Caller: My question was if there’s anything from the Bible that reveals the general location of the ark of the covenant or Noah’s ark perhaps?
Pastor Doug: Well, you’re asking two questions. I think it’s interesting you should ask that because I just heard another broadcast earlier today dealing with the subject of the ark of the covenant and the gentleman who was doing the discussion actually did err a little bit because he said, Well, I thought perhaps the ark was even hidden in the days of Solomon. But that’s not true because the ark is mentioned again during the time of Hezekiah and Josiah.
Evidently, you know, there’s a lot of speculation and I’m adding my speculation to it based on some Bible commentaries I’ve read, but I think it’s pretty accurate to say the ark was still in the temple up until the time when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, I think that was about 586 BC if I’m not mistaken. Jeremiah prophesied that event was coming. The Bible gives great details to itemize the articles of furniture that Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple and brought back in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The ark is never mentioned. So we can only speculate, I think safely so, that because Jeremiah foresaw what was coming, Jeremiah and some of the priests in Jerusalem, during the siege, when they knew that the city was going to fall, Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, they secreted, they hid the ark of the covenant somewhere in a cave, they sealed it somewhere, probably underneath Jerusalem—there’s a whole labyrinth of caves underneath the city –and they hid it somewhere.
I don’t know if they snuck outside the city walls and hid it I don’t know if they tried to hide it just before the Babylonians besieged the city, that could be true because, you realize that nobody went into the Holy of Holies except the High Priest once a year. And so the priest could have hidden the ark several years before the city was destroyed and most of the people would never have known. They wouldn’t have known it was gone because they were never allowed to view it. So I think that the ark is hidden somewhere around Jerusalem, under Jerusalem, and that it’s still there.
Now you’re asking about Noah’s ark. Well, I believe the Bible that the ark of Noah rested on the mountains of Ararat. There have been a number of books written of people who claimed to have found it, and sometimes the books are of questionable evidence, some of them have, I think, very valid evidence. Marco Polo—many people are not aware of this, but Marco Polo, in his writings of his travels, claimed that he, on a clear day in July, could see the ark of Noah in the distance on the mountains of Ararat in that Turkish region.
He actually traversed that at one point on his way back to Genoa. So many historians, including the people who live at the base of those mountains, have always believed the ark was up there. I think it is up there. There has not been a lot of good hard evidence. You talk to four different expeditions and they’ll all tell you they know it’s somewhere but they actually disagree about where exactly it is. But I do believe it’s up there. And that will probably make the front pages if they do find good evidence.
Caller: Would it have rotted by now or…?
Pastor Doug: Well, you know, I read one account where a man…. I don’t believe it has rotted because the wood that was used was of a much more enduring nature than, you know, the quick growth wood that we have now. The trees that Noah employed in using the ark were not trees that were sprouted. He cut down trees that were actually created by the Creator. Can you imagine that? Enormous in size and perfect in symmetry and the grain, I think, was much tighter. And I believe they have petrified. Now many accounts—that’s one thing they have in common—they say it’s much more like stone now. So I think surviving timbers, if they did not rot, they petrified and I believe that it’s up there, in part or in whole, to this day. And it may be partially buried by avalanches. It’s a very forbidding mountain where it is right now.
Caller: Are those two never to be found again? I know in Revelation it mentions the ark of the covenant.
Pastor Doug: Well, the ark of the covenant in Revelation 11:19 talks about it being seen in the temple of God in heaven. I think that’s telling us that God’s law will be exalted again just before Jesus comes back. It may be discovered. I don’t know. It would be wonderful if it was. There is no prophecy or scripture that says Noah’s ark will be discovered. But, you know, the Bible says, ‘Blessed are those who believe without seeing.’ And God gives us a rainbow to help us remember that.