Heinrich Bullinger
Decades 3.5, pp. 153-155.

The ark of the covenant was chief among the holy instruments belonging to the tabernacle and temple of the Lord (Deut 31:26). The ark was so called because of the tablets of the covenant that were put in it. It was also called the ark of the Lord God of hosts, who dwells upon it between the cherubim; and by that means, the Lord himself was called by this name: “he that sits between the cherubim,” because from there he gave answers to his servants, and he had placed the ark in the midst of his people to be a sign that his presence was always among them. I will say nothing here, touching the stuff of which, and the form in which the ark was made. For the matter and fashion are, in their colours, painted very lively in Exodus 25. 

I will now say something about the meaning, mystery, and use of the ark. We men lay up in our coffers and chests, the treasures that we set most store by. And therefore we understand that in the ark was laid the treasure of the church, and all the substance of which the faithful took most account. We must not therefore seek these things in men: not in Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Saint Mary, John, Peter, or Paul; much less in the Roman indulgences. But we seek our treasure in the One in whom all fulness dwells, and in whom all the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge are heaped up in store (Col 2:3, 9); the One who is not seen here on the earth, but in the sanctum sanctorum [Holy of Holies], in Heaven above (Heb 9:11-12, 24; Mark 16:19), I say. And he is called Jesus Christ — whose divinity is figured by the purest gold, and his humanity by the shittim-wood, that is, of cedar, or rather, white-thorn (Ex 25:10-11). For he took flesh upon himself, in all points like our sinful flesh — the very flesh that we have, except that it was not sinful (Col 2:9; Heb 4:15). Out of this ark, the faithful fetch all good and necessary things for the use of their life and eternal salvation. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3). “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).

For we read that the tablets of the covenant, the pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded there, were laid in the ark. For we heard that in Christ were hidden the jewels of the church (Col 2:3). Christ is our wisdom (1 Cor 1:24; Prov 8), the Word of the Father (John 1:14), and the fulfilling of the law (Mat 5:17; Rom 10:4). He is just himself, and he is our righteousness also (Rom 3:26). In Christ is the heavenly food: for he is the bread of life that came down from heaven, to the end that everyone who eats of it may live eternally (John 6:32-35). In Christ the priesthood budded again: it seemed at the death of Christ upon the cross, truly to have been cut down for growing anymore. But at his resurrection, it budded again; and he took the everlasting priesthood that will never be ended (Heb 7:24). For even now, as he stands at the right hand of the Father in heaven, he makes intercession to Him for us (Rom 8:34). Moreover, the ark was compassed with a crown, because Christ our Lord is a king who delivers us, his faithful servants, from all evil, and makes us the sons of God (Col 1:13; John 18:37; Rev 19:16; Gal 1:4; John 1:12).

We read that upon the ark was placed the mercy-seat, which was either the cover of the ark, or else a seat set upon the ark. As the apostles John and Paul interpret it, it prefigured Christ our Lord, who is the throne of grace, and the propitiation for our sins — not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world (Heb 4:16; 1 John 2:2). Out of the propitiatory, or mercy-seat, were also uttered the oracles and answers of God. For we read in the holy scripture that the use of the mercy-seat had been this: that Moses, entering into the tabernacle, received at the mercy-seat the answers and commandments of God, which he declared to the people (Ex 25:21-22). And Christ alone is the one whom we are to hear, the one by whom our heavenly Father declares his will to us, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Mat 17:5).

Two cherubim have their faces turned toward the mercy-seat, and they look toward one another. St. Peter says of this, that “the angels desire to behold” (1 Peter 1:12) the Saviour of the world, who is declared in the gospel. The same angels always serve our Lord and Master — and are ready at his beckoning — as the one who is Lord over all (Rom 10:12). Now, none carried the ark of the Lord except the priests alone. For only those who are anointed by the Holy Ghost, and endued with true faith, receive Christ and are made partakers of his heavenly gifts (Heb 6:4). Neither must we wink at and let pass the note given in 1st Samuel 4-5. There it is said that, for abusing the ark and turning it to another use than that for which it was given, and for attributing to it more than the scripture willed, the Israelites were slain by the Philistines, and the ark was carried into captivity. This was to the end that all men might learn by it, not to attribute more to the sacraments and mysteries of God than is convenient; and not to apply them to any use other than that for which the Lord has ordained them. For the ark was not ordained to be taken for God, even though it bore the name of God; nor was it made to the end that they should look for grace and help to proceed from it, as we read they did. But it was given to them as a token that God, their confederate, was in the midst of his people, so long as they kept the tablets of the covenant that were enclosed in the ark, and clung to God alone, at whose hands they should look for all good things through Christ, his Son (Eph 1:3; Phil 4:19), who was prefigured by the ark.