Place the ark of the covenant law in it and shield the ark with the curtain. - Exodus 40:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 14, 2015): Exodus 40

Henry McCarty, better known as William Bonney or Billy the Kid, died of a gunshot wound on July 14, 1881 - he was 21 years of age. But in those 21 years Henry McCarty had built up a reputation. It is extremely unlikely that everything that we think we know about Billy the Kid is true. McCarty enjoyed a reputation that was, at least partially, built around exaggerated accounts of his exploits. But there is no doubt that many people at that time enjoyed sitting around their various meeting places and telling the many stories of Billy the Kid.

So maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that after The Kid died, people still wanted a piece of him. As a result, Billy the Kid’s grave marker has been stolen several times since he died. Once it was taken because it was apparently going to be kept safely in a museum, but the grave marker never arrived at the museum – it simply disappeared into someone’s collection. Today there is a chipped stone marker in the Old Fort Sumner cemetery indicating the place where Billy the Kid is buried. And around the grave is an Iron fence protecting this marker from the collectors that still exist wanting to have a piece, not of the historical Henry McCarty, but rather of the legend of Billy the Kid.

God has the Ark of the Covenant placed inside of the temple. But it wasn’t just placed into the temple, it is shielded or hidden in a special area of the temple where it would not be seen. There was no doubt that the legend of the Ark of the Covenant would grow, and that people would want a piece of it (the first Indiana Jones movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was built around just this very premise), so the Ark needed to be protected. It was a cloth curtain, not an iron fence, but it was usually an effective barrier. A tradition was built up around this small area which was called the “Holy of Holies.” And according to that tradition, only the high priest could enter into this place – and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

But this protection for the Ark was violated – and when it was violated, the Ark was lost. Both the Philistine’s and the Babylonian’s took possession of the Ark because someone forgot about this protective barrier that God had placed around the Ark. The Sons of Eli forgot and carried the Ark into battle before the Philistines took possession of it – and Hezekiah showed the envoys from Babylon all of the Treasures of Israel before the Babylonians tore down the temple and took the Ark of the Covenant for a final time.

But the legend of the Ark had grown. And according to the legend the Ark was endowed with supernatural power. But that was just the legend. The power had always belonged to the God who had instructed Israel to build the Ark – and the power of the Ark really belongs only to him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 90