What happened to the Ark of the Covenant? Chuck Missler versus Michael Heiser!

Supercuts [Music] [Music] the ark was a sacred object in ancient Israelite religion according to Exodus 25 verses 10 through 22 the ark was a box it was made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold plating inside and out and it measured two and a half cubits by one and a half cubits wide and high so roughly a three feet nine inches a little under four feet long and two feet three inches again wide and high so it wasn't a very big object to look at it you would not necessarily have been afraid of it for sure but the Bible connected it to the presence of Yahweh the god of Israel and so it was never to be touched by anyone this is why the Israelites carried it with the use of poles on their way to the promised land after The Exodus from Egypt the ark had a lid as well the Hebrew term for that is kaporet and it was made of solid gold to which two cherubim Angelic cherubim were fixed English translations refer to the lid as The Mercy Seat the ark was also called God's footstool so a seat and a footstool now the two conceptions are compatible since ancient Thrones of the period had a footstool that was part of the throne now since there was no object more sacred to the ancient Israelites you might wonder whatever happened to the Ark of the Covenant now everybody talks about the Ark of the Covenant you may know there's all kinds of theories there's at least six of them as where's the Ark of the Covenant some people feel it was taken by men elect to Ethiopia during Solomon's apostasy that's something you can disprove but there are some people that hold that there there's a mystery involving the Ark of the Covenant it was in fact lost after the Israelites made it to the promised land the ark eventually was installed into the Temple of Solomon during Solomon's Reign we know that from First Kings chapter 8. from that moment onwards however silence and mystery envelop the fate of the Ark the ark was not by the way in Heritage Temple it was it had disappeared long before uh there's another theory that it was taken by shishek in second chronicles 12. and uh that was the that was the theory that they made the the spoof movie Indiana Jones about them on that premise some Scholars and students of the Ark mystery have suggested that the reason that the ark doesn't appear in the accounts of Nebuchadnezzar's Invasion and the destruction of the Israelite Temple is because it just wasn't there they believe that the ark was removed from the temple prior to the time of Nebuchadnezzar's Invasion there are two candidate events for this Theory the first one we find in First Kings 14 25-26 where we read that in the time of rehoboam the king of Judah in Jerusalem quote shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem he took away the Treasures of the house of the Lord and the Treasures of the King's house he took away everything unquote now this is the theory adopted in the movie Raiders of the law start with the twist that the ark was housed in Tannis Egypt which was obliterated in a sandstorm the theory has adherence because it is reason that the ark must have been among the Treasures of the house of the Lord and the verses say that shashak took away everything there are problems with this Theory though shishak in the biblical narrative is presumed to be shoshank of Egypt in the standard chronology of both the Israelite monarchy and Egyptian history the names may look similar but some Scholars don't believe they can be linguistically aligned in addition there are a number of contradictions between shoshank's account of his invasion into Judah and that of the Bible including the fact that Jerusalem itself is not among the cities in shoshank's list of conquered sites lastly later in Biblical history after the time of shishak's raid the ark apparently is still in Jerusalem and we can discern this from hezekiah's Prayer in the Bible the prayer suggests that Hezekiah is praying in the vicinity and direction of the Ark if this is the case The shishak Invasion view Falls the treasures taken from the house of the Lord in First Kings 14 were apparently gold and silver the temple served as a kind of Treasury not sacred objects or other sacred objects besides the ark uh hidden by Jeremiah on Mount Nebo is another theory because it's mentioned the Maccabees there isn't a single direct reference made to it until the time of Jeremiah who ministered in Judah Israel's Southern Kingdom right before Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the city and the temple those events are described in Second Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52. now there are several other speculations about Ark survival that date to the second temple period also known as the inter-testamental period One Source in that period is the Jewish historian eupolimus the ark we are told in this Source was taken by the Prophet Jeremiah and this wood in theory explain why it does not show up in biblical or Babylonian booty lists the same belief is found in other ancient sources of the same second temple period second Maccabees two verses one through eight says accordingly I'll read you a few lines of this we read it was also contained in the same writing that the prophet being warned of God commanded the Tabernacle and the Ark to go with him as he went forth into the mountain where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of God and when Jeremy that's Jeremiah came thither he found a hollow cave wherein he laid the Tabernacle and the Ark and the altar of incense and so stopped the door now what this describes is Jeremiah who lived right before Nebuchadnezzar's Invasion apparently according to this source took the Tabernacle and there's a lot to that I mean this was a large structure so he had all these objects in the tent everything associated with it moved along with the ark to some cave near or at Mount Nebo again this is just what the text says of course no one has ever discovered the ark or anything associated with the Tabernacle on that mountain hidden on the Temple mount that there are many many people in Israel today that believe it's hidden under the Temple Mount that's the official rabbinical view by the way but people who've really studied it doubt that for a number of reasons now this has led to some what I would call nonsensical views for instance there's the view of Tom crotzer and Ron Wyatt who is now deceased they tell stories of altered you know stories of you know alternative views and how they went to search for the ark and how they found it but again the government stole it or it was lost or they couldn't find their way back I mean there's all sorts of variations about this there are even some fuzzy photos one of them has a nail in the ark so we know that probably isn't the Ark of the Covenant many people believe the ark was taken by the Babylonians but there's no evidence for that curiously the ark is not mentioned in the grocery list of objects taken back to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar either in the list the Bible gives us or in the list that has survived in Babylonian records the omission of the art can't just be a scribal oversight either the Ark of the Covenant is not mentioned when the Israelites returned to their Homeland 70 years later and rebuilt the temple that's in Ezra chapters one through six so both going to Babylon and coming back from Babylon the ark is missing in the descriptions of either Journey but there is an interesting illusion in the text in Second Kings 21 and especially second chronicles 35 that the ark was taken to Egypt during Manassas atrocities there are a number of Ark survival theories all of them focus on the idea that the Ark of the Covenant was removed by Israelite priests for its own protection before Nebuchadnezzar ever got into Babylon or even before that the most well-known of these is that of Graham Hancock but it's a view that he didn't invent he articulates this in his book The Sign and the seal now Hancock believes that the ark was removed before or during the reign of the wicked apostate King Manasseh and after its removal the Ark of the Covenant was taken to elephantine at one time a Jewish colony in Egypt and then it was moved again ultimately to Ethiopia and Manasseh was trying to wipe out Judaism and the Levites took it out of the country and so we have Manassas Rampage if you want to do your background on that of Second Kings 21 and second Chronicles 34 Manasseh was King and he tried to wipe out Judaism the Levites to protect Judaism took the ark out of there and uh he's replaced then by Josiah who discovers a copy of the Torah that they did not destroy he realizes how far far they've fallen and he organized a big Passover celebration and that's the context of second chronicles 35. and so in second second chronicles 35 we have some strange passages about Josiah and Pharaoh Neko that we'll look at here in a minute and then I I'm going to suggest to you this will tie very clearly to the Ethiopian treasure in Acts chapter 8. and we're going to talk a little bit about the role of The Mercy Seat which most people are not familiar with let's take a look at Second Chronicles 35 starting at verse 3. and Josiah said unto the Levites that taught all Israel which were holy unto the Lord quote put the holy Ark in the house with Solomon the son of David the king of Israel to build it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders serve now the Lord your God and His People Israel so here's a reference to the Ark of the Covenant in the days of Josiah which tells you that well that gets rid of a lot of those theories that we looked at earlier frankly now everybody assumes that when he tells the Levites to do that they complied it never says they complied quite the contrary the evidences to the contrary but the point is we know that the ark is on the shoulders of the Levites they're traveling with it and why why is all this going on shall not be a burden on your shoulders that's interesting so the it doesn't say they complied the Levites had apparently taken the ark and The Mercy Seat which is on we tend to treat those as one thing but the really two things The Mercy Seat is look for we would look at it like a lid on the Ark of the Covenant they are both being transported by the Levites to get them out of the temple to get it out of Jerusalem in fact to get it out of the country and there they sought protection in Egypt and by the way this is confirmed archaeologically this is not this speculation I'll get to that minute and so uh this is all to get they they resorted to this to get it out of the reach of Manasseh who's trying to eliminate Mosaic Judaism yeah what you encounter if you get into this is a legend that is promoted in Ethiopia that's not true it's the mentalik legend if you will and the legend that they promote go something like this the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon and in those days Ethiopia included Saudi Arabia so the Queen of Sheba was Ethiopian they had a son menelik the first who grows up there until he's 19 then he returns to Ethiopia and he brought with him the Ark of the Covenant leaving behind a replica that's the legend you say well why Ethiopia why would they do that if there was a Jewish Colony at elephantine why would they move it to Ethiopia well the short answer is the Solomon Queen of Sheba story the theory is that the Queen of Sheba was from Ethiopia and when she visited Solomon he gave her according to First Kings 10 13 quote all that she desired unquote which Hancock believes is a cryptic saying for he got her pregnant he's giving her a child as the legend is told in The ethiopic Kebra nagast which in Translation means the Glory of Kings the Queen of Sheba has Solomon's child and names him menelik menelik the first when the ark was taken out of the temple to prevent its defilement It ultimately went to Ethiopia because Solomon's lineage was present in that country Solomon was a descendant of David to whose lineage God had promised the dynastic Throne according to II Samuel 7. they apparently have been guarding this object that he brought there for over 2 400 years that's the view this Legend isn't just a furious Legend they have put this in the constitution of the of the government of Ethiopia and so it's you actually find now this was promoted by the early Kings in Ethiopia so they could claim solomonic dissent okay and so that that that that's what that's its origin now we happen to know if you know your Bible you know that's not true because the Josiah is much much later and the biblical record has the arc as a subject separate from all this this is a legend that is the Ethiopian view of what happened to the ark is my personal favorite and so it's going to make me sad to tell you about how many problems it actually has but it has numerous problems first ancient Sheba was not Ethiopia rather it is the land of Sabah in the southwest Arabian Peninsula likely modern Yemen so that's a significant disconnect second the cabernergast the holy book I alluded to earlier was written 1500 years after the events of Solomon and sheba so it is far removed from being a contemporary resource third the biblical terminology of Solomon giving the queen quote her desire unquote does not elsewhere ever speak of pregnancy so this meaning the idea that Solomon got her pregnant is nothing but speculation fourth Graham Hancock specifically depends quite a bit on a medieval source to prop up this Theory the source is called churches and monasteries of Egypt again the content of it is as old as the early 13th century the book is written by Abu Salah in which the writer says that he saw the ark the ark witnessed by Abu Salah had Christian decorations on it in other words crosses something that the actual Arc didn't have and given the fact that no one in the Old Testament was to ever touch the ark it was transported with poles remember it is highly doubtful that what Abu Salah saw was the real Ark of the Covenant there's actually very little evidence to support of the arcs surviving and winding up in Ethiopia and so yeah I'm disappointed but there are alternative theories and because most people who know their Bible know this Legend can't be true they dismiss the idea that the ark is in Ethiopia what they overlook is that even though this Legend's not true the ark got down there by a different path and so we have a mystery on our hands it's not listed in any Source such as the Bible ancient kinea foreign tablets nothing as far as what happened to it so other than being taken in a military Invasion what other explanations have Scholars and other researchers offered for what might have happened to the art and that's the surprise and you'll find it in the text so see this traditional Legend is not compatible with the biblical record since the ark is referred to in the subsequent days of Josiah as we just looked at it and again what's overlooked is that the art may have arrived there by another series of events which are alluded to later in that same chapter in second chronicles 35 and we'll take a look at this here looking at Second Chronicles 35 starting verse 20. after all this when Josiah had prepared the temple he's trying to get organized this big Passover Neko king of Egypt came up to fight against karshamesh by Euphrates so get the picture Pharaoh Neko of Egypt at this time the Assyrian Empire is starting to fall apart so faraneko is going there to pick to uh to get some assets so he came up to fight the Pharaoh Neko is going to fight against the Assyrian Empire which is an enemy of Israel got the picture okay and Josiah went out against him that's weird hear your you know your enemy of your enemy is your friend should be you would think that Pharaoh necklace going against the Syrian Empire that Israel would be glad to see that happen no something very strange going on here Josiah went out against him and this puzzle faraneko in verse 21 but he sent ambassadors to him that Pharaoh Nicholson's ambassadors to Josiah he said what am I to do with thee Thou King of Judah I come not against thee this day but against the house wherewith I have War I get notice what Pharaoh Neko is saying here for God commanded me to make haste forbear thee from meddling with God who is with me that he destroy thee not notice the surprise and the claim of fairness he feels he's doing what God told him to do and what on Earth is Josiah doing obstructing him one of the questions I have to ask what possibly would motivate Josiah to go against ferraneco he is just a few verses earlier asked the Levites to return the ark to where it belongs they didn't comply he's going as fair and Echo because he wants that Arc back you with me so far that's a speculation let's see what happens here and so yanaka says I'm not coming against thee this day but against the house or with thy War for God commanded me I want you to notice the next verse it's even more notice the next verse is not a quote from pharaohoneko it's a quote by the chronicler that's writing this nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him but disguised himself that he might fight with him and hearken not unto the words of Neko from the mouth of God and came to fight in the valley of megiddo subtly but it's important you notice that verse 22 is not part of the quote of pharaneco it's a quote by the chronicler so if you take the Bible seriously you can take that as being true you with me Pharaoh neck was expressing of you he's this is giving effect that he he hearkened under the words of Neko from the mouth of God wait a minute wait a minute how could Pharaoh Neko be hearing from the mouth of God this isn't a boast this is a comment of the chronicler [Music] well anyway it goes on then the next verse in the archers shot at King Josiah and the King said to his servants had me away for I'm sure I wouldn't it turns out Josiah gets killed in that battle and the rest goes on The Grieving the the loss of this very uh popular young King Josiah he's quite he was quite a guy good guy so that's a tragedy but how would Pharaoh Neko hear from the mouth of God because the Levites had set up the Tabernacle on elephantine Island which was the main Palace of pharaoh Neko in those days from the mouth of God okay I want you to notice verse 22 is the Declaration of the chronicler not fair on Echo that's a critical thing to get this in Focus what are the issues here why did Josiah persist attacking for an echo my presumption but it's my presumption that he was after the Earth why did Pharaoh Neko feel that God was on his side apparently the Levites had set up shop down there how could pharaohneko have had instructions from the mouth of God as the question you know when you study the passage broader you'll discover Josiah always got his instructions through the prophetess Hoda rather than the levitical priesthood why because the priests the Levites were gone so he gets his guidance from the prophet and that's fine but it isn't a normal routine something's going on here now there's something else you need to know that most your commentaries fail to highlight Pharaoh Neko was another one of these pharaohs that wasn't Egyptian see Pharaoh was a title Pharaoh Neko guess what was in Ethiopian it's known as the Ethiopian Dynasty so suddenly the fog is lifting here a little bit isn't it you with me and you can check that out encourage you to do that what we've stumbled into here is a documented tradition and uh that uh in 642 BC elephantine island is an island in the Nile that at that time was the headquarters of ferraneco and uh at Fort for in a couple of centuries later in four 470 BC it moves to town of curcas Island in Lake Tana Ethiopia and then in 330 it moved to accident we'll track this here and it's presently at St Mary's of Zion Church whatever it is they've been guarding and uh and they believe it's that the Ethiopians believe it's destined to be presented to the Messiah when he rules on Mount Zion there's a whole chapter on this that we went through back in eyes in the chapter 18 of Isaiah and it's also alluded in several other places Zephaniah 310 in other places so let's take a look at this so apparently the Levites to get it out of Harm's Way go down to elephantine Island the headquarters of Egypt and seek protection from farron Echo and elephantine Island was a fortified capital and the Ark apparently stays there from 6 30 BC through about 430 BC about two centuries and that's documented archaeologically by the way and so it was an early Advance Outpost of Egypt it was their southernmost Border Town the Fortified installation serving as the first dynasty Fortress it had military importance during the 25th Dynasty the so-called Ethiopian Dynasty and there was a temple diode that served the Jewish Colony prior to the Persian occupations of 525 to 404. and you can find this confirmed in the official guidebook by the German Institute of archeology in Cairo back in 1919 and 1998. so this is this has that substance well it stays there for about two centuries then it moves down to Lake Tana um Way South is a gigantic lake lake tana and it's full of a lot of islands and one of those islands is Tana kirko's Island and it stays there for 800 years until it and and then it finally uh and we visited that by the way several times and this is uh one of the monks there showing me something he's very proud of and he has an Ethiopian Bible and in their Bible they have Reckoning of Mary and Joseph and the baby visiting Mac if you know your your new testament and they they uh they they they they they have a record of them visiting tonkers Island and so they've then mentioned for 800 years until it finally moves to uh Aksum where it presumably is there still today and uh so it's uh it stays there until uh they they feel they are committed to guarding it until Messiah rules on Mount Zion and when you go to Aksum there's a place called the uh the the St Mary's Church of Zion it's a a sort of a unimposing fortress kind of thing but that goes down underground and there are tunnels all the way to the Red Sea they've been guarding this thing for over 2000 years so it's a and they take that very very seriously and so A continuing Trust 2400 year history of a sacred Relic guarded by the opens from his tenure in elephantine Island back then town of kirkus Island Lake tana and its present location at its compound at Axon and they believe that they've been charged to deliver to the Messiah when he rules at Mount Zion and that's that that's what drives we also have second temple sources though that take a dramatically different turn one second temple source for instance says that the Ark of our covenant has been plundered that is from second estrus 10 22. now why would it say that why would you have a second temple period Jewish writer say that basically the ark was taken or or destroyed you know plundered why would they say that again because of all of this other information about the mystery of the Ark well that Source actually comes up with that idea because the Bible suggests it now let's start with a passage in Jeremiah a contemporary of the destruction of the Temple in the book of Jeremiah the prophet envisions a day in the distant future when the Exiles of Judah who are about to be carried off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar get to return to their Homeland and he writes and this is from Jeremiah 3 14-16 quote return o faithless children declares the Lord for I am your master I will take you one from a city and two from a family and I will bring you to Zion and I will give you Shepherds after my own heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding and when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land in those days declares the Lord they shall no more say the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord it shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed it shall not be made again now the key verse here is that last verse verse 16. where the Prophet describes the lament of people over the loss of the Ark there is simply no reason for people to desire that the Ark of the Covenant be made again or that they would miss it if it had not been lost a Lamentations 2 verse 1 this is a book also associated with the Prophet Jeremiah also suggests the loss of the ark that verse says how the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud he has cast down from Heaven to Earth the Splendor of Israel he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger now the entire book of Lamentations is a series of laments about the destruction of Jerusalem in its Temple elsewhere of course you'll recall that the Ark of the Covenant was called the footstool of the Lord for instance in first Chronicles 28 2. so Lamentations 2 1 says the Lord didn't remember his footstool the ark in the time of his anger which strongly suggests that it was lost either plundered or destroyed lastly the prophet Ezekiel had a lengthy vision of the future Temple after the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed this you can read in Ezekiel 40-48. one thing you'll notice if you read those chapters in Ezekiel that Temple has no Ark it's entirely absent now Arc Searchers contend that the ark survived so that one day it could be rediscovered and brought back to Jerusalem but Ezekiel certainly is in thinking in that direction so unfortunately in the end the most coherent and I would say the most biblical View is the one that we really don't like and that is the Ark of the Covenant was destroyed either intentionally or maybe accidentally by Nebuchadnezzar's Army during The Invasion I mean they would not necessarily have known what was in the temple if they just randomly burned it down the verses that you actually see in Scripture that talk about the lament for the ark and suggests the fate of the Ark point in this direction now again they're not conclusive but this is what scripture suggests and therefore I think it is the most coherent view that we have to offer and that would be the reason that the Ark of the Covenant isn't mentioned in the booty list of things that Nebuchadnezzar took back either in the Bible or in his own records it was destroyed [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Bible and a Bicycle

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Keywords: ark of the covenant, dr. michael s. heiser, end of the world, the history channel, michael heiser, heiser michael, michael s. heiser, chuck missler, the antichrist, why is there nephilim after the flood, why are there genealogies in the bible, the narrow path, the bible, were the sons of god in genesis six fallen angels or demons, michael heiser channel, michael heiser naked bible, the order of melchizedek, destruction of the temple, the rapture, mark of the beast

Id: hq_b93gQgnE

Length: 31min 59sec (1919 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2023