Eternal Atonement and the Place of Grace

Solomon had every furnishing for the temple made new, yet the ark of the covenant alone was brought over unchanged from the tabernacle, where it had served. The priests carried it into the Most Holy Place beneath the wings of the cherubim, and the poles by which it was carried were left in place rather than drawn out.

The poles remained because God had commanded that they stay in the rings and never be removed. Inside the ark there was no jar of manna and no staff of Aaron that had budded, only the two tablets of stone, a sign that God’s concern lay with the covenant alone. Through all the years before, he had held unwaveringly to the covenant he made with Israel.

Neither God’s grace nor his miracles amount to anything if his people do not live by the Word. When the ark was at last set in the Most Holy Place of the temple, the glory of God filled it in the cloud, and the priests could not stand to minister. To believe and follow that covenant, which never changes, is the only way to remain in a beautiful relationship with God.