The Ark of the Covenant

A lot of people will recognize this from Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark. In modern times, that is perhaps what the Ark is most famous for...at least in some circles.

But the Ark of the Covenant is much more than a holy relic to be discovered by a fictional archeologist. God instructed Moses that this Ark would be built. The Ark was placed in the Holiest of Holies in a large tent. Here is a list of interesting things about the Ark and the day of Atonement from Leviticus Chapter 16 and from this website:
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(1) Aaron was to take off his normal priestly garments, wash, and then put on the special garments which were prescribed for the sacrifices which took him into the holy of holies (v. 4; cf. Exod. 28; 39).

(2) Aaron secured the necessary sacrificial animals: a bull for his own sin offering and two male goats for the people’s sin offering; two rams, one for Aaron’s and the other for the people’s burnt offering (vv. 3, 5).

(3) Aaron slaughtered the bull for his own sin offering (vv. 6, 11).

(4) Before entering into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the bull, Aaron had to create a “cloud” of incense in the Holy of Holies, covering the mercy seat, to “veil” the glory of God so that he could enter in (vv. 12-13). The best approximation to this in my experience is what a bee-keeper does, smoking the hive of the bees, before he begins to remove the honey. In the case of Aaron, he was to offer only the prescribed incense so as to create an obscuring veil of smoke, thus dimming the glory of God’s presence and sparing his life.

(5) Aaron then took some of the blood of the bull and sprinkled it on the mercy seat seven times (v. 14).

(6) Lots were then cast for the two goats, to determine which would be slaughtered and which would be driven away (vv. 7-8).

(7) The goat for slaughter, the goat of the people’s sin offering, was sacrificed, and its blood was taken into the Holy of Holies and applied to the mercy seat, as the bull’s blood had been (v. 15).

(8) Cleansing was then made for the holy place (v. 16), seemingly by the sprinkling of the blood of both the bull and the goat. The atonement of the holy place is done alone, without anyone present to help, or to watch (v. 17).

(9) Next, outside the tent, Aaron was to make atonement for the altar of burnt offering,71 using, it would seem, the blood of both the bull and the goat (vv. 18-19).

(10) Now the second goat, the one which was kept alive, had the sins of the nation symbolically laid on its head, and was driven from the camp to a desolate place, from which it must never return (vv. 20-22).

(11) Aaron then entered the tent of meeting, removed his linen garments, washed, and put on his normal priestly garments

(12) The burnt offerings of rams, one for Aaron and his family and the other for the people, was now offered (v. 24)

(13) The earlier sacrifices of the bull and the goat were completed. The fat of the sin offering was burned on the altar (v. 25), and the remains of the bull and the goat were taken outside the camp, where they were burned (v. 27).

(14) Those who had been rendered unclean by handling the animals on which the sins of Aaron or the people were laid were to wash themselves and then return to camp (vv. 26, 28).

The Ark of the Covenant continued to be a huge part of Israelite worship right up until the last King of Israel and just before the King of Babylon conquered the city. The Ark was taken from it's place in the Temple and hidden away in a cave so no one could find it. That, and so the King of Babylon wouldn't take it away.

Some people have claimed to have found the Ark. Some monks claim to have it in a church somewhere and an archeologist by the name of Ron Wyatt claims to have found it. None of this can be confirmed with 100% certainty, however. The monks who claim to have it won't let anyone but one man see it and Ron Wyatt claims to have taken many pictures of the Ark and even filmed it on film. However, every picture he took was extremely blurry and the evidence was circumstantial at best.

One thing is clear to me is that if God wants the Ark of the Covenant to be found, it will be in HIS time and in his way, not ours.

One final note about the Ark of the Covenant. There are some objects inside of it. They include the Ten Commandments written by the very finger of God on two tablets of stone from Mt. Sinai. Next is a bowl of manna, a white flaky bread like food that the children of Israel ate for 40 years in their wilderness wanderings. The final object is Aaron's rod which budded flowers and even almonds.