March 20

Revelation 11:19—There was seen in his Temple the Ark of his Covenant. (R.V.)

We are constantly encountering evidences that the Bible is one. Its writers are as various in their styles and characteristics as their respective ages; but they keep striking the same notes, and making allusion to the same objects. We have not heard of the Ark for centuries. Now we suddenly meet with it in a description of the coronation of the Son of Man. He has taken his great power and reigned. The kingdoms of the world have become his. The portals of the temple of God have been thrown open, and within is seen the Ark of the Covenant.

God will never forget His covenant.—When once He has pledged Himself to a nation or an individual, to Abraham or Israel, or to Christ and his seed, He will infallibly stand to it. All traces of his faithfulness may elude the eye of the earthly watchers, obliterated by the storms of sorrow that sweep the world; the very emblems of the covenant may have passed from human custody; and the time may be long but at the destined hour the parted vail will reveal the Ark of the Covenant, as though to show that the victory of Christ was the fulfilment of that ancient pledge.

The covenant, which means blessing to God’s children, is fraught with terror to his enemies.—"There followed lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and great hail." It was so of old, when the ark brought deliverance to Israel, but disaster to Philistia. The savor of life and of death; the pillar of cloud which was light, and midnight darkness; the "Come, ye blessed," and "Depart, ye cursed"—these alternatives are presented to us all.