistle-blower of His time and He came with a vengeance. He came with Truth. Who did He come against? The establishment. The kings and the priests of that time. The liars, the deceivers, and the traditions of mankind. They persecuted, slandered, tortured, and then killed Him, while His mother cried, begging for mercy, and offering Him what strength and comfort she could. One of the many beautiful and uplifting stories from this sanctified book of antiquity. Sound familiar? His Word endures.
In biblical times a covenant denoted a “sense of cutting”, specifically in reference to animal sacrifices. The use of the word covenant as you understand it today didn’t exist until the mid 1300’s, and was then used to describe a "mutual compact to do or not do something, a contract," from Old French covenant, convenant "agreement, pact, promise", originally present participle of covenir "agree, meet," from Latin convenire "come together, unite; be suitable, agree," from com- "together" + venire "to come," from a suffixed form of PIE root *gwa- "to go, come." I get no sense of an obligation from that, not to mention an obligation you had no mutual agreement in, nor an obligation that, if broken by you, would send you to the fiery pits of a mythical realm called “hell”.
The Ark of the Covenant is also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God and the Ark always preceded His people. Cherubim are placed above the “seat of mercy” or the covering, and the cherubim are never to be removed. During times of war, the Ark was consulted before engagement and this practice is especially important in the context of spiritual war, which is the origin of all wars, in truth. Today we consult the Ark before games of sport in hopes of leveraging the powers of the Ark to insure a win for our team. Talk about violating the Holy of Holies!
Also, as you are probably aware, given names in the bible are no accident. Each name tells a story, gives warning, or, is prophetic. When the Ark was captured by the Philistines, the old priest, Eli, whose name means “high or elevated”, fell dead upon hearing of it. His daughter-in-law, pregnant at the time, later named her newborn Ichabod, which means “the glory [of God] has departed”. The priest, Eli, is allegorical. Those who are elevated in the church on the backs of false idols, those who worship false gods, are destined to fall, because they do not understand that the true power is within, not without.
That box that they toted around, if they did indeed carry such a thing around, had no real power except the power given to it by their beliefs. The Philistines, who did not understand or appreciate the power of the Ark, continuously suffered plagues until it was returned to its rightful owners. In the late 1600’s, this story would have been deemed “witchcraft”, had it not been labeled “from God '', and there's enough fodder in that statement for another entire book.
When the Ark was [is] properly placed in the temple, the glory of God fills the house of God. Finally, the Ark is placed under a veil, to conceal it, and it remains concealed today. The Ark, as it turns out, is found on the true narrow path, and only elevated priests and priestesses can behold its true power and glory. I’m just now realizing that the book I wrote titled, “I Left The Church To Find God”, actually explains in full that you are the Arc of the Covenant, and all the powers you truly hold, but here’s another clue for you before I go.
In the book of Revelation, 11:19, it says the prophet saw God's temple in heaven opened, "and the Ark of His covenant was seen within His temple." What else does it say? “A great multitude stand before the Throne of God, who come out of the Great Tribulation, clothed with robes made "white in the blood of the Lamb" and having palm branches in their hands.”
Amen.
I know what you’re thinking, I once thought the same, but if you continue to view that book in a literal sense you are missing the mark. The words we use every day don’t mean what we think they mean, and this is a prime example. I advise you to make it a habit to research the etymology of the language used in the bible in order to find the meaning in the time it was written. I’ll also remind you that much of the bible is allegorical, it’s parables. The Word is hidden from all but those who seek.
So let’s explore the biblical myth of this Ark of the Covenant. A basic search will tell you that the Ark of the Covenant contained "the golden pot that held manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant (the ten commandments)." If you look at the modern definition of the word “Ark”, you’ll find a reference to the ship that Noah built, a box, a container, and you’ll be referred back to the Ark of the Covenant. That’s a whole lot of words to tell you absolutely nothing of real value.
You’ll also find references to a “sacred” box or container or something that affords safety and protection. All true, there’s no lie there, exactly, because if you can harness the God Within, you can give much power to any object if your belief is strong enough. The lie is in the fact that you’ve been taught to believe that somewhere out there in this world is hidden a literal gold plated wooden chest that houses the power of God, is a mighty, powerful weapon of war, among other things, and man has been searching high and low for it for thousands of years. Another example of the church directing your attention outward instead of inward as Jesus told us to do.
In Old Testament times, an arc was a box deemed sacred by the Hebrew, one of which sat in every one of their synagogues, and was representative of the presence of God among them. You know, like the cross in our churches today is representative of the blood of the lamb. There are millions in the United States alone and the physical cross itself holds no real power. In fact, worshiping the cross is exactly the same as worshiping, say, the guillotine of the Elizabethan age or the electric chair of our own time. Put in its proper context, the cross is a symbol of torture, death, and judgment from the time of Jesus. So, the Ark is representative of an intangible essence, not a literal, physical, anything, and the Ark itself, the presence of God among us, is the fulfillment of God’s promise. Manna is, in its literal sense, sustenance from heaven, which itself flows from the Ark, or the presence of God.
Aaron’s rod that budded, was a phrase used in the Bible to denote evidence of the exclusive right to the priesthood of the tribe of Levi, however, the earliest known use of the word “bud” was somewhere around the early 1500’s and meant “to push forward or to thrust” (Germanic). Later it came to mean a “bag or a purse” (Old Saxon), and it continued to evolve into the word we know and understand today. Did this fabled rod exist at all, and if it did, what was really its significance? I offer you this; in ancient tribal times, the chief of a tribe, or head of a nation, was denoted by the staff that he carried with him. It indicated his place in society and afforded him protection and safety in his travels. It was rough out in them streets.
There’s a very enjoyable story about the explorer Livingstone and his experiences with a particular African tribe, wherein the tribal chief actually gave him a tribal staff as a show of their solidarity, and none in all of Africa would cross Livingstone because of it. Even now our leaders wear various symbols to identify themselves. The President has the presidential seal on their vehicle, military rank is declared by various pins, sashes, badges, etc. We recognize the authority of police officers by their badge. Medical personnel by uniform and stethoscope, etc., etc. Could be as simple and uncomplicated as that. The bible is nothing if not full of hyperbole.
If you have read your bible closely, studied all the teachings of Jesus, you’ll know that He referred to these tablets of the covenant, the ten commandments, as the laws of man; they did not come from God. Not the God of the current understanding of followers of the church, anyway. He further stated that the old covenant was dead and encouraged us to embrace His new covenant [if such a covenant is required by you]. Amazing how stubborn the self righteous can be.
And lest ye forget who Jesus was, let me remind you. Jesus was the whistle-blower of His time and He came with a vengeance. He came with Truth. Who did He come against? The establishment. The kings and the priests of that time. The liars, the deceivers, and the traditions of mankind. They persecuted, slandered, tortured, and then killed Him, while His mother cried, begging for mercy, and offering Him what strength and comfort she could. One of the many beautiful and uplifting stories from this sanctified book of antiquity. Sound familiar? His Word endures.
In biblical times a covenant denoted a “sense of cutting”, specifically in reference to animal sacrifices. The use of the word covenant as you understand it today didn’t exist until the mid 1300’s, and was then used to describe a "mutual compact to do or not do something, a contract," from Old French covenant, convenant "agreement, pact, promise", originally present participle of covenir "agree, meet," from Latin convenire "come together, unite; be suitable, agree," from com- "together" + venire "to come," from a suffixed form of PIE root *gwa- "to go, come." I get no sense of an obligation from that, not to mention an obligation you had no mutual agreement in, nor an obligation that, if broken by you, would send you to the fiery pits of a mythical realm called “hell”.
The Ark of the Covenant is also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God and the Ark always preceded His people. Cherubim are placed above the “seat of mercy” or the covering, and the cherubim are never to be removed. During times of war, the Ark was consulted before engagement and this practice is especially important in the context of spiritual war, which is the origin of all wars, in truth. Today we consult the Ark before games of sport in hopes of leveraging the powers of the Ark to insure a win for our team. Talk about violating the Holy of Holies!
Also, as you are probably aware, given names in the bible are no accident. Each name tells a story, gives warning, or, is prophetic. When the Ark was captured by the Philistines, the old priest, Eli, whose name means “high or elevated”, fell dead upon hearing of it. His daughter-in-law, pregnant at the time, later named her newborn Ichabod, which means “the glory [of God] has departed”. The priest, Eli, is allegorical. Those who are elevated in the church on the backs of false idols, those who worship false gods, are destined to fall, because they do not understand that the true power is within, not without.
That box that they toted around, if they did indeed carry such a thing around, had no real power except the power given to it by their beliefs. The Philistines, who did not understand or appreciate the power of the Ark, continuously suffered plagues until it was returned to its rightful owners. In the late 1600’s, this story would have been deemed “witchcraft”, had it not been labeled “from God '', and there's enough fodder in that statement for another entire book.
When the Ark was [is] properly placed in the temple, the glory of God fills the house of God. Finally, the Ark is placed under a veil, to conceal it, and it remains concealed today. The Ark, as it turns out, is found on the true narrow path, and only elevated priests and priestesses can behold its true power and glory. I’m just now realizing that the book I wrote titled, “I Left The Church To Find God”, actually explains in full that you are the Arc of the Covenant, and all the powers you truly hold, but here’s another clue for you before I go.
In the book of Revelation, 11:19, it says the prophet saw God's temple in heaven opened, "and the Ark of His covenant was seen within His temple." What else does it say? “A great multitude stand before the Throne of God, who come out of the Great Tribulation, clothed with robes made "white in the blood of the Lamb" and having palm branches in their hands.”
Amen.
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