The Ark of the Covenant was a wooden chest. The wood used in its construction, acacia (called shittim, Hebrew pronunciation shi-TEEM, a derivative of sho-TATE, to pierce, referring to the thorns of the acacia tree), was from a thorny tree native to the wilderness in which Israel wandered.

Ours is a "thorny" experience while we are being fashioned. People around us get "stuck" while we are in process. We ourselves feel a "thorn in the flesh" once in a while.

It is significant that so much of the Tabernacle was constructed from wood. Many scholars believe that wood, as used in the Old Testament typology, symbolizes humanity. We find that the Ark itself, to speak in a figure, will be fashioned from people (wood).

The new covenant fulfillment of the old covenant Ark is the throne of God. It is the secret place in the bosom of the Father in which Christ dwells. It is the plan of salvation that the heart of the Christian saint be fashioned into the throne of God.

The Ark of the Covenant was overlaid on the outside and inside with gold (Divinity), indicating that people (wood) will endure a process that will make them partakers of the Divine Nature.

And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, in and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make on it a crown of gold round about. (Exodus 25:11)

Acacia wood is thorny, hard, and durable. It is suitable for cabinet work in that it can be polished. God's people are like this. They are thorny, hard, durable, and will "take a polish," so to speak.

The saints often are difficult to work with and to shape into the desired form. Once God gets them cut into shape, overlays them with Christ on the inside and the outside, and carefully and patiently polishes them, the result is an enduring and beautiful piece of furniture for God's dwelling place.

The wood (humanity) was covered on the outside and the inside with refined gold, portraying the day when the victorious saints will have Christ dwelling in them to the full and they will be dwelling in Christ to the full. Humanity totally covered with Divinity. Mortality swallowed up by immortality.

Don't give up, Christian. We shall reap one day if we do not faint along the way. The goal of our life is to be re-created in the image of Christ, God's Son, in spirit, soul, and body in order that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The Ark of the Covenant was the sixth item of furniture. The number six is believed to symbolize mankind since man was created on the sixth day. Man was created in the image of God during the sixth day of God's workings.

Man passing through the Veil and being fashioned into the Ark of the Covenant, into the throne of the almighty God, becomes at that time the image of God.

Human character is transformed by continued exposure to the Glory of God in the face of Christ until the believer can claim: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."

Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is working until we have been fashioned into the image of His Son in spirit, in soul, and in body.

The Ark of the Covenant was constructed from acacia wood, signifying that human beings are to be made the resting place of the Lord. God is preparing a living temple in which He can settle down to rest.

To be continued.