Wednesday, January 25, 2023

James L. Farrell on the Ark Story as a Type and Shadow for the Latter-day Restoration of the Gospel

  

 

THE ARK STORY AS A TYPE AND SHADOW

 

In the following chart, I list the elements of the ark story on the left. On the right, I list the same elements, with minor word changes. (For example, I substitute gospel for ark and Gentiles for Philistines, changes indicated in boldface in the right-hand column.) Looking at these vents in this parallel form, we can see that the ark story bears striking resemblance to a much larger story—a story that is not obvious on the surface. There may be more going on in First Samuel 4 through 6 than at first meets the eye. . . .

 

LOSS AND RETURN OF THE ARK

LOSS AND RETURN OF THE GOSPEL

1. Israel loos to the ark as a power that will deliver a political/military victory

1. Israel looks for a Messiah who will deliver a political/military victory

2. The ark is lost from Israel

2. The gospel is lost from Israel

3. The temple is therefore lost from Israel

3. The temple is therefore lost from Israel

4. The ark of the God of Israel overcomes the gods of the Philistines

4. The gospel of the God of Israel overcomes the gods of the Gentiles

5. The ark afflicts the Philistines

5. The gospel afflicts the Gentiles

6. The Philistines come to believe in the power of the God of Israel

6. The Gentiles come to believe in the power of the God of Israel

7. The Philistines repent of their wrongdoing

7. The Gentiles repent of their wrongdoing

8. The Philistines take the ark back to Israel

8. The Gentiles take the gospel back to Israel

9. The Israelites who don’t treat the ark with proper respect lose the ark again and are destroyed

9. The Israelites who don’t treat the gospel with proper respect lose the gospel again and are destroyed

10. The return of the ark leads the Israelites to mourn and seek after the Lord

10. The return of the gospel leads the Israelites to mourn and seek after the Lord

11. The Israelites repent and put away false gods.

11. The Israelites repent and put away false gods

12. The Israelites put their trust in the Lord when being attacked by their enemies

12. The Israelites put their trust in the Lord when being attacked by their enemies

13. The Lord provides a military victory

13. The Lord provides a military victory

14. Israel looks for a temporal king

14. The Lord is established as King over Israel

 

Seen this way, the ark story becomes a “type” of a much larger story: It can be viewed as a grand prophecy of the gloss of the gospel from Israel and the latter-day restoration of that gospel through the Gentiles.

 

Just as the Israelites looked to the ark for political or military deliverance and missed the spiritual dimension of the ark and its source of power, so too at the time of Christ “they were too busy starting in search of a political liberator and missed the Messiah.” (Neal A. Maxwell, Things As They Really Are [Deseret Book, 1978[, 54) In missing the Messiah, they missed his gospel, and without that gospel, the fulness of the priesthood and the ordinances of the temple remained hidden from them.

 

Just as the ark became possessed by the Philistines, after Israel’s rejection of the Lord, the gospel was revealed to the Gentiles. “For thus it behooveth the father that it should come forth from the Gentiles, that he may show forth his power unto the Gentiles.” (3 Nephi 21:6) Just as the ark overcame the gods of the Philistines, the restored gospel will overcome the gods of the Gentiles, rolling forth as a stone cut out of a mountain without hands. (See Daniel 234-35) One by one, man will be brought by that gospel to a knowledge of their sins—and it will afflict them the way the ark afflicted by the Philistines. . . . after the Gentiles in the latter days come to the knowledge of the gospel and turn to Christ, they will be the instruments through whom the Lord restores the fulness of the gospel to the house of Israel: “in the latter days . . . shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto [Israel].” (1 Nephi 15:13) And the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.” (1 Nephi 13:42) Just as the Philistines brought the ark to Israel, so too in the latter days the Gentiles will bring the gospel back to Israel.

 

As in the ark story, when the gospel is restored to Israel, “as many of the Jews as will not repent shall be cast off.” (2 Nephi 30:2) Nevertheless, the restoration will lead many Israelites to mourn and seek after the Lord, (See Zechariah 12:10-11) and then to repent and put away false gods. (See Zechariah 13:1-2) After they repent they will turn to the Lor for deliverance. (See Zechariah 13:9) And when they do, the Lord will provide them a great military victory: “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains . . . and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” (Zechariah 14:3-5)

 

Completing the parallelism, after this great victory, “the Lord shall be king over all the earth.” (Zechariah 14:9)

 

We can see that from start to finish, the ark story matches the larger gospel story. The parallelism is striking. (James L. Farrell, The Hidden Christ: Beneath the Surface of the Old Testament [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2009], 152-55

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