Are You an Arca?

The title is, Are you an Orca? Well, are you? Well, it's different than an Orca.

An Orca is a Latin word for a type of wooden chest, a jewelry box. Even a coffin has been called an Orca in Latin, and it's known to be the holder of things valuable, things that are priceless. Does that describe you? I think most of us would think about it, to use a modern phrase from Jeopardy. It would be a container that holds valuable things for 500, Alex. Well, most Arca's are great containers for the last few thousand years built from hardwood.

Really, really hardwood, not softwood. Down here we have cypress trees, which is very hardwood. There is also oak, but at the time of not only Christ, but a thousand years before him, there was the Acasa tree, Acasa wood, very hard, hard wood. As a matter of fact, they made ossuaries, which held bones that they would preserve someone's bones in. They would be not only from metal, but they would also be made from Acasa wood that would last for thousands of years.

Very, very hard wood, as they called it, a bone box. Well, I hope you're not a bone box. But I'd like you to go with me because this does relate to us. You will follow me. And let's go to Exodus 25, verse 10. I'll be reading from the New King James version here today. Exodus 25, verse 10. As God was telling them, my heading in my New King James says, the ark of the testimony.

So you can kind of see where arkah in the Latin, how it was translated into our English. It said, they shall make an ark of Acacia wood. That's that really, really hard wood. So it's going to last. Two and a half cubics. Cubits shall be its length.

A cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. So 45 inches long, which is just about what that screen is there, probably wide. Dave, do you know how wide it is? No, you're supposed to. I'll count on you. 45. You can imagine this box that they wanted to make was 45 inches long, 27 inches tall, and 27 inches wide.

That's how big the ark of the covenant was. That God gave them the instruction. And it was a box, but of course it had a top on it. So let's go ahead and read. And you shall overlay it with pure gold. Inside and out you shall overlay it and shall make on it a molding of gold all the way around. So they had this Acacia wood built, and then they painted it. That's about the only way they had then.

Painted it with gold inside and out. Imagine looking at that. What an incredible sight it would be. Imagine today at $5,000 an ounce how much it's worth if you just had that. Then he said, verse 12, you shall cast four rings of gold on it. So they were to cast these rings so that you could put poles and carry it through with that. And you shall make poles of Acacia wood.

So here they were. Now this hard, hard wood. And overlay them with gold. So you may see pictures and you may see sticks or whatever wood color, but that's not correct because he said even the poles that are to put in these rings are to be covered with gold. It would be an impressive sight. Verse 14, you shall put the poles into the rings on the side of the ark and the ark may be carried by them. And if I can add something here, only by them, as we find out later in the Bible, is that important?

It gives instructions. The poles shall be taken in the rings of the ark and they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the testimony, which I shall give to you. What was that testimony? The stone commandments. Right. They were to go inside of that. You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit in half and its width. And you shall make two carabam of gold, of hammered work. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat as they will look at each other and their wings come through to where there's just a small space in between where God's presence was going to be.

Make one carab at one end and the other carab at the other end, and you shall make the carabam at the two ends all of one piece with the mercy seat. Can you imagine what that looked like? Solid gold would have formed these carabam. That had to be pretty heavy if you've ever been around anything that's gold. Gold bars are heavy, so you can imagine 20s. They're covering 45 inches on top of this 27 inch wide. So it was quite an impressive piece.

In verse 20, and the carabam shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another, and the faces of the carabam shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony. Or as I said, it's the Ten Commandments, those commandments that were given there.

He said that I give you, and there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two carabam, which are on the ark of the testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. And you must realize that the testimony was written on what? Stone. Stone. Very heavy. You can imagine why you needed four men to carry this thing when it was coated in solid. It was coated with gold.

These were on top. The poles were even cold and gold, and then you had these stones that were given there. So ark is translated from the word Aaron. It's translated from the word Aaron, and it's used in terms of the ark of the covenant. You can look this up from the strong or whatever you want to look up, and you'll see the word. So we translated as ark. What about Noah's ark? Would that be an ark?

Boy, I got a mixed group here. I think something was important on there, wasn't it? I think the animals thought it was important. But that's not the word that was used. It's a totally different word. The actual word is tava. T-E-B-A-H. That is the word in Hebrew word for the Noah's ark, and it was a box. And it's interesting because one is ark was used for holding special things, things of value. Well, you would think that's important, too, but yet God did not use that word. He used tava, and it would basically mean just a simple box. To them, even Noah's ark was a simple box compared to where he was going to have his presence, where he was going to show up on the scene what was going to represent him. So, I want to look at that because of the mercy seat. It is impressive here. If you look at it, you can imagine. Now, why did God say, you shall only pick it up with these, carry it like I tell you to? Why would he do that? He said it's very holy. His presence, his handwriting was on those. He designed this. He blessed it. He was going to be with them. It represented his presence, not to be taken lightly, is it? Sometimes we take his presence lightly, don't we?

How about us? You feel like an archaeate? You see where we are going with this? Because we're considered his special treasure. It's what the scriptures say, right? So, the mercy seat is called was built to hold precious, valuable things. One of those being, of course, most important to him was the Ten Commandments of Stone. And they, those Ten Commandments, don't they preserve life? The scripture says so. Proverbs 7 and verse 2 says, Keep them the commandments and you will live. It kind of means, what if you don't? I think you can figure that one out. But also, it's brought into question when the, when the, how important it is, because when the young man came to Christ and said, How do I have eternal life? I live forever. How do I have this? And what did he say? Keep the commandments. They are very, very important. They were important to God that he was actually, his presence was over them in the ark. Now, I do want to put a little conjecture in here for all those watching this later who will go prove it, because I do get those occasionally from that. But I'd like you to go with me, because I, David didn't give you this, because it just came, I just thought about this morning. Exodus 24. If you'll join me, return back there. Exodus 24.

And verse 10. As we see that they went up to the mountain of God, Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And verse 10. And they saw the God of Israel, or saw his presence. There was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone. And it was like the very heavens in its clarity. Isn't that interesting? Verse 12, it says then, Moses came up, the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain, and be there, and I will give you a tablet of stone, and the law and the commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.

There is, to some it's considered conjecture of what those stones were made from. But it's interesting here, as it tells, that stone. At the very foot of where they were all walking, it said, There was under his feet, as it were, paved work of sapphire stone. What color is sapphire? A bluish dark, almost bluish, purple-ish, red-y. It's just a beautiful, beautiful stone. Is it possible that that was the very thing that the Ten Commandments were written on? It doesn't say rock, it says stone. And that they were there. They saw it, and then he mentions the commandments. I bring this up because the children of Israel were told to have a blue little string, made sure. And why were they to have that blue string? What was important for that little tassel with the blue down there? They were to look at it, and it was to remind them of the Ten Commandments. Does it not make sense that that would probably be the blue that the Commandments? Can you imagine their first vision, if it was of sapphire stone, for him to be bringing these down? These beautiful stones? I hit one time when I had money before I got in the ministry. I would buy my wife's sapphire. She has sapphire rings, sapphire earrings. No, well, you wanted that, but you didn't get it.

Yeah, she still wants it. I have to wait till I retire. It's on hold. But think how what a sight that would be. Would that make an impression on you? And wouldn't it make a big impression on you if he came down and you broke him? Oh, because of you. Because of what was going on. And then he had to go as it says in Chisel and New. According to Jewish historians and various things, they have no doubt that they that me what I say that these 10 Commandments stones were of sapphire should be a beautiful sight, wouldn't it? I always wonder why you don't see many pictures of them. You see them out of stone or rock. But it's good enough to to remind us. But the 10 commandments of stone were given to preserve life. Also inside that Ark of the Covenant was what? Anybody remember? Aaron's rod. A stick, right? A dead stick That's a bucket. That budded. How did it do that? Did Aaron go out and glue fresh flowers to it every no? Said it actually budded. What did that rod was a symbol of authority. And it's interesting that it didn't die. That it would come back to life. That life would come from it. Kind of pointing to something else down the road. What else was in there? Mana. A pot of mana. A gold pot of mana. And that mana was what? Food from God. Just like those 10 commandments are food to us, aren't they? Isn't that what Matthew 4 for? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word. Yes, his word. And so all three of these were symbols. Symbols. Why are they doing that? I did too. So you'll take the blame for it. But they weren't all symbols for mankind to look at. You might say the ark and his contents were representatives from God.

Just like you. Just like you. What do you possess that is God's? What else do you possess through that Holy Spirit?

Are you an ark? I would think so. I think you'd want to be, wouldn't you? As we will look in the Bible study after this and define sin and see what it talks about. So this ark, as one commentary I read, said it was a sacred relic of God's presence and power. Aren't you? I don't like to be called a relic because I'm just 67, which to some of you, that is a relic.

But it's important because it represents God's presence and power. Isn't that what we represent? We should represent his presence and we should represent his power. Because it's only through his power, only through the gift of Jesus Christ, do we even have his Holy Spirit. So where am I going with this sermon?

I hopefully can help you think, make you think as we go into the spring Holy Days. Just how important the ark is of this world, the ark of God. How important are you? What do you hold? Unless the Son of Man returns, no flesh will be left alive except for who's sake? The elect's sake. The ark is the one whose world will be destroyed, as the scriptures tell us. Now, we know that there was one man who had to learn a lesson, and his name was Uzzah. He was a what? Anybody? He was a Levite, right? He was one of those who really cared deeply about God, and as so, he was instructed on every aspect of serving as a Levite. Everything you can imagine. I wonder if Jeff bought me a book one time and told me about the Levites and a very good book. I went into great detail. I didn't realize just how much work there was to serving as a Levite. But he cared so much that when the ark was brought back to Israel, that the horse or whatever it was stumbled. And the ark, he thought, was about to fall. And he reached out his hand to make sure it didn't fall. He thought so much of it. And God struck him dead right then and there. And people look at him and go, wow, that's kind of cruel. He was just trying to help, right? Yes, Diane, he should have known. God, where much is given, much is required. And as they went through all this training, he was to know, you don't touch that! For one thing, he should have known, whoa, we need to stop. And this does not need to be carried on a card. There is only one way. He would have learned that way. But what? They were so excited because they were getting it back because the Philistines had owned it, had taken it captive. And what did he do? He touched it. He touched it. And God said, no way on his green earth should you ever touch that. It is so holy that I designed and I planned this and I gave you instructions that only men were to, the Levites, were to grab it on these poles and carry it. So, was that as a guilty? Absolutely. Because he knew better. It's not like he was Joe Blowout here in the army and said, let me grab that thing. No, he would have been instructed exactly how to do it. How does that relate to us? We know what to do, don't we? But we don't always do it, do we? Even Paul said that, that I know I should do that, I don't do, but that I know I don't do that, I do. Right? So, this helps us to see as we study an arkah, how to be a good arkah, how to be one that contains these precious things that God has. Let's not mistreat our bodies. Let's make sure that we don't just take something for granted, that the law of God means something, that it is great. It isn't something to just throw around and think it's just, no, it's not that important. Do we know where the arkah of the covenant is besides Ethiopia today? No, there's a, yeah, because this design is from heaven. There's a design there, pictures of God at his throne with the caribs covered, but they don't know where it's at. They don't know where it's disappeared. I've watched three or four videos on it because this was so valuable. It didn't show up in Babylon when Babylon conquered. There's actually a type of priesthood in Ethiopia where they believe that it was taken to and they keep somebody there. It's guarded all the way around and nobody can go in and the guy has to actually, whoever is guarding it, will actually die on the job and then they'll put somebody else. But they say it's there. I don't know. I don't know. We don't know. Most people don't know. And why don't we know?

Because the people of God forgot how important this covenant was. Maybe God hid it. Maybe it'll show up before Jesus Christ returns. Maybe it'll show up at that time. I don't know. But I do know one thing. The ark of the testimony, the ark of the covenant was so precious, but the people didn't think it was, that they let it go. Nobody knows. Will you do the same? Will you do the same? I know people who profess to be the people of God. That at times they just didn't think the commandments were that important. Maybe even known some people like that too. I had a neighbor back in Tennessee. He was a mayor. He just lived less than a mile from me. He lived on a hill. And he was a preacher. I think he was a Baptist preacher. I think that's what he was. And he had, at the foot of it, foot of the hill, down right on the road, he had this sign that said, the Ten Commandments are kept here. You ever seen one of those signs? Yes. I like the guy. I still wanted to write and cross out and say, nine. Nine. Nine of the commandments are kept because he was a good man. Honest, trustworthy, and everything. But he didn't think the Fourth Commandment was important, obviously.

Do we? Obviously you are. You're here. Because God says so. So just like the Ark of the Covenant is this precious thing, that that is in it was so important too. Those Ten Commandments, they're more important than we've ever dreamed about. We're going to talk about that, Bible study, because we're going to talk about sin. Because they define sin. But it's not all just right here, is it? It's not all just here. So do you remember the Philistines when they captured the Ark? They won the war. And they carried it away! And they took it to anything! What happened?

Yes, they actually said tumors is what the translation is. A friend of mine, who is a writer, he keeps the Sabbath and everything, he actually said when you translated it into it, it meant hemorrhoids. Which kind of makes a bigger impact on tumors. Which you could kind of see well, I'm ready to get rid of this thing.

So what did they do? They wanted to get rid of it. And they put it on a cart. And they headed that cart out towards Judah. And we should also look at that as a very precious, precious relic, those Ten Commandments. Because they not only define sin, but for the followers of God, they define you, don't they? They define you. They define me. How I live is right here. For what? The whole world to see. Remember talking about symbols? We are those symbols. Because most people say, that's an Old Testament thing. Ah, that's it. That is a relic. Right? Do we say that? I hope not. I hope we don't say that. I hope we are able to look at this in a different light, especially as we come into the spring holy days and the days of unleavened bread as we look at those symbols. You'll be here at Passover, and you will take of the bread and the wine, which are what? Symbols. Symbols of his blood, symbols of his body. But they're not real. They're just symbols.

To him, they are precious, and he says, do it once a year. We have other people go, ah no, let's do it every week. Let's do it every other week. We'll take the symbols. That's not what he said. It's a memorial to him. And then we have, as I wrap this sermon up today, we have that famous movie. Matter of fact, he just showed up on television the other day, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders of the Last Arca, as they made up. If you ever go back and watch that, you kind of make up a lot of stuff. And you see demons coming out of it and all this kind of stuff and how faces melt and all this kind of stuff. That's not in the Bible, is it? Is it blasphemy?

When something is this holy, you don't mess with it. You don't put your hand on it. You don't make up stuff. You look what the Bible says and you keep it. You keep it.

But it sold a lot of tickets, didn't it? And now with AI, there's no telling what they could be able to do. They could replicate this thing and make you believe that it's right over here in Melbourne. And Dave and Diane have it in their home. I'll let you come and look at it. So, yeah, we have to look at the deception, too. We have to look at it because a lot of people have been deceived and the commandments have been away with. You don't have to keep them anymore as long as they're like here. Well, why is that important? Because God said, I must be regarded as holy. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. As they came up to worship him when the commandments were given, when he was making his announcement of these Ten Commandments before they said, oh, don't talk to us anymore, it's interesting because he said, oh, come up to the mountain. Come over to the mountain, but don't touch it. Don't even have your animals touch the mountain because that's my presence. Don't even come there. If you do, I'll kill you. Isn't that simple? I'll kill you. That sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? But he wanted to make sure, see, God is up here, and we're so far down, I can't reach that far. We are so far from him. But see, his whole job, his whole goal, his whole aim, his whole everything about our destiny is to take us from dirt to holy.

First John 3-2, we will be like him. We will see him because we will be like him. That's his whole plan right there. So you see why holy is so important. He told Aaron, nay, dab, and abayu, priests at the time, Aaron the high priest, in this tabernacle. Okay, you're only to go there, go into the holy of holies one time, one time during the year, one day, one time. I'm telling you when. And if you do it any other time, I'll kill you. Did he? He killed him. They came and lit profane fire, as the Scriptures say. What were they doing? Well, he also mentions just a little bit later in Scripture, I'll let you read that. He says, when you come into the worship, you better not be drinking alcohol. So were they drinking alcohol? Made it look like that. I won't say that. But it looks like that. And then they just went in and, I guess, hey, let's go see what it looks like. And they lit the lanterns and he burned them up. He burned them up. Because what? You read those stories and it tells you, goes back to this, I must be regarded as holy. Anything else? Won't work. Won't fit. That's why it's so important. When you gather here in this room and you take those symbols, you're saying, God, Jesus Christ, our Savior, you're holy. You are holy. That's so very important to us. So to me, the biggest object, well, physically, in the ark of the covenant was the Ten Commandments. And I want us to understand something this year. We are the ark. We are the container, the Acacia jewelry box for the Ten Commandments. Remember what these days of unleavened bread are about? It's about getting sin out and righteousness in. It's just not about this little piece of bread and it's like, oh, I ate it today. No, it's more than that. It's not just about flat bread. It's about having flat minds and not inflated minds to where the account for it and I am. Because God says, you are holy. Be holy as I am holy. And He gave the instructions on how to do it and He gives instructions to us. But that doesn't mean you walk around like, yeah, yeah. Stan, I am very important. No, it's the exact opposite. This is what He wants us. This is the mindset. We are the containers. We are the ark. I want to prove it to you with one last Scripture. And you know that, but it goes back to this. If you will join me in Jeremiah, join me in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31, 33. But this is a covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. After what days? See, they were already, by Jeremiah, they were going into captivity. They'll be in captivity for 70 years. Okay? And God had tried time and time and time and time again and people just wouldn't listen. They just did things their own way. Who is God going to tell? Who is God that He would tell me what to do?

But this is a covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. What were those days? The Old Covenant. That was the Old Covenant. And they were under that Old Covenant. I will put my law in there. No. No. Mind. Mind. He will put His law in our mind. Know these? The law of God? They need to be in our minds.

And that isn't good enough for God because the New Covenant says He's going to put it in our minds and He's going to write it on our hearts. Just like the sapphire stone, He wants to write it on our hearts so that we know it. We know it and we live it. We don't have to look up. Oh, wait a minute. Oh, yeah. Let's see. Number five. Oh, there we go. What's number two? Oh, yeah. Yeah, what was that again? He's called us out. We don't need a blue string hanging from our waist. Do we? If you do, shame on you because that's what He's all about. Writing it. Writing it on our hearts. You see, when He writes it in our hearts, puts it in our minds, we are the ark of God. We are holding something so precious, so valuable, that it can't be replaced. And to make sure we could do it, Jesus Christ said, I'm going to help you do it. I'm going to give you the very essence of God Himself, the Holy Spirit, so that you can have this in your mind, written on your hearts, and you can display it for all the world to see.

Because the greatest sermons ever given are not heard, they're seen. And when you keep these, they're seen by the entire world. So, you are God's Acacia jewelry box. All He asks you to do, all He asks me to do, two words.

Prove it.