1 Kings 8:1

The temple was finished and all its vessels were in place. Now He for whom Solomon had made it all must come Himself to live in His house. His throne must stand there. The temple stood on Mount Moriah, on the spot where David had set up his altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Until now the ark had lived under tents in Zion, the city of David.

With David seated on the throne of the Lord (1 Chron. 29:23), the first steps began that would bring the ark to its resting place. We say steps, because there were three of them. The first was the move from Kirjath-jearim to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. The second went from Obed-edom's house to the city of David, which is Zion. The third went from Zion to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house on Mount Moriah. On the first journey men carried it on a cart. On the second the Kohathites carried it on their shoulders. On the last the priests carried it into its final resting place.

When the people went through the Jordan — that river a picture of death — the priests carried the ark on their shoulders. This foreshadowed that the Lord would make a way for His own through death. And now, as the ark was about to enter His resting place on earth, priests carried it on their shoulders into its prepared place, never to leave it.

Here we have what is far better and deeper than all the rest — the visible proof that God was present with them… The priests brought in the one great object that had not changed. In all the other vessels the old pattern of the tabernacle was, no doubt, altered a little and enlarged for the temple. The ark was the same. How beautiful, when we think of One who is truly the same yesterday, today and forever. Nothing pictured Him more than the ark.

The ark is the symbol of Christ as the One who upholds the throne of God (the mercy seat). It had lived in tents for many years. This speaks of Christ staying with His people as One with no settled home, until the day when He takes His rightful throne in the millennial kingdom.

Solomon sets to work to bring it up from there to the temple, along with all the men of Israel, all the elders, all the heads of the tribes and the priests. It is no longer "the chosen men of Israel" (2 Sam. 6:1), as in David's day. All the people share in this complete and final celebration. Final indeed, for the dedication of the temple falls during the great days of the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast that closes the series of Jewish feasts (Lev. 23).

It was a great day, and what was happening concerned the whole earth. This was God — the God of Israel, yet the one living and true God — entering His resting place on earth. It was a foreshadowing of what will happen when the Lord reigns in power and in peace. Until Solomon the Prince of Peace was on the throne, the ark did not enter its final resting place. God will not rest until the true Prince of Peace is made King over all the earth.