The pot of manna and Aaron’s budding rod were missing, but those wilderness needs were past now.
There is no question that there were larger buildings constructed for the various gods of the Gentiles, although there was none more lavish than Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. But whatever the other shrines boasted, this temple would have something no other temple had. It was, of course, the glory of Jehovah, the presence of the only true God. So we read, “Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the City of David” (1 Ki 8:1). A glance at a Bible map will show that David’s City was a small hill extending south from Mount Moriah, covering a mere 12 acres. But he had also purchased Moriah from Ornan the Jebusite, dedicating the threshing floor for the temple site and then passing on the rest of the mountain for Solomon’s other building projects. The ark of the covenant had traveled with the tabernacle for 38 years, then was placed at Shiloh by Joshua. It was taken by the Philistines, and then, after seven months, returned by them, where it was left first in the house of Abinadab and then in the house of Obed-edom. Finally, David brought it to Jerusalem, where it resided in a tent which he had pitched for it. There it had remained until this moment. “Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim” (v 6). In it were only the tables of the testimony; the other artifacts were now gone. But most importantly, “the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (v 11). As the children say, These two things go together. The Lord was home at last!