Box of Life

"He likes it! Hey Mikey!" If you are old enough, you remember this catchphrase from a Life cereal commercial. If not, click here: http://youtu.be/vYEXzx-TINc . LIfe has always been one of my favorite, in fact I’m sure there is a box (or two) right now in our pantry.  If you had a box of Life cereal and someone asked what was in the box, you would say that there is Life in the box. There is Life in a box of Life cereal.

Once upon a time, there were prizes in the boxes of Life cereal.  They buried the prize deep into the box.  I remember opening the box, tilting and bulging the box until the prize was visible, then reach in to extract it, without having to eat the cereal.

When you come right down to it, the ark of the covenant (or testament) was a box, an elaborate box made of gold plated shttim wood.  The box had some kind of gold crown or molding (or, as I like to call it, gold crown molding) going around it.  This elaborate box had an even more elaborate lid.  The lid was a slab of pure gold.  Attached to the lid of pure gold were two cherubim figures also made of pure gold.  

The function of any box is to hold things.  A cereal box holds cereal (and once upon a time, a buried prize) and the ark was to hold Aaron’s rod that budded, a golden pot of manna, tablets of stone, and, possibly, a copy of the law (in scroll form).   

As a response to Korah’s rebellion (Numbers16), God verified His selection of Aaron as the high priest (Numbers 17).  A representative of each tribe carved the tribe’s name on a stick and the sticks were place in the tabernacle. God confirmed His selection by having Aaron’s stick bud. Just to not leave any doubt, Aarons stick not only budded, but had flowers and mature fruit (Number 17:8). Just like the lampstand of the tabernacle, three stages of life were on the stick of Aaron. This rod, with the three signs of life, was put in the box.   

Manna was the means of sustaining life while the Israelites wandered in the wilderness.  A portion of manna was put in a gold pot and that pot was put in the box.

The scroll and the tablets represents the Law and were put in the box.  

If someone asked what was in the box, one could say that there is law and life in the box.

Jesus is the box.  The gold reminds us of His royalty and the wood speaks of His humanity.  Jesus held the law perfectly and ...in him was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:4

The ark was a box of life, and there is a hidden prize. And the prize?  Sometime before the ark entered into the holy place of the newly completed everything but the 2 tables of stone were removed from the box. One of the missing things was the golden pot of manna.

In the letter that was dictated by Jesus to the church at Pergamos , He promises To him that overcomes, to him will I give of the hidden manna. Could this be the same manna?

Now within the veil, enjoying God,
Manna, law of life, and budding rod;
Christ Himself, the ark, is our abode—
 Hallelujah!

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/1208#ixzz1yTY8Rux2