The Ark’s Prophetic Role Do biblical prophecies reveal anything about the location of the ark of the covenant? In Isaiah 18 we find the clearest indication that the ark will be brought from Ethiopia in the end times. God addresses the people of Ethiopia in the first two verses of Isaiah 18 and tells them of the role they will play in the events of the last days. Isaiah’s prophecy reads, ‘Woe to the Land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia… All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifeth up an ensign [nes, ard] on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, here ye.’ The closing verse declares, ‘in that time shall the present [nes, ark] be brought unto the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion’ 918:1,3,7). This prophecy may refer to an already-accomplished development- the return of the ark from Ethiopia in the early 1990s. Another fascination prophecy, this one by Zephaniah, states that Israel will miraculously have its language, Hebrew, restored to it when God brings the Jews back into their land: “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord. To serve He with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering” (Zephaniah 3:9-10). Even in the time of Christ, Hebrew was a dying language. It was used only by the scribes and priests for official religious purposes in the Temple. Almost everyone else used the Greek Language, which had become the “international” language of its day. Many conversations would be in Aramaic, a language the Jewish exiles adopted during their seventy years of captivity in Babylon. The revival of the ancient language of Hebrew in modern Israel is another miraculous and unprecedented fulfillment of prophecy in our day. This recovery of a dead language and its revival after some two thousand years is a phenomenon without historical precedent. Notice that the passage in Isaiah 18 connects the time of the return of the “present” to the rebirth of Israel and the time of the revival of the Hebrew language ( see Zephaniah 3:9-10). This “present” may very well be the return of the lost ark of the covenant. One final prophecy provides, perhaps, the strongest evidence that the ark will be recovered and play an important role in our future. Jeremiah describes a time after the battle of Armageddon has been won and Israel is enjoying its messianic kingdom: And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith The LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done any more. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD. (Jeremiah 3:16-17 In other words, Jeremiah prophesied that once the battle of Armageddon is over and the millennial kingdom has commenced, Israel will stop talking about the ark, stop thinking about the ark, and stop visiting the ark. The reason the ark of the covenant will no longed be as important is that Jesus will be present to worship directly as the Messiah-King. However, this prophecy of Jeremiah does not make sense unless the lost ark is rediscovered and unless, in the years leading up to Israel’s final great crisis, the ark plays a pivotal role in the spiritual life of the nation. Obviously, if the ark was to be publicly revealed and brought to the newly built Third Temple, the ark would be talked about, thought about, and visited. The return of the ark of the covenant to the Holy of Holies of a rebuilt Temple would signal for Israel the final ushering in of the Messianic era. Only time will reveal the true role of the ark of the covenant in the events that will surround the rise of the Antichrist and return of Jesus as Israel’s Messiah. |
