The Ark of the Covenant

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I believe that the lost Ark of the Covenant may soon reappear, creating a bond in Israel again to their ancient roots and increasing desire for the temple to be rebuilt. My reasoning comes from the fact that the Ark of the Covenant isn’t mentioned at all in 2 Kings 25, where detailed descriptions of what was taken from the temple by the Babylonians are listed. After this point in scripture, the Ark is not present.

I believe the reason for this is that the priests hid the Ark and some of the temple instruments in the complex cave system under Mount Moriah. This was around 600BC. The reason this is important has to do with the claims of Ron Wyatt. You can read his account at WyattMuseum.com

Ron is dead now, but according to him, in a dig he and an Arab man he hired were going through the tunnels. He said that the man went into a small room and after a second scrambled out of there like he’d seen a ghost. Ron never saw him again. When Ron went in the room, he said he was pressed to the floor. He claims that he was told it was not time yet for the Ark to be uncovered. However, he said he saw the Ark in a stone case with the top broken.

What’s fascinating about the story of his discovery comes before he discovered the Ark. He believes he found the crucifixion site of Christ. He found square cuts in the stone just under a back wall. (Over time this whole area has been filled in with debris, which is why they were digging.) There were notches cut out of the back for posting crimes of those being crucified. This was on the road to Jerusalem and right by Golgotha and just around the corner from the garden tomb. This fits perfectly the description of the crucifixion site from scripture.

John 19:41
Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

John 19:20
Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek.

Hebrews 13:12
Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

John 19:17
They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.

Matthew 27:33
And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull,

Mark 15:22
Then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.

These scriptures place the crucifixion site at Golgotha, by the garden tomb, to the North of the city along the road from Caesarea to the Sheep Gate. Crucifixion was a deterrent punishment. By crucifying on the roads coming into towns with crimes posted for each criminal, it made clear that those crimes weren’t tolerated. That’s why I don’t believe Christ was crucified on a hilltop.

So back to Ron Wyatt, he found the cutouts and the slots on the rock behind the crucifixion site. There was also a large crack in the rock behind him.

Matthew 27:51
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

What Ron found was that the Ark of the Covenant hidden in 600 BC, over half a millennium earlier happened to be hidden directly under the future crucifixion site. When the rocks were rent, the blood of Christ mixed with water flowed down the crack and landed on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Hear Ron Wyatt’s testimony on the testing of the blood he claims to have found there.  length: 0:04:22

Wikipedia:
“The High Priest was allowed in the Holy of Holies once a year at Yom Kippur. On that day, he placed the blood of a bullock and of a goat upon the mercy seat as an atonement or sin-offering for the sins of the people of Israel. This ceremony renewed the closeness of the Jewish people with their God and served to remind them of his holiness.”

God the Father gave up His only Son as was foreshadowed with Abraham and Isaac. For Abraham it was a test of faith, for God it’s a show of His love for the world. (John 3:14-21)

Yeshua the Son, gave His life of His own free will to be the perfect sacrifice upon which all the sins of those who believe by faith in Him are redeemed. In this selfless sacrifice the Son showed his great love for His friends. (John 15:9-17)

If Ron Wyatt’s testimony is true, then all this fulfillment of foreshadowing was made possible by faithful servants heeding God’s word to them over 600 years before the events would be fulfilled, placing the Ark in just the right spot below where the Romans would crucify criminals. Then, only until the earthquake rends the rocks was it possible for the blood and water of Yeshua to reach the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.

This would mean that through the events of the crucifixion, God sprinkled His own Son’s blood on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant as the last sacrifice, fulfilling the foreshadowing that the high priests had been doing with the blood of lambs and bullocks for centuries past!

According to The Temple Institute:

“...the expression “lost” ark is not an accurate description for the Jewish people’s point of view - because we have always known exactly where it is. So the Ark is “Hidden,” and hidden quite well, but it is not lost.

“Tradition records that even as King Solomon built the First Temple, he already knew, through Divine inspiration, that eventually it would be destroyed. Thus Solomon, the wisest of all men, oversaw the construction of a vast system of labyrinths, mazes, chambers and corridors underneath the Temple Mount complex. He commanded that a special place be built in the bowels of the earth, where the sacred vessels of the Temple could be hidden in case of approaching danger. Midrashic tradition teaches that King Josiah of Israel, who lived about forty years before the destruction of the First Temple, commanded the Levites to hide the Ark, together with the original menorah and several other items*, in this secret hiding place which Solomon had prepared.

“This location is recorded in our sources, and today, there are those who know exactly where this chamber is. And we know that the ark is still there, undisturbed, and waiting for the day when it will be revealed. An attempt was made some few years ago to excavate towards the direction of this chamber. This resulted in widespread Moslem unrest and rioting. They stand a great deal to lose if the Ark is revealed - for it will prove to the whole world that there really was a Holy Temple, and thus, that the Jews really do have a claim to the Temple Mount. (The official position of the Islamic Wakf, the body that governs over the Temple Mount, is that there never was a Holy Temple, and that the Jews have no rights whatsoever to the place).”

* such as the staff of Aaron that brought forth almond blossoms during the controversy involving Korach (Numbers 16); the jar of manna that had been placed in the Holy of Holies as a testimony; and the jar of anointing oil.

There are other theories as to its location, from a storeroom in the Harare Museum of Human Science in Zimbabwe put forth by professor Tudor Parfitt to someplace in Ethiopia.

And with the recent examinations of the Copper Scroll, found in the area of the Dead Sea Scrolls, there is the possibility that its hiding place, which Ron Wyatt claimed to have found, will be revealed in the future. Watch The Mystery of the Copper Scroll

• Adventurous Scholar Says He’s Found Israelite Icon Pioneer Press (Link) (March 2, 2008 | Updated: November 13, 2015)
• King Solomon’s treasures revealed: Newly translated Hebrew text lists legendary riches - including the Ark of the Covenant Daily Mail (Link) - Ellie Zolfagharifard (January 9, 2014)