"There was nothing in the ark except ... (1 Kings 8:9)

The Old Testament is a challenging read, to say the least!  One of the ways we can enter into it is to slow down as we read, to notice what the passage centers our attention on.

For example, what word is repeated over and over throughout this passage (1 Kings 8:1-21)?  That's right: the ark.  Eight times in the first nine verses.  And not just "the ark"; it is "the ark of the LORD" and "the ark of the LORD's covenant."

If we want to better understand our series theme, "the faithfulness of God," we have to understand the word covenant.  A covenant is not a contract or "deal" negotiated by two parties.  Covenant binds two parties together in lasting, faithful relationship and commitment.  Covenant means "I will be faithful to you even if you fail to be faithful to me.”  If we want to summarize God's covenant with Israel in twenty-five words or less, here it is: "I will be your God and you will be my people."  

Here's how it works in symbolic terms.  For Israel, Jerusalem is the center of the world, because it is where God chooses to make his home.  At the center of Jerusalem is the Temple.  At the center of the Temple is The Most Holy Place (the "Holy of Holies").  In the center of the Most Holy Place is the ark of the covenant of the LORD.  Inside the ark of the covenant are the two tablets of the covenant, the "Ten Words" (Ten Commandments).  

At the center of the center of Everything is the covenant-making, covenant-keeping God.  At the center of Everything there is not an image, an object or a "thing" fashioned by our hands, but words, words inscribed by God into tablets of stone.  Living words, enduring words, world-creating words. Covenant words.

What does it mean to be made in God's image, to be bearers of that image?  Many things, but at the center of them all: words.  Language, but a particular kind of language: covenant language.  To be human is to be able to hear and understand and speak covenant words, the covenant language of love, truth, beauty, justice and faithfulness.

Even so, we have not yet come to the center of the Center of Everything.  That Center is just above the ark, “above” the commandments, sheltered by the wings of the cherubim.  It is called the "mercy seat."  Not really a place; more a space, a "zone," where the faithfulness of God meets the unfaithfulness of us.  It was to this Center that the High Priest, once a year on the Day of Atonement, brought the blood of the sacrificial lamb.

"I will be your God" -- God with us.  "You will be my people" -- what will it take for that to become as fully true as the faithful God purposes it to be?  Through words in stone ... or the Word made flesh?  Through sacrificial animal blood … or through the blood of the Lamb?

Lord Jesus Christ, our Lamb, our Lord, our Law; our Proper Center, our New Covenant; our Truthful Prophet, Great High Priest and True King: grant us your gifts of honest confession, true repentance and genuine amendment of our lives, that our hearts may not remain in any stony condition, but that we, following you, might become faithfully centered on you and your covenant.  Together we pray this in your Name.  Amen.