The Witnesses in the Human Heart
The heart of fallen mankind is powerfully and prophetically portrayed by
the Tabernacle in Shiloh after the Ark of the Covenant was removed by the
hands of Eli's sons. What remains within the Holy of Holies without
the Ark is symbolic for what remains within the human heart without God,
or without the presence of the Holy Spirit; that is, without the
restoration of the Ark or a born-again experience. The Tabernacle
was not completely empty. There were two items that remained.
First of all there remained the Book of the Law.
had finished writing the words of this law in a book, to the very end,
Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the
LORD, "Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of
the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness
against you." [Italics mine] Deuteronomy 31:24-26
This corresponds to human conscience, or the "law written upon the heart."
It can be ignored. It can be perverted. It can be abused.
It can be misunderstood. It can be misinterpreted. Yet there
always exists, as long as breathe remains, by the conviction of the Holy
Spirit mostly achieved through human agency (that is, witnessing; "making
disciples") the ability to properly respond to this law. This is
when a human being faces the stark reality that they have violated this
law, that they are done with their own attempts at trying to satisfy it, and
to God, accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, experiencing the
remission of their sins, their breach of this law, having their conscience
sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ, the result of the cross, being
thusly made clean and holy for the first time before their God. The
human conscience is the witness inside of everyone of the righteousness of
God and can only be satisfied and made clean by the cross.
The second item that remained within the Holy of Holies after the removal
of the Ark was Aaron's rod that budded. Aaron's rod is a powerful
testimony of resurrection life. The rod itself speaks of fallen humanity,
dead wood. Yet this dead wood produces life; is alive from the dead.
This corresponds to the eternal life within the heart of every human.
This is the eternity which is in the heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This
corresponds to the quest for the eternal kingdom. This speaks to that
deep-seated, though perhaps unarticulated but subconsciously known precept
that the soul of human beings was originally designed to be eternal.
Human beings, if they are honest and by their very design, will have at
least some inkling that there is a greater glory, that there is a more
robust and non-decaying life for which they long. The human race still
has life because of the breath of God that He breathed into it through
Adam. The human race, even the fallen, even those separated from God,
still owes their very existence to the breath of God and the life of God
that remains in them. But that life, without regeneration by the Spirit
of God or without the return of the Ark of God or the manifest presence of
God inside of them; that life is separated from God. The tabernacle in
Shiloh, without the Ark, was but a dead form and ritual. And that is
pretty much what human life is without rebirth, without renewal. It is
but a semblance of the true life that each human was meant to have. It is
only floundering. And that life cannot remain alive for long when
separated from the source of life, as long as the Ark (symbolic for the
presence of God) is removed. It is only when the life of God returns to
its desires abode that resurrection life (eternal life) within the human
heart can be realized. That life and the token of that life, Aaron's rod,
will eventually perish without the Holy Spirit coming and taking up
residence, restoring full and complete life to the fallen.
In regard to the historical presence of Aaron's rod within the Holy of
Holies, there may be some disagreement. In fact the Bible seems to
contradict itself in regard to the location of this rod. Here is the
LORD said to Moses, "Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony
[the Ark of the Testimony]..." [Italics and parenthetical comment
mine] Numbers 17:10
"Before the testimony" would imply in front of it, or possibly next to it.
For a tent
was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and
the bread of the Presence; it is called the Holy Place. Behind the
second curtain stood a tent called the Holy of Holies, having the golden
altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with
gold, which contained a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that
budded, and the tables of the covenant... Hebrews 9:2-4
These verses from Hebrews would seem to indicate that the rod was not next
to the Ark, but inside of it. So we have, from the Old Testament,
that the rod was "before" the Ark and from the New Testament that it was
"contained" within the Ark.
Here is proposed one interpretation of this with the recognition that it
could be wrong. It is certainly nothing with which to be dogmatic
about, but simply an explanation of this seeming incongruence. In
light of further and greater revelation to the contrary this theory will
be wholeheartedly abandoned. Yet the presence of these two items
within the Holy of Holies with the absence of the Ark seems to bear a
remarkable similarity to the witness inside the human heart with the
absence of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Old Testament is believed
and the New Testament will require explanation.
In the same passage from Hebrews it is also remarked that the Altar of
Incense was "behind the second curtain" or within the Holy of Holies.
Most of us subscribe to this altar being, not in the Holy of Holies, but
in the Holy Place. The Old Testament also bears out the location of
this altar. So we know through the entire testimony of scripture
that the Altar of Incense was in the Holy Place, before and not within the
Holy of Holies. And likewise it can be understood that the rod was
before the Ark and not within it.
And to further solidify this point, let the dimensions of the Ark be
recalled. Also, let a rod and a staff be brought to mind, which
generally stood at the height of a man. We then discover that the
rod of Aaron, if understood to be the same type of instrument used in
those times, would in no wise fit within the Ark. It would have been
too tall to have been put within the Ark. Therefore it would have
had to be put next to the Ark.