Welcome to Prophecy Q & A with Jimmy DeYoung!
There was no Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies in the second temple.
In 2 Chronicles 35, when Josiah was king of Judah when the two tribes stayed to the south after the division of the twelve tribes of Israel; ten went to the north, called Israel, taken into captivity by the Assyrians. The two in the south, Judah and Benjamin, were anticipating that something was going to happen to them. This is why King Josiah, a man of great knowledge of his time, died an untimely death; he went out to the Jezreel Valley and tried to stop each of them from using Israel as a land bridge to go up to Assyria to assist the Assyrians in fighting off the Babylonians. The Lord didn’t command him to do that, and because of that, he died an untimely death.
2 Chronicles 35:3, Josiah tells the Levites to take the Ark and put it in the house (Hebrew, bayith). He is referring to putting it in the temple, not someone’s house. In 1 Kings 8, King Solomon, after he built the temple, took the Ark of the Covenant that his father brought back into Jerusalem and was in the tabernacle in the City of David. King Solomon had the Levites go down and bring the Ark of the Covenant up to the temple that he had built into the Holy of Holies. 1 Kings 8 says that the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord so much that they could not even bear it.
The Ark of the Covenant, at the time that the Babylonians were going to come in, had, basically, been in the temple in the Holy of Holies for about a 400-year period of time.
Josiah told the Levites to take the Ark and put it in the “house.” Put the ark that is already in the temple in the temple? He must be talking about something else. The word “bayith” also has an alternate translation of “secret, secluded hiding place.” He did take the Ark and put it in the secret, secluded hiding place that Solomon had built under the Holy of Holies. Two rabbis have given testimony of seeing the Ark of the Covenant that it was there underneath. Every Orthodox Jew that is involved in preparing to build the next temple would say that the Ark is exactly where Josiah had the Levites place it about 2,600 years ago. The rabbis said that they will bring the Ark out when they have a place to put it, in the next temple.
I have been inside the Dome of the Rock, and the foundation stone is where the Ark of the Covenant rested. Next to it, a hole was drilled through the stone. During Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people, the high priest would go in and pour the blood of the sacrificed animal on the mercy seat by pouring the blood down through the hole to the secret, secluded hiding place below.
In Acts 6:7, it says that a multitude of the priests turned to Jesus Christ. When Christ was crucified, the vail of the temple was rent from top to bottom, giving access for everyone to look into the Holy of Holies. At that time, there was no Ark of the Covenant in the temple. Thus, the Jews who had become priests decided to check it out and became very aware of the fact that everything in the temple, all of the sacrificial activities performed at the temple, and every duty of these priests was focusing on the person of the Messiah. Jesus Christ had fulfilled every promise. It says that a “multitude” had turned to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. What focused them on the truths and activities in the temple was the fact that there was no ark in the Holy of Holies. It was underneath. The Ark of the Covenant is a model of Him to come. When Jesus Christ comes back and builds His temple, Ezekiel 40-46, He builds the temple (Zechariah 6:12) and won’t need an Ark of the Covenant because He will be seated in the Holy of Holies. The false temple will stand there and be the place where the antichrist performs the Abomination of Desolation. The Ark of the Covenant will be underneath the Dome of the Rock.
Jimmy DeYoung was a prophecy teacher and journalist who travelled the country and the world educating the Body of Christ of the future events foretold in God’s prophetic Word. His goal was to equip Christians with the knowledge and understanding of what God’s Word says will happen someday soon, so that they can make better decisions today. Dr. DeYoung went home to be with his Savior on August 15, 2021.
