The Ark of the Covenant: Where is it found today?

For years, I have wondered when we would have the opportunity to have the Ark of the Covenant returned that we might experience its beauty and meaning in our temples today. Surely, if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wanted, they could build an Ark of the Covenant for each temple erected. I have often thought that the Celestial room (i.e., the Most Holy Place where it rested anciently) seemed empty without it. My thoughts, however, were recently corrected and I now see that which those who have "eyes to see" have already seen.

Three months following their exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel were assembled in the wilderness of Sinai where, from God's mountain, they were to receive His law. Accordingly, the LORD instructed Moses to "Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written . . .." (Exodus 24:12). As instructed, Moses "went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount."

And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. (Exodus 24:16-18)

It is a matter of significance that, during these forty days of being tutored by Gods and angels, Moses was given detailed instructions (see Exodus 25 - 30) concerning the building of a Sanctuary wherein Israel could perform sacred rites of worship and, more importantly, that "[Jehovah] may dwell among them" (Exodus 25:8).

The materials with which God's dwelling place was to be constructed were to come from the consecrated and freewill offerings of Israel (see Exodus 25:2-7). Every measurement and detail of the Tabernacle was to be "after their pattern, which was shewed [Moses] in the mount" (Exodus 25:40). After every component and design of the Tabernacle was documented, Moses was also "given two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:18). Exodus 32:15-16 notes that these plates were written upon both sides, and reiterates that they "were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables."

Few Christians are unaware of the events that followed. During his 40-day sabbatical on mount Sinai, Israel had corrupted themselves and constructed the first of three infamous golden calves (see Exodus 32:1-4; compare 1 Kings 12:28-29; 2 Kings 10:29). This was just one, of many instances, wherein Israel provoked the LORD to anger. And, to add injury to their insult, Israel chose to instigate their worship on one of the seven sacred feasts of the LORD (see Exodus 32:5-6; compare Leviticus 23). Therefore, in his wrath, God said "he would destroy them", and, indeed, would have carried out this design "had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath" (see Exodus 32:10-14; compare Psalms 106:23).

The historical record afterwards notes that when Moses came down the mount and "came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and [his] anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount" (Exodus 32:19). In consequence of this and other similar provocations, Moses was taken out of their midst (see D&C 84:25)  and the Tabernacle was "pitched . . . without the camp, afar off from the camp". Thereafter, "every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp" (see Exodus 33:7).

Following this event that altered Israel's relationship with God for more than a millennium, Moses was commanded of the LORD to "hew . . . two tables of stone like unto the first", whereon He would "write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which [he] brakest" (Exodus 34:1). The ceremonial and judicial injunctions that Moses personally inscribed upon the tables are recorded in Exodus 34:10-26. From JST Deuteronomy 10:2, we further learn that what was recorded on these second tables of stone was "the words that were on the first tables . . . save the words of the everlasting covenant of the holy priesthood". Thus, as confirmed in D&C 84:25-27, God not only took Moses out of the midst of the people, but he also "took . . . the Holy Priesthood also." Thereafter, the lesser priesthood continued with the whole House of Israel until John, also known as The Baptist (D&C 84:27). It is noteworthy that the record states, several times, that the first tables of stone were written by the finger of God; the second record of the Covenant, save the Ten Commandments, however, was chiseled out by the hand of Moses. From what is recorded in Deuteronomy 10:1-4, it appears that God himself made, upon these tablets, the second set of inscriptions now known as "The Ten Commandments" (see Exodus 20:2-17).

When a more permanent Tabernacle was erected, "an ark of shittim wood [overlayed] with pure gold" (see Exodus 25:10-16) was also constructed, wherein God's law was placed and preserved. The ark was, thereafter, situated in the center of the "most holy place" of God's tabernacle beneath a mercy seat and two cherubs with overshadowing wings. There, upon this footstool, the LORD said, "I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherub[s] which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel" (Exodus 25:22). Thus, the Ark of the Covenant became the symbol of the throne from where God reigned. Inside was kept that which was most precious--the covenants "as they are in [his] own bosom, to the salvation of [his] own elect" (D&C 35:20). Above all, "the shedding of the blood of Christ [was] in the COVENANT of the Father" (see Moroni 10:33) that, through his grace, was offered the gift of exaltations and eternal lives.

I now move in this conversation to today and what this means for us--

In Alma 34:36, Amulek taught that "the Lord hath said he dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell". Notwithstanding God, the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are corporeal beings possessing bodies as tangible as man's (D&C 130:22). Thus, Joseph Smith penned the opposite conclusion; that "the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false" (D&C 130:3). This seeming contradiction, however, creates no doctrinal dilemma in the mind of the saint, "[f]or there are three that bear record in heaven--the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost--and these three are one" (see 2 Nephi 31:21; 1 John 5:7; John 10:30; and D&C 93:3); one in "the life and the light, the Spirit and the power, sent forth by the will of the Father through Jesus Christ, his Son" (see D&C 50:27). In mortality, we reside in the realm where the third member of the Godhead's role has been placed front and center (see D&C 76:86). This Spirit being of the Eternal Triumvirate "has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit" and may dwell in us (see D&C 130:22; compare Luke 3:22). Our body is fashioned to be the "temple of the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 6:19; compare 1 Corinthians 3:16). “[T]hrough [it], the experiences of earth are made the possession of the spirit” (John A. Widtsoe, in Conference Report, April 1926, 108). It is in and through the Spirit, therefore, that the hearts of the righteous learn, by experience, to become a "habitation of God" (see Ephesians 2:22).

Unfortunately, the devil is also a personage of spirit. He, and all other evil spirits similarly condemned, may likewise "dwell in the hearts of the children of men" (see Mosiah 3:6; contrast 2 Nephi 28:20, D&C 45:55). Foretelling how this would occur in the last days, the apostle Paul penned that the time would arise when this son of perdition "who and exalteth himself above all that is called God" would "sit in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). The LORD confirmed to the prophet Joseph Smith that it is in the hearts of the wicked that "the enemy, even Satan, sitteth to reign" (see D&C 86:3).

Notwithstanding, “[w]icked spirits have their bounds, limits, and laws by which they are governed” (History of the Church, 4:576; compare D&C 121:4). “All beings", said Joseph Smith, "who have bodies, have power over those who have not" (Teachings, selected by Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938, p. 181) and over the righteous, Satan has no power (see 1 Nephi 22:26). In fact, the express purpose of God "in giving the spirit a tabernacle was to arm it against the power of darkness", declared Joseph Smith (taken from Minute Book of William P. McIntyre, January 8, 1840 - April 20, 1845, Church History Library, Salt Lake City). Within this context, apostle Paul invited the Corinthian saints to "come out from among [the unbelievers] . . . and touch not the unclean thing" forasmuch "as God hath said, I will dwell in [you], and walk in [you]; and I will be [your] God, and [you] shall be my people" (2 Corinthians 6:17, 16).

Our mortal bodies are the appointed means by which God is to dwell in us and walk in us. The apostle Paul taught that we are, individually, "the temple of the living God" (2 Corinthians 6:16; compare 1 Corinthians 3:9-17). To those who seek exaltation, this idea was not be abstractly applied; we are, he taught, His workmanship (see Ephesians 2:10) and His building (see 1 Corinthians 3:9).

Importantly, the True Pattern, after which all temples are to be fashioned, is Jesus Christ. He is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh; as such, He is the only individual whose mortal body is genetically inherited from God. Thus, his body is, in this unique dimension, the "tabernacle from God". Further, His body is home to that spirit known, in the primeval existence, as Jehovah, or Self-Existing One. In this singular dimension, His body is the "tabernacle of God", as well. His body comes from God and is the dwelling of God. The fact that He is the "carpenter's son" (see Matthew 13:55), and that God employ's an Architect's Compass and Builder's Square to design and construct each individual temple, is of no small significance. If we are to ever mature into a perfect man, we must be "built in" and "fitly framed together in the LORD", and all our personal temple measurements must come from the Chief Cornerstone (see 1 Peter 2:6; compare Ephesians 2:20).

But mere mortals do not know the dimensions and attributes of the True Pattern and, therefore, perform poorly when it comes to building eternal houses of the LORD. Thus, David properly concluded that "[e]xcept the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it" (Psalms 127:1). The Spirit, who knoweth all things (see Alma 7:13), has been appointed to be expert in temple masonry; He is an Artisan of temples to be built "in the stature and fulness of Jesus Christ" (see Ephesians 4:13).

This brings me to the specific reason why "the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind" (D&C 64:34, 22) and how it relates to the Ark of the Covenant today. In one of the few verses wherein he wrote something worthwhile, Solomon said: "Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart (Proverbs 7:2-3). Ancient Israel, however, had "delivered unto [them] two tables of stone written with the finger of God; . . . even the tables of the covenant" (Deuteronomy 9:10-11). Thus, the time when the law would be written upon the table of the heart was reserved for a future day. Of that day, the LORD declared to Jeremiah:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:31-33; compare Hebrews 8:8-10).

In scripture, the word "new" means "old", or "original". Thus, to make a NEW covenant with the house of Israel and Judah means "that [the covenant] which was from the beginning" (D&C 22:1), even that covenant made with our first parents, will be restored. In this, it is profoundly demonstrated that the beginning of God's work is first spiritual and secondly temporal, and that the last of God's work is again, first temporal, and secondly spiritual (see D&C 29:32). That which is temporal is but a type and shadow of that which is spiritual; that which is on earth is in likeness of things in heaven (see JST Revelation 12:1). Ancient Israel experienced the beginning of God's work under the Priesthood of Aaron; latter-day Israel shall experience the last of God's work under the Holy Priesthood.

Thus, what was written on tables of stone and preserved in the Ark of the Covenant, are now written "with the Spirit of the Living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart" (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). That which is written upon stone is corruptible; that which is written with the Spirit of the Living God is incorruptible and eternal. Moses received the law written on stone; Joseph Smith received the law to be written upon our hearts and in our minds. This writing upon the mind and heart occurs in temples where mortals, in the likeness of the TRUE PATTERN, become Saviors on Mount Zion (Obadiah 2:12).

With frequent, extended temple worship, our minds and hearts become, in likeness of the Ark that housed the law written on stone; they transform into eternal houses wherein the covenant is lived and preserved. The covenant was given "to the salvation of [God's] elect" (see D&C 35:20), those who hear God's voice and harden not their hearts (D&C 29:7). These favored of God, who treasure up continually the words of eternal life (D&C 84:85), come unto God, the Father, and he "teacheth [them] of the covenant which he has renewed and confirmed upon [them]" (D&C 84:46-48).