"They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you. "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.
Exodus 25:10-22
The description of the furniture in the Tabernacle now begins. It is interesting to see that the divine instructions given to Moses begin with the Ark and work outwards, whereas the actual approach to God which the Tabernacle symbolised and made possible was of course from the outside inwards. The way into the holiest, into the presence of God, can only be by sacrifice and by blood. We should bear in mind that the point of the Tabernacle is to show forth the conditions upon which fellowship with God is possible for sinful men - this is the force of 22. The first and central condition is expressed by the symbol of the Ark. The Ark was the Ark of the Covenant, and it is only because of the covenant of grace into which God has entered with sinful man that there can be any fellowship with God. Everything is based on the covenant. As the Shorter Catechism says, 'God, having out of His mere good pleasure, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the state of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer'. Inasmuch as we are in fellowship with God at all, we are men and women of the covenant. Furthermore, the Ark contained the tables of stone on which were inscribed the law of God. Here, then, is the heart of true worship and fellowship. God meets with us, and has fellowship with us, in and through His Word. This means that fellowship with Him is not so much a mystical experience as moral and ethical, relating to our response of obedience, to His Word and will. For when He speaks to us, He means us to take seriously what He says.