Scripture speaks of glory in many ways, but often in pairs: one revealed, another concealed; one present, another to come. The relationship between the Father and the Son is described through this language, each bearing glory that is both shared and distinct.
In certain Old Testament patterns, these dual expressions appear in ways that anticipate the fuller revelation found in the New Testament. The movement from one to the other is not a replacement, but a completion.
This essay reflects on how these two glories are set before us, and how they are understood together rather than apart.
““Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. And the poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the Holy Place before the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.” (1 Kings 8:6-8)
Of the many articles in the temple, the two poles, or “staves” (KJV) used to transport the ark probably receive the least attention. Their purpose in carrying the ark is obvious, but once the temple was finished, their purpose should have been finished, too, and it would have been logical for them to have been stored away. Yet the poles remained in place and, along with the other items in the temple, reveal something about God’s relationship with us.
The poles were not so long that they would have protruded through the curtain around the Holy of Holies, for the KJV says, “they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place” (1 Kings 8:8). They would not have had to been drawn out to be seen if they could already be seen, so there was intentionality in this modification. Also, this passage peculiarly says they were seen but could not be seen. Commentaries resolve this contradiction by suggesting that the poles were likely drawn out enough to make bumps in the curtain but insufficient to protrude through the curtain opening. Thus, the high priest could see where they were but not see the poles themselves. But why would they be pulled out at all?
A Guide in the Darkness
Jewish sources indicate that the poles were pulled out slightly to indicate their location so that the high priest could safely find his way to the ark. While entering the Most Holy Place to minister to God was a privilege, it was also a grave responsibility and not without significant personal risk. God warned Moses at their first encounter, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). When Uzzah “put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled [and] God struck him down there because of his error” (2 Samuel 6:6-7). Aaron’s sons “offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD” (Leviticus 10:1-2). Isaiah says, “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 33:14). Approaching God must be done in his way and in his timing.
The poles were drawn out to give the priest a starting point for his journey inward, creating a safe path where he might not violate God’s holiness. Reverend Robert Jamieson (1802–1880), Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, wrote that “these projecting staves might serve as a guide to the high priest, in conducting him to that place where, once a year, he went to officiate before the ark; otherwise, he might miss his way in the dark, the ark being wholly overshadowed by the wings of the cherubim.”
Once inside, the poles were as a fence on either side of the high priest, keeping him from straying to either side of the safe path towards the ark. The Koren Talmud says, “When he reaches the Ark, he places the coal pan between the two staves,” and “The High Priest takes the blood of the bull from the priest who was stirring it, enters the Holy of Holies, and sprinkles eight times between the two staves.”
The obligatory offerings of the high priest were made between the two poles, after which he would retrace his steps, careful to stay between the poles during his exit. Because of the precariousness of this annual ritual, the drama surrounding it was high. Nothing less than the continued presence of God for the nation was at stake, for on him they relied for their welfare and blessings. So significant was the nation’s reliance on this glory-presence that when the Philistines captured the ark, Eli the high priest and judge, fell over at the news, breaking is neck and dying, and his daughter-in-law prematurely gave birth and named him Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured” (1 Samuel 4:22).
In his temple dedication, Solomon prays, “The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him…” (1 Kings 8:57-58). From the start, the nation depended on God’s continued presence so that it might remain under his protection and glory. God provided this and, in his mercy, gave their high priest a means to approach him.
Later, two other poles, in the form a cross, would have the same purpose for us. Like the poles that carried the ark and the glory of God in the temple, the cross carried the glory of God, Jesus his Son. In his introduction to his gospel, John says, “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). And later, in his high priestly prayer, Jesus says, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1). Like the two poles pulled out a little bit so the high priest would be guided to the glory of God, so the cross is lifted up to guide us safely to God’s glory through Jesus. But for us, this is not the perilous journey of the high priest in the dark, for Jesus made that journey for us. Rather than the dramatic journey of the high priest, with Jesus, “you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).
A Reminder to Be Ready
The original purpose of the two poles was to ensure a speedy response to God’s leading in the desert. The cloud by day and fire by night led them, and “whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out” (Exodus 40:36). This camping and decamping was an enormous effort. Still, the most important tent was the tabernacle, and the most important item was the ark. After the priests painstakingly packed the various holy items, the Levites would transport them, but the Kohathites were singled out to “not touch the holy things, lest they die” (Numbers 4:15). For the holiest of these items, the ark, the poles ensured they would not touch it.
The movement of their camp was unpredictable. “Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted, they set out. At the command of the LORD they camped, and at the command of the LORD they set out” (Numbers 9:22-23). Unpredictability runs counter to our nature. During their wanderings in the desert, the Israelites became so impatient with the unpredictability of their journey that they even wanted to return to enslavement in Egypt! When God brought the Israelites into the promised land, and Solomon built the temple, this unpredictable movement had hopefully ended. But this is not how God leads us, then or now. The poles poking into the curtain served as a visible reminder that even with the permanency of a massive temple surrounded by a walled city, the poles were still there, and the Israelites should be prepared for God to move them at any time to another place.
The cross is a similar reminder of our walk with Jesus. While our hearts and souls are firmly fixed in him, our place of service and lifestyle may not be as fixed and predictable. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Like the cloud by day and fire by night, God may ask us to change our circumstances and plans. The cross is a reminder that like Jesus, who had “nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58), we also are “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). Jesus says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). If our treasure is our job, our neighborhood, a cause, or even our church, we will not be able to obey if Jesus asks us to “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).
In one of the most pointed passages in the gospels, Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27). Reverend Billy Graham said that in bearing this cross, “Jesus doesn’t simply call us to believe that He existed, or even to believe that He can save us. He calls on us to commit our whole lives to Him.”
The cross comes first. Like the Kohathites who bore the glory of God on the two poles, we must be willing to bear his glory of the cross in the same manner. We, for a while, live in a “tent that is our earthly home” (2 Corinthians 5:1); we live in it “like treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Jesus said, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:22-23). His glory is revealed in us when we “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” so that we might be the “aroma of Christ to God” in this world (2 Corinthians 2:15). Like the high priests going into the Holy of Holies, this can be a significant burden, but it is also our greatest blessing.
Conveyances of carts and oxen for transporting the tabernacle items were given to Levites, who were charged with carrying them from one place to the next. “But to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because they were charged with the service of the holy things that had to be carried on the shoulder” (Numbers 7:9). Jesus says to James and John, “The cup that I drink you will drink” (Mark 10:39) indicating that they would carry on their shoulders martyrdom. Paul said, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). In manifesting his life, we also manifest his glory as a witness to a world searching for meaning.
As the Kohathites had the privilege of bearing the glory of God on their shoulders, so we have the privilege of bearing the glory of God within us. Baptized in Jesus, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, given the power of the Holy Spirit to walk with him and given the gifts of the Holy Spirit to minister for him.
A Reassurance of His Return
While the temple was a permanent structure containing the ark with the cherubim, above which God’s glory would appear, God is not restricted to a structure. “Would you build me a house to dwell in?” (2 Samuel 7:5). God didn’t need to live in a building, but he allowed his glory to be seen there for the nation’s sake. The Psalmist says, “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!” (Psalms 132:7). Even as a mere footstool his glory is present. However, since it was only seen by the high priest, and for him only annually, it would be easy for the people to doubt God’s presence over time.
Moses was on the mountain with God for a mere forty days, yet during this short absence, the Israelites demanded of Aaron, “Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:23), and Aaron made a golden calf for them to worship. If not seeing God’s representative after just forty days led to such an event, what of 365 days? The two poles were connected to the ark, the ark was connected to the cherubim, and the glory of God was above the cherubim. If they could see that the poles were still there, they could rest assured that the ark was still there, the cherubim were still there, and God was still there.
The two poles that form the cross serve a similar purpose for us. When Jesus ascended from this earth, the disciples “were gazing into heaven as he went” as if they would be lost without him being physically present in their lives as he had been for three years. Then two men in white robes said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10-11). From this moment until the penultimate verse in the Bible, when Jesus reassures us, “Surely I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:20), we seek to see his glory in our lives. Peter says, “though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).
We don’t see him, but we can always see the cross, a historical event and visible symbol to remind us of who Jesus is. Paul says, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). In his deepest trials he would boast only “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). As the two poles in the temple reassured the Israelites that God was with them, so during our darkest moments the cross reassures us that Jesus is with us. “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel” (Numbers 24:17). That Sceptre is our hope.
While our faith may waiver, we need only look to the empty tomb to know that Jesus is alive, present in our lives and will return for us. Mary entered that tomb to see “two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet” (John 20:12). These angels are positioned as were the cherubim over the ark, situated “on the two ends of the mercy seat” above the ark (Exodus 25:18). Upon the two poles was the ark, and upon the ark was the mercy seat, and upon this mercy seat was the glory of God, continually witnessed by two angels at either end. Jesus’ resurrection, witnessed by two angels at either end of the slab on which he had lain, is the glory of God. And this glory is for our salvation and for the salvation of the world.
A Little Geometry
“Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face” (Psalms 89:14, KJV).
While there are similarities in meaning between the two poles under the ark and the two poles of the cross, there is one key difference, and it is quite significant. In fact, this difference may be the entire point of this prefiguration.
Justice and mercy are contradictory concepts and mutually exclusive in their application. To exercise justice, injustice must be punished, and punishment is not merciful. To exercise mercy, injustice is not deservedly punished and is, therefore, not justice. Justice and mercy are like parallel lines, extending to infinity and, by definition, never intersecting–like the two poles supporting the ark. But nothing is impossible with God. He, who is both just and merciful, established a means we might draw unto him. He told Moses, “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” (Exodus 25:22). If justice and mercy are mutually exclusive, how can God be both just and merciful?
Only on the cross, where the two poles intersect, are both justice and mercy found because that is where Jesus, God’s only son, died for the world’s sins. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2, NIV). Completely innocent, so not requiring justice of any kind, God, “For our sake…made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Judgment for all sin was put on him so that all mercy might be given to us.
This was no happenstance event, but it was planned “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20) because of his faithfulness to us. The first shed blood of his creation was for us when “God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21) because even though “we are faithless, he remains faithful” (2 Timothy 2:13). Those animal skins were only temporary clothing, but soon we will be clothed in his righteousness.
We, despite having “neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23), have benefitted from all three through Jesus. He has fulfilled his promise in Hosea, “I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness” (Hosea 2:19-20). As “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb” (Isaiah 11:6), so shall justice and mercy be fully realized in Jesus. This will be explored in more detail later in the two pillars that are outside the temple.”
This essay is part of Shadows of Christ: Twelve Essays.
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