1 Kings 8:9

The poles the priests had used to carry the ark were now a memorial of their journeys with God. In His faithfulness He had led them, kept them safe, and brought them into the rest He had prepared for them. But the sign of their means of grace on the way through the wilderness was no longer inside it. Nothing but the law remained. The law was the basis for governing the kingdom, and the rule of the righteousness practised in it.

The ark had now found its resting place in the kingdom of Solomon, whose reign is a picture of the millennium. It is significant too that now only the two tables of stone were in the ark. The manna had ceased when they ate the old grain of the land, which pictures a heavenly Christ. And the witness of Aaron's rod was no longer needed now that they were in the kingdom. The manna and the priesthood of Christ were so necessary in the wilderness, but those conditions had now passed. Hebrews 9:4 mentions both, because there the tabernacle is in view, and not the temple.

An ark, as far as the word teaches us, is designed to keep whatever is put in it intact… So when we read of "the ark of the covenant," we take it that God designed it to preserve His covenant unbroken among a failing people. In it, as we know, lay the second set of tablets. The first set was broken in pieces at the foot of the mountain. That showed that man's covenant was set aside altogether, and that his work could never, in any way, form the basis of Jehovah's throne of government… The ark could not hold broken tablets inside its holy enclosure. Man might fail to keep the vow he chose for himself. But God's law must be kept in its divine integrity and perfection.

The ark contained the tables of the law, the testimony of the covenant between the Lord and His people. On God's part, He kept this covenant with exact and unchanging faithfulness. But it was conditional. If Israel fulfilled its conditions, God would dwell in the midst of His people. If Israel disobeyed, the Lord had to abandon her, to leave His throne and His house in Israel.

The tables of the covenant were also in the ark. God's holy law was enshrined in the only place where it could remain unbroken: in the heart of Christ Himself. "Your law is within my heart" was perfectly shown in His outward life. Then, over it all, were the cherubim of glory. They are witnesses of God's righteousness and judgment, which are the foundation of His throne. They looked down on the mercy seat and overshadowed it — the place sprinkled with the blood of atonement.

These two objects, the manna and the rod, will no longer be needed in the millennial reign, as the picture here shows. The covenant will be kept, because God is the only party to it. The priesthood will follow the pattern of Melchizedek, not Aaron, and its work will be to bless. The glory of Christ the Man will no longer be hidden in the sanctuary. It will be shown to all eyes in the person of the true Solomon.