What ever happened to the Ark of the Covenant? I remember when they found it. Melanie and I were there, though we barely knew each other. We were in Waco Hall. She was a back-row Baptist and I was a next-to-back-row Baptist. As we watched, separately, together, Indiana Jones found the Ark of the Covenant in the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. After many dangers, toils, and snares, Indiana thwarted the Nazis and delivered the Ark to the U. S. Government. They assured the archaeologist they would put their best people on it. A forklift placed the crate containing the Ark on a shelf in a warehouse. That was the last time I saw the Ark of the Covenant. Later that evening, I met Melanie for the second time, we were married 16 months later, and we are living happily ever after, celebrating our 39th anniversary today.
John saw the Ark as he measured the temple. Then he saw it again at the end of the chapter after the angels and elders bore witness to the seventh trumpet. Two woes down. One woe to go. What is John telling us about heaven? We may hear Handel’s Messiah music as we read, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah and he will reign for ever and ever.” At our conference this week, N. T. Wright reminded us that the gospel is not so much about us going to God as about God having come to us in Christ. In the Lord’s prayer, we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” We are literally praying for Jesus to bring his kingdom to earth. This is the ultimate heaven when the New Jerusalem comes down to earth.
John wants us to know that Jesus’ reign has already begun through his people on earth. At the Second Coming, God will consummate this kingdom and judge the living and the dead. He will destroy “those who destroy the earth.” The true ark of the covenant is in God’s temple in heaven. Lightning, thunder, an earthquake, and a hailstorm accentuate its presence. The scene is more powerful than our modern special effects in a movie can convey. Our Lord is in heaven. John knew he is already Lord. Every time we pray, we enter his powerful presence. He will not be put on a shelf as a souvenir. Where he is things happen.
