Life # 60
60. The stone tablets on which the law was written were called "the tablets of the covenant, " and because of them the ark was called "the ark of the covenant" and the law itself was called "the covenant" (Numbers 10:33; Deuteronomy 4:13, 23; 5:2-3; 9:9; Joshua 3:11; 1 Kings 8:21; Revelation 11:19; and often elsewhere).
The reason the law was called the covenant is that "covenant" means union. That is why it says of the Lord that he will be "a covenant for the people" (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8); why he is called "the angel of the covenant" (Malachi 3:1); and why his blood is called "the blood of the covenant" (Matthew 26:28; Zechariah 9:11; Exodus 24:4-10). That is why the Word is called "the Old Covenant" and "the New Covenant."
Covenants are made for the sake of love, friendship, and companionship, and therefore for the sake of union.
1 Kings 8:3-9
3
All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
4
They brought up the ark of Yahweh, and the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these did the priests and the Levites bring up.
5
King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle, that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude.
6
The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.
7
For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above.
8
The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there they are to this day.
9
There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
