it is only the curse which remains, and which is greater than the curse
inflicted upon those among whom He never dwelt, and which, by its
greatness, indicates the greatness of the former grace.--Now, if this
be the case with the Ark of the Covenant; if it be the substance and
centre of the whole former dispensation, what, and how much would not
fall along with it, if it fell; and how infinitely great must the
compensation be which was to be granted for it, if, in consequence of
it, no desire and longing after it was to rise at all, if it was to be
regarded as belonging to the [Greek: ptocha stoicheia], and was to be
forgotten as a mere image and shadow! The fact that the Ark of the
Covenant was made before any thing else, sufficiently shows that every
thing sacred under the Old Testament dispensation depended upon it.
_Witsius Misc. t._ i. p. 439, very pertinently remarks: "The Ark of the
Covenant being, as it were, the heart of the whole Israelitish
religion, was made first of all." Without Ark of the Covenant--no
temple; for it became a sanctuary by the Ark of the Covenant only; for
holy, so Solomon says in 2 Chron. viii. 11, is the place whereunto the
Ark of the Covenant hath come. Without Ark of the Covenant, no
priesthood; for what is the use of servants when there is no Lord
present? Without temple and priesthood, no sacrifice. We have thus
before us the announcement of the entire destruction of the previous
form of the Kingdom of God, but such a destruction of the form as
brings about, at the same time, the highest completion of the
substance,--a perishing like that of the seed-corn, which dies only, in
order to bring forth much fruit; like that of the body, which is sown
in corruption, in order to be raised in incorruption. _Dahler_ remarks:
"Because a more sublime religion, a more glorious state of things will
take the place of the Mosaic dispensation, there will be no cause for
regretting the loss of the symbol of the preceding dispensation, and
people will no more remember it."--It is quite natural that the
prophecy should give great offence, and prove a stumbling-block to
Jewish interpreters. Its subject, its high dignity, just [Pg 391]
consists in the announcement that, at some future period, the shadow
should give way to the substance; but it is just the confounding of the
shadow with the substance, the rigid adherence to the former, which
characterises Judaism, which considers even the Messiah as a minist