… until the time of reformation.
Many people want to find the Ark of the Covenant, but more important than finding the actual ancient artifact, would be to understand what it stands for and more importantly, what it doesn’t stand for. Let us therefore continue our archeological work of removing the debris of the doctrines of man in order to rediscover the truth of the word of Hashem according to its own value.
Misunderstanding the Letter to the Messianic Jews of Israel, many Western Bible editor have added the word covenant in the eighth chapter of the text of the Letter to the Hebrews. That is why that word is in Italics in the KJV edition. As a result the text is read as an anti-thesis between the Hebrew and the apostolic eras. When we remove that unfortunate edition everything change and we read the text not as a dispensational argument, but as a midrashic revelation of the meaning of the two chambers of the Tabernacle. The KJV text reads in the thirteenth verse of chapter eight, "In that he saith, 'A new covenant', he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13 KJV).
What is it in our text that decays and waxes old, that becomes in fact obsolete? The terms of the Toratic covenant given on Mt. Horeb? How is that possible since the Torah is fixed forever in Heaven (Ps. 119:89)? The Levitical priesthood? How could that be since the eternal Torah says that theirs is a perpetual priesthood (Exod. 40:15)? Aaron’s priesthood only stopped because the Temple was destroyed thirty years after Yeshua’s resurrection, but both the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah speak of its reinstitution when the Temple is rebuilt. For that reason, it cannot be the Temple either that has become obsolete in our text. What is it then that decays and waxes old, becoming obsolete in verse thirteen?
When we read the text without the added edition, we realize that it is not at all about covenants, but that section is a midrash using the first and second chamber of the Tabernacle to tell us about the coming Kingdom of Heaven. Chapter nine says,
"Now even the first (chamber) had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant … into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. (Here is our midrash now), "By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age) (Heb. 9:1-9)".
What we are told is that it is this present age which decays and passes away, that becomes obsolete as it recedes giving way to the Kingdom of God slowly but surely established since the manifestation of Messiah. Beloved: why do you fret? This present age, this age of the futile rule of man on the earth is coming to an end. Do you hear the footsteps of Messiah on the horizons. He is coming to take his bride and with her establish the Kingdom of his Father on earth.
May it come soon, Abba, even in our days!