The Ark of the Covenant
We don't think much about the Ark of the Covenant nor do we miss it. However, that may soon change if the Ark of the Covenant were to be found. The Ark was made as God instructed and carried through the desert as the people of God escaped Egypt and entered into the Promised Land.
"Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. "Have them make a chest of acacia wood--two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. Then put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you. "Make an atonement cover of pure gold--two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites (Exodus 25:8-22).
The Ark was placed in the original Temple of God built by King Solomon. When Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC the Ark of the Covenant was lost. There is only one Ark of the Covenant and the Word of God says no other Ark will be made, “’The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made” (Jeremiah 3:16).
Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover (Hebrews 9:1-5).
As the time approaches for a Third Jewish Temple to be built in Jerusalem a most interesting bit of news has surfaced regarding the Lost Ark of the Covenant. This week, May 19, 2005, an unnamed Kabbalist has granted blessing to famed archeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones to uncover the Holy Ark of the Covenant. Jones plans to excavate the Lost Ark by the Tisha B'Av Fast this summer.
The famed archaeologist, the inspiration for the "Indiana Jones" movie series, has spent most of his life searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The ark was the resting place of the Ten Commandments, given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, and was hidden just before the destruction of the First Temple.
The Talmud says the Ark is hidden in a secret passage under the Temple Mount. Jones says that the tunnel actually continues 18 miles southward, and that the Ark was brought through the tunnel to its current resting place in the Judean Desert.
Throughout the many years of his quest, Jones has been in close contact and under the tutelage of numerous Rabbis and Kabbalists. Extremely knowledgeable in Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah sources dealing with Holy Temple issues, Jones has now received permission from both known and secret Kabbalists to finally uncover the lost ark.
Dr. Jones, who divides his time between Texas and Israel, has been here since March 9th ready to finally reveal the Ark. However, he has been waiting for both permission from the mysterious Kabbalist and for project funding to come through.
Jones' daughter Sarah converted to Judaism many years ago, and currently lives in the Shomron. She has been in touch with a great unnamed Kabbalist from whom she requested a blessing that her father merit success in finding the ark. As recently as last month, the rabbi, who only communicates via messenger, told Jones that the time was not yet right to discover the Temple vessels. Last Thursday, however, Dr. Jones received a communication from the rabbi reading, "The time is right."
Armed with this and other blessings, Jones is now excited to uncover his life's pursuit. He believes the ark will be discovered by Tisha B'Av (Aug. 14), a day of repeated tragedy in Jewish history. Most notably, it is the anniversary of the destruction of both the First and Second Holy Temples.
Noahide guru Jones says that the State of Israel is passing through the same biblical straights as the generation that first entered Israel after the exodus from Egypt. "If history repeats itself, the history itself is prophecy," Jones says. "Israel is different from all other nations in a lot of ways, but more than anything else, Israel is the only nation whose history was written before it happened."
Once a Christian pastor, Jones left his post to become a leader of the growing Noahide movement. Noahides are G-d fearing non-Jews who observe the seven laws of Noah, which are obligatory upon all of humanity. The explorer and teacher published a book in 1959 predicting the precise outbreak of the Six Day War, based on his analysis of the period from the Exodus from Egypt up until the First Temple Period.
He says that applying biblical analysis to modern times points to major events that will "turn the world right-side-up."
Jones calculated the war in 1967 by analyzing the sequence of events in the First Temple Period and transposing them onto the "Third Temple Period" – the period beginning with the Jews' foundation of an independent State in the Land of Israel in 1948. "It fits just like tongue in groove," he says. Jones analyzed the following passage from the book of Bamidbar (Numbers): "Every man from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go to war...". He said it could be read this way, "So from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go, went to war in Israel." "Well, 1967 was the 20th year," said Jones, who received acclaim for fighting as a non-listed soldier in the Six Day War. He was the only non-Jewish American to take part in the combat. "Two years at Mt. Sinai, and then the Jewish people went to Kadesh Barnea," he says, referring to the time immediately following the Exodus. Transposing the Jewish people's first entry into Israel via the Jericho region and the re-entry to those areas in 1967, one can find striking similarities. "At Kadesh Barnea, [the Jewish Nation] sent in those [twelve] spies who gave the evil report, and because they believed the evil report, they were sentenced to wander for 38 years before they could come into Gilgal" – an ancient city near Jericho. "1967 was a repetition of Kadesh Barnea," Jones says. "If Israel had come in and taken this place, the Arabs would have fled like they did in 1948. But no, because of the evil report of Golda Meir and Motta Gur and Moshe Dayan, who said 'We cannot do that, world opinion will be against us.'
So Israel was sentenced to 38 years more – and June the 7th [2005], Jerusalem Day, will be the 38th year. Jones believes that the Jewish prophecies regarding the greatly anticipated redemption are occuring in front of our eyes.
Jones' escapades and explorations were the inspiration for the blockbuster movie 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' of the 'Indiana Jones' trilogy. The man who wrote the first draft of the film, Randolph Fillmore, was one of the volunteers who worked with Jones in 1977. "I agreed to help him write the movie," Jones said, "as long as – number one – he wouldn't set it here (in Israel). Some people believe the ark is in Ethiopia or Egypt, some believe its in Constantinople or Rome. I just didn't want it to be portrayed as being here. The second thing was, 'Don't use my name.' So he didn't. My name is Vendyl – V-E-N-D-Y-L. So he just dropped the first and last letters and it ended up Endy Jones."
Although at the time of the film, Jones was far from pinpointing the location of the Ark, he has come a long way since then. With the help of an ancient document found in Qumran together with the Dead Sea Scrolls, known as the "Copper Scroll" <http://www.vendyljones.org.il/copperscroll.htm>, Dr. Jones is convinced he has pinpointed the location of the Ark of the Covenant. "In the copper scroll, the first five lines say, 'In the desolations of the Valley of Achur, in the opening under the ascent, which is a mountain facing eastward, covered by forty placed boulders – here is a tabernacle and all the golden fixtures,'" Jones says. "This is what we have been looking for all these years, and I've walked over those boulders thousands of times without really stepping back and looking – realizing 'hey, those boulders have been brought in here, they've been placed in here, they didn't come off a mountain. And they're huge.'" Jones recounts his early explorations into the tunnels which lead from the ancient Old City of Jerusalem, near Jaffa Gate, to the foot of the Dead Sea. "My son and I went an hour and 20 minutes into the tunnel. There were so many branches and we didn't have anything to mark the route, so I said, 'We better get out of here and come back with a roll of string.' Then I made the mistake of asking permission to do it. That was before I learned that Israel is a lot like heaven - it is a lot easier to get forgiveness than it is permission."
Dr. Jones, wearing an orange anti-disengagement bracelet, dismisses the current Israeli government's plan to uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria from their homes. "There will not be any disengagement, nor will there be any Palestinian State," he says. Jones, who has a photographic memory, quotes: "Chapter One in Isaiah: 'How has the holy city become a harlot? Righteousness filled the street, but now murderers. The ruler is a friend of thieves and the ministers desire bribes.'" "The prophet wasn't talking about his day – he was talking about now. 'Therefore, says the L-rd, I will restore them to their beginnings. I will set judges up as at first, and counselors as in the beginning.'" The Sharon government will soon be history, Jones asserts, and the Sanhedrin (the Jewish High Court of 71 judges) will take its place and lead the Jewish people. "The Sanhedrin was established October the 13th of last year. Now all we have to do is have an election to elect counselors. The Sanhedrin is like a Senate and the elected counselors are like a House of Representatives."
Dr. Jones says the discovery of the lost ark will "flip the whole world right-side-up." "I just gotta drill a bore-hole into the chamber, drop a pin-camera in and there it is. And everything is gonna change, believe me. The Jewish people are gonna come back."
Now, let's read Jeremiah's prophecy again. “'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made” (Jeremiah 3:16). This prophecy describes the state of mind of God's people in the Kingdom of God, when Jesus reigns from Jerusalem.
Since, today the Ark of the Covenant does not enter our minds nor is it missed, this prophecy may indicate that the Ark of the Covenant will be discovered before the end of the age. If the Ark of the Covenant is discovered it would certainly have prominence in the Third Jewish Temple. Then the Ark would definitely come to mind and again be remembered before the Kingdom comes. Keeping Watch!
Richard Perry
