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Man, brand new book tonight, the book of 2 Chronicles. So this is a continuation of 1 Chronicles. Some people believe that this was all one book originally and that later it was split in half. Maybe it was always intended to be two volumes. But obviously this picks up right where 1 Chronicles left off. Now 1 Chronicles is all about King David from start to finish pretty much. It starts out with a whole bunch of genealogies, but as soon as the action begins, it is David becoming king. And then we have David's entire reign. The last several chapters of 1 Chronicles are just devoted to the organizational structure of David's kingdom and so forth and the end of his life. And so 2 Chronicles is starting us out with the reign of King Solomon. And the parallel book for 2 Chronicles is 1 Kings for the first half of the book and then 2 Kings. So 1 and 2 Kings are parallel with 2 Chronicles. Now if we start out in verse number 1 here, it says, And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and magnified him exceedingly. And so he had just been anointed king at the end of 1 Chronicles and now the Bible says that he's strengthened in his kingdom. He's established in it because remember, it's not necessarily a foregone conclusion that Solomon is going to be the next king. There are other sons of David that would like to have that same position. But God had specifically chosen Solomon to be the successor. And so he strengthened his kingdom. God's with him. He's God's choice to be the successor. And God magnified him exceedingly, meaning that he made him very great. Look at verse number 2. So then Solomon spake unto all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges, and to every governor in all Israel, the chief of the fathers. So Solomon and all the congregation with him went to the high place that was at Gibeon, for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness. So early on in his reign, after he has become established in his kingdom, he calls together all these important people, these captains, judges, governors, and people like that. And he goes with them to the high place at Gibeon where the tabernacle is located so that he can perform sacrifices to the Lord. He wants to start off his kingdom right by giving honor to God and doing a major sacrifice to the Lord. But here's what's interesting. The tabernacle is at this high place of Gibeon, but look what it says in verse number 4. The ark of God had David brought up from Kirjeth-jearim to the plates which David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem. So notice that the tent that David has pitched is not the tabernacle, right? The tabernacle is over at Gibeon, but then the ark of the covenant is in Jerusalem because David has pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. It's just a little strange how the ark of the covenant has become separated from the tabernacle. Let me give you a little history on this, okay, from the Bible. So if you remember, of course, when the children of Israel leave Egypt, they're instructed to make the ark of the covenant to be a receptacle for the tablets of stone that contained the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone are called the tables of the covenant because the Ten Commandments are sort of like a cliff's notes version of the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. And if you look at 2 Corinthians chapter number 3, the Ten Commandments are definitely, you know, considered the old covenant, right? Those tables of stone represent the tables of the covenant, old covenant, and that which is not the New Testament, okay, which comes through Jesus Christ, of course. Now here's the thing about that. The original ark of the covenant that was made in the wilderness and that had the tablets of stone in them, okay, was then put into the most holy place of the tabernacle. But if you remember, the tabernacle is a temporary structure that would be taken down, moved, and then reset up somewhere else. So obviously, the ark of the covenant isn't just in that most holy place all the time because every time they tear down the building, they have to take out, obviously, the ark of the covenant. And then the Levites would carry the ark of the covenant using two poles and they would transport it on their shoulders, right? And so it would be outside of that most holy place while it was being transported by the Levites. And we see that several times in Scripture. We see the, you know, the priest carrying it in between stops. Then they rebuild the tabernacle and then the oracle or the most holy place is where the thing would get reinstalled, right? Well, if you remember, after the whole period of Judges, which lasts around 400 years, when you get to the book of 1 Samuel, the children of Israel are fighting against the Philistines and they're not doing very well. And so they decide that they need to bring out the heavy artillery. They're going to bring the ark of the covenant into battle and that somehow by bringing the ark of the covenant into battle, then that's going to get the power of God on their side and they're going to win the battle. Of course, this doesn't work. Why? Because just carrying the ark of the covenant into battle doesn't guarantee God's power or God's might is on your side because it's not about the box itself. It's about the God of that box. And they had angered the God of Israel because of the sins of Eli's sons, right? Eli is the priest and his sons are committing fornication and they're stealing and they're doing all these awful things. And so God's not just going to look the other way. And it's not like you can just force God's hand by just, you know, using the ark of the covenant as some kind of a lucky charm or rabbit's foot or, you know, that it somehow just automatically forces God to do what you want because you've got his ark of the covenant or something. So if you remember, they go to battle with the ark of the covenant and they lose the battle. And here's the worst part, the Philistines end up capturing the ark of the covenant and taking it away from the Israelites. When Eli hears this, he's so upset, he's a very old man and he was a very fat man. And so, you know, don't tip your chair when you're fat, okay? That's the moral of the story. You know, he's tipped back, he's overweight and boom, he crashes, he breaks his neck because he's just so upset and distraught about the ark of the covenant being captured on his watch. I mean, think about it. This is an artifact that the children of Israel have had for centuries. And then on his watch, the thing gets captured and stolen by the Philistines. But of course, you know, the Philistines kind of had to learn the same lesson that the Israelites had to learn, that just because you possess the ark of the covenant, it doesn't mean that suddenly you have God on your side because when the Philistines have the ark of the covenant, God ends up plaguing them and they end up getting diseases, they end up getting emerods and their secret parts, they're dying and they're being plagued and everything. And so they keep kind of moving it around because everywhere this ark comes, it just brings death and destruction, okay? So instead of bringing the blessing of God, it actually brings a curse of God. Why? Because this is the very nature of God. God can either be your best friend or he can be your worst enemy, right? Because if you're on the right side of God, he's got all kinds of love and mercy and compassion and goodness that you can receive. But for those who are the enemies of God, woe unto them because God is a God of wrath and our gods are consuming fire. So they end up shuffling this thing around. Finally, the Philistines are like, you idiots to their leaders, you know, get this thing out of here. We don't want to send it back to Israel. That's where it belongs. God's mad that you have the ark outside of Israel. Send it back. So then, of course, they go through that whole song and dance where they put the ark on a new cart and they have these two cows pulling it and the cows are mooing as they go and they carry it back to Israel. But when it gets back to Israel, then some of the people that are there to receive the ark when it gets back, they stupidly decide to look inside the ark. You know, they're basically treating it with disrespect. It's supposed to be something that's only handled by the Levites and it's not something that you just set up as a tourist attraction where you just open the thing up and look inside. And so because people look inside, they end up dying. And so people are, you know, afraid of this thing, all right? And so, of course, remember that ultimately David wants to, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves because we're still talking about the times of Samuel, right? So it comes back into Israel. People look at it. They get hurt. They send it somewhere else, gets shuffled around a little. But then if you remember, when we get past Samuel as a judge, we get to the monarchy where now we have King Saul, and Saul reigns for 40 years. And then after Saul reigns for 40 years, then we have King David, the man after God's own heart, who's really the king that God really wants, you know, the monarchy that's going to last forever versus Saul, who it's just King Saul and his son doesn't sit on his throne after him. He doesn't work out. And so David ends up being the actual king who sets up the dynasty that's ultimately going to be a never-ending dynasty through Jesus, the son of David. And so when we get to David, David says, hey, let's bring up the ark of God because we sought not after it in the days of Saul. And so David goes to bring up the ark of God. And if you remember, they put it on a cart just as the Philistines had done. And when they put it on a cart, then Uzzah puts forth his hand when the oxen starts stumbling and he's afraid the thing's going to fall over. Uzzah reaches out to try to steady the ark. And by touching the ark, he ends up being struck dead. David looks at this and is just kind of terrified also by the ark. And he doesn't understand why God killed Uzzah. And so he ends up sticking the ark at the house of a guy named Obed-Edom. And then God's really blessing Obed-Edom, finally they end up bringing the ark of God correctly to Jerusalem by having the Levites carry it on their shoulders the way it is supposed to be transported, not on a cart. And then that's what we're looking at here in 2 Chronicles chapter 1 when it says that David had pitched a tent for it, is we're talking about when David, after the Uzzah debacle, actually transports it correctly to Jerusalem and pitches a tent for it in Jerusalem. So all that to say this, the ark of the covenant is in the most holy place where it's supposed to be during the wilderness wanderings and during the period of the judges, other than when the thing is being moved. But after it gets abducted by the Philistines, it doesn't seem to ever go back into the tabernacle. I mean, it is absent from the tabernacle for so long, right? Because we have obviously just the 40-year reign of Saul alone. And then we've got another 40 years of David's reign, right? That's just 80 years right there, let alone the time before that. And so what I'm showing you is that the ark of the covenant had somehow become separated from the tabernacle, okay? And it's interesting that that separation happened right as the system of the judges was sort of breaking down or falling apart. And it's about to be replaced with something else. It's about to be replaced with the monarchy, right? Because we're gonna have ultimately the Davidic kingdom. Then once we have the Davidic kingdom in place, not in the days of David. Because again, in the days of David, he's got a tent for it in Jerusalem, but the ark of the covenant's somewhere else. Separate things here. But in Solomon's day, right, which we're just getting into, King Solomon's reign, he's gonna build the temple. And then the ark of the covenant is actually gonna go back into the most holy place for the first time in a long time. Here's what's funny about that, is that we see it installed where it belongs when Solomon builds the temple a few chapters from now. Then we don't hear anything about the ark for a while, until we get to chapter 35. Go to 2 Chronicles chapter 35. So again, you know, just the whole history of the ark of the covenant is, it's built in the wilderness, it's in the most holy place of the tabernacle. Once it gets stolen by the Philistines, it never quite makes it back into the tabernacle, at least based on what we read in the text. It seems to be going from place to place, and it's just got its own thing going on. Which is obviously not what God had prescribed for it originally. It was supposed to be kept in the most holy place. Then when Solomon builds the temple, it finally goes where it's supposed to go, in the most holy place. So then you kinda think that the ark's just gonna kinda live happily ever after, at least for a while. But then you have this verse, the next time the ark's mentioned is in 2 Chronicles chapter 35, verse 3. And this is Josiah. This is one of the last kings of Judah, right before the Babylonian captivity. So this is many centuries later. And this is what he says, in verse number 3. He said to the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy under the Lord, put the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, did build, it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders. Serve now the Lord your God and his people Israel. So apparently, somewhere between Solomon building the temple and installing this, and 2 Chronicles chapter 35, the thing has gotten taken out of the most holy place again for some reason. And it's being carried around by the Levites, who knows where. And the Bible does not give us any of that detail. You know, when it was removed, why it was removed, where it went, and so forth. We just see it being re-installed in 2 Chronicles 35.3. There's no account of this in 2 Kings. There's just this one verse that explains that it's being carried around by the Levites. There's a verse that explains that the thing had to be re-installed at this time. So what happened to it after that? There's no other mention of it after this. The only other mention is in Jeremiah chapter 3. And if you would turn to Jeremiah chapter 3. Jeremiah chapter 3 is the only other mention of this in the Old Testament. Jeremiah chapter number 3. There's really a lot that we can learn from this. I'm going to make application in a moment. But look at Jeremiah chapter 3. And let's back up just a little bit into verse 14 to get a little bit of context. Of course the context of the book of Jeremiah in general is about the children of Israel going into captivity. The Babylonian captivity. Which happened shortly after Josiah's reign, which is what we just read in chapter 35 of 2 Chronicles. So look at verse 14. He's saying that after the Babylonian captivity, a very small percentage of people are coming back. Not all the children of Judah are coming back from captivity. But it's going to be like one of a city, two of a family, right? It's going to be a small group, relatively, that comes back. And that's exactly what happened in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. We have that small group coming back and re-establishing Jerusalem. Rebuilding the temple. Rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, etc. Verse 15. And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. Those are people like Joshua the son of Josadec. Zedekiah. These are people like Zechariah and Haggai. You know, preachers of that era. But look at verse 16. And it should come to pass when you be multiplied and increased in the land. Right? Because when they come back, they're few in number. But then after they live there for hundreds of years, by the time Jesus comes on the scene, there are probably a couple million of them. Because they've been increased over that period of time. It should come to pass when you be multiplied and increased in the land. In those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Neither shall it come to mind. Neither shall they remember it. Neither shall they visit it. Neither shall that be done anymore. So ultimately, the ark of the covenant is going to stop being a thing. According to Jeremiah 3.16. He says, look, you're going to come back, a small group, and after you've multiplied in the land. So after a lot of time has gone by to where they become a big nation again. Then there's going to come a time when the ark of the covenant ceases to matter. Nobody cares. Nobody's going to visit it. No one's talking about it. It's not important anymore. That means that when they first did get back, it is still something that's on their mind. Now, stop and think about it. What does the ark of the covenant represent? It's the ark of the what? The covenant. Which covenant? The old covenant, right? And so what this verse is talking about is the fact that the ark of the covenant has no significance in the New Testament. Because the old covenant is replaced by the new covenant. And it's important that we understand that the new covenant is not added on to the old covenant. It's not an addendum or an appendix. No, no, no. It replaces the old covenant. The Bible says, in that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. And again, the book of Hebrews is writing, most likely, before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. And so it is saying that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Because, of course, that's kind of a period of transition from old covenant to new covenant. Obviously, the moment that Christ died on the cross and the veils rent in twain, the death of the testator, hey, now we're in the new covenant, the New Testament. But then the old covenant is kind of still there. There's a little bit of overlap, and then ultimately it's gone, right? He's saying the old covenant decayeth, waxeth old, and is ready to vanish away. And so the old covenant, the Ark of the Covenant, has no significance in the New Testament. Just as Jeremiah prophesied here that after they get back and multiply, there's going to come a time when it will no longer have any significance. It says, at that time, they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord of Jerusalem. Of course, this is talking about the fact that the Gentiles are going to seek the Lord. All the nations are going to be worshipping God. It's not just going to be Israel, but that all nations will be reached because Christ will lighten the Gentiles. And neither shall they walk anymore after the imagination of their evil heart, and so forth. So there's a little bit of a double meaning here, talking about, obviously, coming back from Babylon. You could also make applications with, obviously, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, even the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, because the Bible has a lot of layers. But the important thing to note here is that the Ark of the Covenant stops mattering, okay? So there's a couple things we can learn from this. First of all, we can learn that just because God said in the Mosaic law that things were supposed to be done a certain way, that does not mean that they were ever done that way. In fact, there could be laws in the first five books of the Bible that were literally never implemented by anyone at any time. Because people are disobedient. And the Israelites did not obey the laws that they were given. I mean, right away, they're making mistakes. Right away, they're disobeying. All throughout the book of Judges, they're blowing it. I mean, think about how many times we see just blatant disobedience. You know, for example, they're supposed to let the land rest every seven years. So we might be tempted to assume, oh, that's what they did. God told them to let it rest. So that's what they did. But then if you remember, God charges them with ignoring that commandment for literally several hundred years. And he says, you're going to have 70 years of captivity so that the land can rest for 70 years because you've skipped 70 of those rest years. Which means that they hadn't been doing it for, like, what? Almost, yeah, 490 years. You see what I'm saying? So basically, they have disobeyed God more often than not. You know, they're not doing it. And look, the Ark of the Covenant is supposed to be in the most holy place. Usually the thing's just, who knows where. The thing is constantly AWOL. And, you know, remember, the high priest is supposed to go into the tabernacle, into the most holy place, once a year, and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement. How can he do that if the Ark of the Covenant isn't even there? The entire reign of Saul. That did not happen. That Day of Atonement, sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat, just didn't happen. And how are you going to do it in the days of David even? David's excited about bringing up the Ark of God, but he never quite gets it to the destination of getting it into the oracle, getting it into the most holy place where it belongs. Not until the days of King Solomon does it actually get into the oracle, into the most holy place where the temple's built. Now, you say, well, Pastor Anderson, yeah, okay, you know, there was a rough patch there in the days of guys like Samuel and Saul and David where the Ark wasn't in that most holy place. But at least once Solomon put it where it needed to be, you know, at least it was probably there for a few hundred years, right? Probably not, and here's why. Because right after King Solomon's reign, Solomon plugs the thing in, and then, you know, Solomon reigns for a total of 40 years, right? Just like Saul, just like David. It's easy to remember. But then right after Solomon's reign, the monarchy breaks down because now you have the split kingdom. And you have the southern kingdom of Judah reigned over by Rehoboam, and then you have the northern kingdom of Israel reigned over by Jeroboam. Well, in Rehoboam's day, remember, it's the first guy after Solomon, right? In Rehoboam's day, Shishak, the king of Egypt comes, and the Bible says that he took all the treasures out of the house of God. It says he even took all. Now, does that include the Ark of the God? There's no way he's just like, leave this gold box. We're going to take all these other treasures. It says he took everything. He even took the gold shields, and then, remember, Rehoboam had to make bronze shields in their place. And so, it's not like he's just going to say, hey, leave this behind. So either one of two things happened. Either, A, Shishak, king of Egypt, took the Ark at that time when it says he took everything, because he comes in and takes all the treasures of the house of God. That would include the Ark of the Covenant, I would say, because you're not just going to leave this gold box when you're just taking all the treasures. Or, B, they had removed the Ark of the Covenant from the most holy place so that Shishak wouldn't get to it. We don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. Either they protected it somehow by taking it out of the most holy place, or Shishak took it. How did it get back? Because we know, ultimately, Josiah is able to put it back. Where is it coming from? We don't know. We just know that it's floating around somewhere with the Levites when Josiah comes to reign, and he says, put it back in the temple where it belongs. Don't carry it around on your shoulders. Why? Because in the Book of 1 Chronicles, God had said that he doesn't want the Ark of the Covenant carried around on anyone's shoulders anymore, because it now has a permanent home in Jerusalem. It just stays there now. That's where it goes. It doesn't go other places. So my point is this. You know, the rest for the Ark of God in the most holy place of the temple seems to be short-lived. How short? We don't know, but it was probably already pulled out in the days of Rehoboam. Either by Shishak or by Levites or by somebody either trying to protect it, trying to steal it. We don't know all the adventures of what happened with the Ark, and like I said, there's no mention of it after the Josiah mention. So, you know, we know that it's in the temple in the days of Josiah. Josiah is one of the last kings before the Babylonian captivity, so when the Babylonians come and destroy the temple, and it says they take all the vessels of the House of God, then we could assume that they also took the Ark of the Covenant with them. So I would say, you say, where's the Ark of the Covenant right now? You know, well, if we want to talk about the ultimate fate of the Ark of the Covenant, there's really like two options that make sense as far as when it went away for good. And that would either be that when the Babylonians came and destroyed the temple, that after that it never came back, that that was the end of the Ark of the Covenant. Or the second option would be that when the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 AD, that that was the end of the Ark of the Covenant. That when, you know, Zacharias in Luke chapter 1 is going into the most holy place and performing his ritual there, that he's actually got a real Ark of the Covenant there to do his ritual, and that it was the Romans who ultimately took it away. But I'll tell you right now, I do not believe that the Ark of the Covenant exists anymore, okay? Because here's the thing, when the Ark of the Covenant was stolen by the Philistines, God is punishing them so that they'll put it back where it belongs. But now that the Ark of the Covenant has ceased to be relevant, God is not punishing people and plaguing people and doing all these things. Because guess what? The Old Covenant is no longer in force, and the Ark of the Covenant is no longer a thing. And Jeremiah 3.16 said that the Old Covenant, that in the New Testament, the Ark of the Covenant is not going to be sought after. People aren't going to visit it. It's not going to be a thing. It's not going to be done anymore. And so that's what I believe. That's what the Bible says. It's over. It's over. But I'll bet you that whenever the Antichrist shows up, that sucker is going to come out. The Ark of the Covenant. Now it's either going to be one of two things. It's either going to be a fake Ark of the Covenant, right? You know, they'll just build one or fabricate one or whatever. You know, of course the Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims that they've had the Ark this whole time, but nobody really takes them seriously. For a lot of reasons. One of which is because they're the only church in the world that actually believes in the Book of Enoch, which says something about their discernment. Obviously it's a false religion. It's like Roman Catholicism or something, except a little worse. But the Ark of the Covenant is either just going to be fabricated, a new one, and then it's going to be like, Oh, we found the Ark of the Covenant and, you know, we're rebuilding the temple. And then, you know, it'll just be all for the Jews to basically Judaize the world and whatever in the end times, that spirit of Antichrist, as they embrace a different Messiah than Jesus, the Antichrist who claims to be Jesus. Or, you know, maybe, you know, maybe I'm wrong and the real Ark of the Covenant is out there somewhere, just ready for Satan to pull it out with his guy, you know, in the end times. But I'll just tell you right now that at the actual second coming of Jesus Christ, the Ark of the Covenant is not going to be a thing. Why? Because God's program does not move backwards. I don't care what these dispensationalists teach with their bozo teachings. No, my friend, the New Covenant is eternal. It replaces the Old Covenant. We're never going back to the Old Testament. We're not going back to animal sacrifices, back to the Levitical priesthood, back to the Ark of the Covenant. That's madness, okay? We are done with the Old Covenant. We are in the New Covenant. Christ's Covenant is eternal and so don't you dare buy into this thing of, oh, we got to get the Ark of the Covenant back or whatever, you know. And of course, there are all these bozos that claim that, you know, it's being hidden in a secret bunker under Jerusalem. And, you know, I mean, look, don't even begin to listen to that Seventh-day Adventist lying phony, Ron Wyatt. Who knows who I'm talking about? This guy, Ron Wyatt, he claims that, you know, he actually saw the Ark of the Covenant. You know, he went on like a secret cloak and dagger mission and he went and, you know, was dodging bullets or whatever. And he found the Ark of the Covenant and he saw it. You know, he couldn't get any pictures or he can't show you where it is, but he was there, man. True story. And how, like, he found the Holy Grail and the Ark. I mean, the guy's a regular, you know, Indiana Jones or something, right? And, I mean, he found Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant. Same guy. He probably found the Ark that Moses floated down the river in while he's at it. This guy, if it's an Ark, he's finding it. But basically, this guy claims that he, like, he found where the Ark of the Covenant was in a secret cavern, like, under the cross of Jesus while Jesus was being crucified. And the blood dripped down and landed on the Ark of the Covenant. And then he DNA tested the blood and it was missing, like, half its chromosomes. What kind of nonsense? Like Jesus is some mutant that doesn't have a full DNA complement? Are you saying Jesus is not fully human? Jesus Christ is a human being, my friend. He doesn't have a half DNA, some half, I don't even want to say double helix, I guess. It'd be a single helix at that point. What kind of stupidity? But people love this kind of stuff. They eat it up, man. They'll buy the DVD, $40, $59.99, you know, from guys like Ron White. First of all, you lost me at Seventh Day Adventist. I mean, I'm done. I've heard all I need to hear at that point. You didn't even need me to say all that other stuff, did you? You're just like, nope, Seventh Day Adventist, I'm done here. So, you think it's funny that I'm coughing? So, here's the thing. The Ark of the Covenant is probably gonna play a role in the end times, just because Judaizers, they get all cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs about the Ark of the Covenant. And so, it's probably gonna be pulled out just to get them all salivating and hawking phlegm and all excited about that. But when it comes to Biblical Christianity, those of us who actually know the truth, and we've studied the scripture, and we understand the difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament, we're not looking for the Ark of the Covenant. We don't care. I mean, I don't care if they have the real Ark of the Covenant tomorrow. I don't care. I'm not even interested. It's just a box at this point. It's all it is. But what's interesting is that we see kind of a deterioration in the Ark of the Covenant, even while it was still around. Because if you remember, when the Ark of the Covenant was first made, they put in the tables of the Covenant. But not only did they put in those stone tablets, the Bible says that they also, in the course of their wanderings, put in a golden pot full of manna. So they gathered up a bunch of the manna, and they put it in a golden pot, and they kept it as a memorial in the Ark of the Covenant. Not only that, they put a third item in the Ark, which was Aaron's rod that budded. So it had a couple of miraculous objects in it. It had the two tablets of the Covenant, which are also miraculous objects, because of the fact that they're written by the finger of God. You know, it'd be kind of cool to see God's penmanship, you know. I'm sure someday we'll see it when we get to heaven. And by the way, there is an Ark of the Covenant in heaven. The one on this earth is a replica of the real one in heaven. And just like everything, the tabernacle, everything else is a replica of what exists in heaven. So you have these three miraculous objects. The tables of the Covenant, the golden pot of manna. Why is that miraculous? Because the manna never expires. You know, because other times the manna would sometimes breed worms and rot and so forth. But this is a golden pot of manna that's just kind of there. And then you had the Aaron's rod that budded, which is obviously a miraculous object as well. Because it's just a stick, but then it blossomed and bore flowers and almonds. And so we have those three miraculous items in the Ark of the Covenant while it's in the wilderness. But when we get to this point where it's being installed into the temple, the Bible specifically says there was nothing in the Ark except the two tables of the Covenant. That's it. So by the time we get to the temple, where have those other two objects gone? Did the Philistines mess with those things and take those things out and ruin them or mess with them, do something else with them? Or maybe when the men of Jabesh Gilead, when it was brought back to Israel, when they looked into the Ark, they didn't die immediately. It's not like they just opened it and they're all dying. They got sick and died thereafter. And so maybe they pulled that stuff out and did stuff, who knows. But somehow that stuff's gone. So we see kind of a continual mishandling of the Ark of the Covenant, misuse of the Ark of the Covenant. It's rarely where it's supposed to be. Stuff's getting pilfered from it and removed from it. Until ultimately it's just gone and nobody even knows where it is. Okay. And this is symbolic of the fact that God's people in the Old Testament, the Israelites, misused the Old Covenant itself. That's why the Old Covenant had to be replaced by the New Covenant, right? The Bible says if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. But finding fault with them, he saith. Right? And so he found fault with them. They messed up the first covenant. And so them messing up the literal Ark of the Covenant is symbolic of them failing to keep the law of God in general. Failing to fall within the bounds of God's covenant, which is why God ended up, you know, not regarding them as his people anymore, taking the kingdom of God from them, giving it to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof, and implementing a new covenant to replace the Old Covenant. So that was a long story about the Ark of the Covenant, but it's pretty important to get that context. It explains why we see what we see here in 2 Chronicles chapter 1. And obviously over the next few chapters, we're going to be building the temple. We're going to be installing the Ark of the Covenant. So now we have some background for understanding what's going on with that. So let me say a few more things about this chapter, then I'll be done. Don't worry, you know, don't try to do the math and say like, hey, we've only done four verses and, you know, we've been here for, you know, 40 minutes or whatever. And so, you know, if you're doing the math, we're not going to be here for like two more hours. Don't worry. It's only going to be an hour and a half more. But the Bible says in verse five, moreover, so, you know, let's just read that again now that we got all that background. Verse four, but the Ark of God had David brought up from Kirjeth-jearim to the place, the Ark of God had David brought up from Kirjeth-jearim to the place which David had prepared for it. For he had pinched a tent for it, not the tabernacle, but a tent for it in Jerusalem, at Jerusalem. Moreover, the brazen altar that Bezalel, the son of Uriah, the son of Hur, had made. He put before the tabernacle of the Lord, and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it. So, you still have the original brazen altar, and it's with the tabernacle at the high place. And it says in verse six, Solomon went up there to the brazen altar before the Lord, which was at the tabernacle of the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it. And that night God did appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said unto God, Thou hast showed great mercy unto David my father, and hast made me to reign in his stead. Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my father be established, for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people, for who can judge this thy people that is so great? So, Solomon starts out by offering this tremendous offering unto God, a thousand burnt offerings. He's trying to show God his heart, that he really wants to please God, that he really wants to put God first, that he really wants to worship God with all his heart, and so he does a thousand burnt offerings. And so God appears to him in the night and asks him what he would want, you know, because he did something for God. He's serving God, and you know, God gives us the desires of our heart when we trust in him, when we serve him. He answers our prayers, and he gives us things that we want. And so he asks him, you know, what do you want? And Solomon asks for wisdom and knowledge. Why? Because he says, look, this is a hard job. Being a king is an important job. It's difficult. I don't think I'm up to the task, you know, and I've got this great nation, and it's so important that I don't mess this up. So give me wisdom and knowledge. And there's so much that we can learn from that, because even in our lives, we have a choice of whether we're going to go through life just thinking about how much money we can make at our job versus just how good of a job we can do at our job. You know, and a lot of people just go through life, and they're only thinking about what's in it for them, instead of just thinking about how to be the best person they can be or the best at their job or the best student or whatever. Because if you think about it, like if you're, you know, in home school or school or whatever, and you're being educated, right? There's kind of what you need to do just to get the grade, right? You're doing your schoolwork at home, those of you homeschoolers, and you know, there's really just the minimum to just kind of get it done, get it signed off, get mom off your back, and just, you're done with your work, and you can go play or whatever. And so there's this mentality of just doing the minimum, of just, you know, hey, there's a quiz in five minutes, let me just cram all the information real quick, get through this quiz, survive this quiz, and then whoop, that stuff all goes in the trash. But you know, that's not the way to go through life. You don't want to go through life just doing the minimum requirement just to get through. What you'd rather do is approach that same schoolwork with the mentality of I am going to learn this material. This is information that I need. And you say, well, I just don't think I need. Listen, if you're learning it in elementary school, you need to know it. If you're missing information from elementary school, you know, you end up being a little bit of a clown in this world. I mean, the stuff that you're being taught in those basic levels when you're in elementary school, junior high, high school, even if you're not going to be a historian, a mathematician, a scientist, an economist or whatever, you need the basics of those subjects just to function and not be a bozo, okay? So you should approach it with the attitude of, you know what, I'm going to learn this material. And here's the thing. If you learn the material, you'll pass the quiz. You'll pass the test. But passing the quiz or test doesn't necessarily mean that you learn the material, does it? Because there's sometimes a way to just memorize stuff or just cram it real quick. You know, put some quality into everything that you do. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. And so then that mentality that you have when you're a kid, then that carries over into your workday. And you find people on the job that have that same mentality of a child with a schoolwork. You have people on the job that are just doing the minimum requirement just to get paid, just to get a paycheck. They're never willing to do anything extra. They don't really care about the quality of their work. All they care is, will the boss accept it? Will the customer accept it? Instead of actually caring about doing a good job for the sake of doing a good job, pastors are, in many cases, just doing the minimum. Meaning that they know that they can just get up and just keep pulling out the same tired sermons, the same old outlines, still rely on the education that they got back a long time ago. And, you know, they read their Bible a lot back then. They've got the stories. They've got the illustrations. They've got the knowledge. And they're not really doing a whole lot of Bible reading or new study. They're not trying to reach new people or, you know, pioneer anything or do any missions program or anything. They're kind of just coasting a lot of times because the church is big enough to where they're going to get paid no matter what. And so they're just kind of coasting and doing the minimum. And, you know, they're just going to preach the sermons and do the work that they need to do just to get by, instead of truly seeking to excel and preach the best possible sermons that they can and learn as much as they possibly can and keep growing and moving forward and trying to reach more and more new people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. As opposed to just kind of babysitting the same people until their retirement or whatever. Just kind of coasting, you know, because let's face it. Once the church gets to like a hundred people or a little over a hundred people, you know, and in some ways you can just kind of coast at that size or whatever. And obviously the bigger it gets, the harder it is. And obviously, you know, there's not necessarily a worldly or carnal motive to keep doing better. But the motive to keep doing better is to strive for excellence in everything that we do, because that's what God wants us to do, because that's what God expects of us, because it's the right thing to do, especially if you're in the ministry. But even if you're not in the ministry, I don't care if you're a computer programmer, electrician, plumber, carpenter, you should strive for excellence in your field. If you're a mechanic or a landscaper or a cook or whatever, strive for excellence. Do the best that you can possibly do. And instead of showing up at your job with the mentality of, well, what's the minimum that I can do and get away with, and I'll just kind of phone it in and just goof off and just as whatever gets me paid, whatever's required, you know, instead of going into it with that mentality, you should go into your job with, you know what, I'm going to be the best that I can be at my job. I want to do the best I can. You know, I'm a pastor. I want to be the best pastor I can be. I want to be the best preacher I can be. I don't want to just be, you know, just the minimum. What's it going to take for me not to get fired? You know, like what level of study and preaching and work do I need to do to just not get fired? Or so that I don't just absolutely run the church into the ground so that there's just no one left to even keep the lights on? You know, no, that's not the standard. I want to do the best job that I can do. But you know what? You, as a housewife, should want to do the best possible job as a housewife that you can do. And be the best mother that you can be and the best wife that you can be and the best plumber that you can be and be the best teenager that you can be, the best student that you can be, the best whatever. Okay, this is how you need to approach life. And you know what? Solomon, when he's given this carte blanche from God, could have just said, hey, I want to live a long and prosperous life. I want my kingdom to be secure. I don't want anybody taking this kingdom away from me. I want to be rich. I want to have the richest kingdom ever. I want to have peace on all my borders so that I can kick back and enjoy. That's not what he said. He said, I want to do the best job that I can possibly do. Give me wisdom and knowledge. And we always talk about Solomon asking for wisdom, but why is he asking for wisdom? So I can do a good job, right? He says, give me wisdom and knowledge, verse 10, that I may go out and come in before this people so that I can do my job effectively. Give me the tools to be the best at my job that I can possibly be. For who can judge this, the people that are so crazy, this is a hard job. I want to be good at it. I want to be a good king. Not just, hey, let me enrich myself, gratify myself, please myself. No, no, no. It's about being the best servant to this people that I can be. That's what Solomon is saying. And of course, God loves this answer. God loves this attitude. And God says, you know what? If you ask for wisdom, I'm going to give you wisdom. And he ended up being, of course, the wisest man ever, right? The wisest man of all those kings back then. And he was just endued with wisdom that was so great that great thinkers and intellects and wise men from all over the world traveled to hear his wisdom. And then it even lists all these famous guys that nobody has ever heard of anymore. And says, man, he was wiser than Darda. And you're like, that doesn't mean anything to me because I don't know who Darda is. He was wiser than Darda. Well, Darda was once like the second or third wisest guy in the world in a certain period. And nobody knows anymore. He was wiser than Ethan the Ezraite. You know, that's a little more familiar, but it doesn't help a lot. But the point is that God answered the prayer for wisdom. And of course, the New Testament tells us that if any of us ask for wisdom, God will give us wisdom. But he said, you know what, I'm going to give you wisdom and knowledge. Look at verse 12. And I will give thee riches and wealth and honor such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like. So he's saying you're going to have what you asked for and you're going to have what you didn't ask for. Therefore, when we go to the Lord in prayer, we don't want to be praying and begging God for material wealth and selfish things. We should be praying for wisdom and knowledge and we should be praying for other people and praying unselfish things. And if we end up praying unselfish things, God will give us those unselfish things. But then he'll also give us the stuff we don't ask for. You don't have to ask for something to get it from God. If you ask for a bunch of really sensible things, you know, if mom and dad ask you what you want for Christmas and, you know, you just ask for a bunch of really sensible things, you know, they'll probably give you some toys as well. You know what I mean? They're going to give you, you know, if you're just like, mom, here's what I want for Christmas, I need socks, I need underwear, you know, and you're asked for all these really sensible things. You know what? They're also going to give you what you don't ask for. And if they don't, well, I'm sorry, you know, that your parents aren't that fun or whatever. But the point is, though, that God is. Because we see here that God, the Heavenly Father, he'll give you what you ask for and what you don't ask for if you're asking for godly things, if you're asking for wise things. And so Solomon ends up being the greatest, the wealthiest, the most prosperous king of Israel, you know, of anyone before or after him. He is the pinnacle. And this is the pinnacle of the kingdom of Israel. This is the heyday for Israel. This is kind of what everybody in Jesus Christ's day is kind of hoping that the Messiah is going to kind of bring around another reign of Solomon. You know, they want to get back to those glory days. And of course, someday there will be those glory days in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, none of them are going to be there except for the ones who believed on Jesus. But the Bible says in verse 13, then Solomon came from his journey to the high place that was at Gibeon to Jerusalem, from before the tabernacle of the congregation reigned over Israel, and Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen. And here we just get into just the reckoning of how God really did give him all those things. And we already read it before the service, but look at verse 15. The king made silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones and cedar trees made, he has the sycamore trees that are in the veil for abundance. And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt and linen yarn. The king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price. And on and on, it just talks about the wealth and prosperity of Solomon. Why? Because he sought to be the best he could be at his calling, what God had called him to do, his profession, his vocation. And so you should live your life the same way, okay? If you excel at your trade, at your profession, at your calling, whether it's being a homemaker or being out there in the world doing some job, whatever that job may be, whatever business you're in, if you excel at those things, you will make a living, right? God will provide your needs. You go out and work hard, you're going to get paid, okay? Now, if you go out and do those things and don't just sit around thinking about what can I get out of this, how much am I going to get paid, I'm not getting paid enough for this. And if you push that mentality out of your mind and have a mentality of just striving for excellence in everything that you do and how you can serve the boss, how you can serve the company, how you can serve the customer, if you think in those terms, you'll get paid as well. But if you go out with the mentality of seeking money and that's the big thing and that's all you're thinking about, well, then you may not achieve excellence. You'll probably just be phoning things in, doing the minimum, sort of like the kid who just grinds out two years of Spanish, you know, in high school. In California, to graduate from high school, you had to do two years of Spanish. We all did it. Everybody did it. But how many of us, you know, a year after we graduated knew any Spanish at all, right? Very few knew anything because you just got through it. You ground it out, your heart wasn't in it, you didn't care, you crammed the words, you know, and when it's all said and done, you know, you're lucky if you know what queso means, you know. In the long run, all right? You know, you're lucky just to know, you know, a few things because you didn't really care, okay? Don't go through life like that. You're wasting your life. You say, well, you don't understand I have a stupid job. Well, you know what? If God sees you excelling at your stupid job, I think he'll give you a better job. But if he sees you treating your stupid job like a stupid job, then he might just leave you in that stupid job. Do your best. Have a Solomon mentality. And this is one of the reasons why I even named my oldest son Solomon because I like Solomon as a character and this is really what I like about him. I love this attitude of I want to be the best king of Israel that I can be, not just, oh, you know, the genie is here to give me three wishes, you know, give me money, give me fame, give me popularity, you know, just stupid stuff like that. You know, God asks him, what do you want me to give you? You've done this mass thousand-fold burnt offering. What would you like me to do for you, Solomon? And he says, give me in wisdom and knowledge so I can do a good job at my calling, right? That's the attitude that we all need to have. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter. Thank you for this book, Second Chronicles. Lord, I pray that you'd bless our continued study of Second Chronicles over the many coming weeks as we go through this long book, Lord. Please just speak to us every single week and help us to hear what the Spirit is saying to this church and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.