Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 951 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Where is the Ark of the Covenant? - Wisdom Wednesday


Thank you for joining us for our five days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. We are broadcasting from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta, OH.  Today is Day 951 of our Trek, and it is Wisdom Wednesday.  Creating a Biblical Worldview is important to have a proper perspective on today’s current events.  To establish a Biblical Worldview, it is required that you also have a proper understanding of God’s Word.  Especially in our western cultures, we do not fully understand the Scriptures from the mindset and culture of the authors.  In order to help us all have a better understanding of some of the more obscure passages in God’s Word, we are investing Wisdom Wednesday reviewing a series of essays from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars Dr. Micheal S. Heiser.  He has compiled these essays into a book titled  ’I Dare You Not to Bore Me With the Bible.’

Have you ever wondered what happened to the Ark of the Covenant? Today’s essay will explore the important question of:
Where is the Ark of the Covenant?
I can still recall the thrill of seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark movie. Dr. Heiser also agreed when he said, as a senior in high school, I had already been infected with the archaeology bug. This movie boosted my interest to a whole new level. As Providence would have it, I followed the path of Indiana Jones—at least academically. I'm still fascinated by the ark, but I no longer believe it is lost and awaiting discovery. I have Jeremiah to blame for that.

The idea that the Ark of the Covenant survived Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Judah is based on the absence of any explicit reference to the ark being among the vessels of gold carried to Babylon in 2 Chronicles 36:5-8. Likewise, the list of items brought back to Judah after the end of the exile makes no mention the ark Ezra 1:5-11. The simplest explanation is that the ark was among the items that were stripped away from the temple in 2 Kings 24:13 As the Lord had said beforehand, Nebuchadnezzar carried away all the treasures from the Lord’s Temple and the royal palace. He stripped away (cut apart] all the gold objects that King Solomon of Israel had placed in the Temple. No one would pay to see that movie.

From ancient times until the present day, people have resisted the idea that God would allow Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Israel’s holiest object. Testifying to the power of this resistance, there are nearly a dozen theories as to how the ark survived.Some of these theories are drawn from biblical events. Perhaps Hezekiah gave the ark to Sennacherib as part of his tribute payment 2 Kings 18. Might it have been removed by faithful priests when Manasseh put an idol in the temple 2 Kings 21:1-9? Indiana Jones told millions that Pharaoh Shishak took the ark to the city of Tanis in Egypt when he invaded Jerusalem 1 Kings 14:25-26. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam’s reign, King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem.  He ransacked the treasuries of the Lord’s Temple and the royal palace; he stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.  

Perhaps the most intricate theory involves Menelik I, the alleged son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, taking the ark to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian royal chronicle, the Kebra Nagast, presents this idea so seriously that rulers of Ethiopia well into the 20th century had to prove their descent from Menelik I.

Other theories grew out of specific passages in ancient texts. Second Maccabees 2:5 records Jeremiah hiding the ark in a cave before Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion. Second Baruch 6:1-9 describes the ark being supernaturally swallowed up by the earth before the invasion,