The Ancient Brand New Testimony

I have been so blessed the past few weeks to be going through The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus dvd/Bible study with some ladies from church. Tonight while we were watching the section on the Ark of the Covenant.
I was struck by one of the Bible verses they read where God called the ark "the Testimony." I remembered reading that several times: God calls the ark "the Testimony". Testimony means telling about what happened. What was the ark telling about? While I was pondering that, the teacher on the dvd pointed out the contents of the ark (stone tablets with the ten commandments, a gold jar of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded and made almonds) all came from one of Israel's colossal failures.

This is a screen capture from the video tonight.

The stone tablets are the replacement set because Moses broke the first set when he walked in on them worshiping the golden calf.  The jar of manna is from when the Israelites complained that God had brought them out into the desert to kill them. Aaron's rod budded because people challenged God's choice of Aaron and the Levites as priests. So all together these items symbolize:

• the tablets: rejected God's way of living
• the manna: rejected God's provision
• the rod: rejection of God's authority

So that's the testimony. That they had rejected God in every way. Ouch. 

But here's the cool part: 

On top of the ark is a lid, call the "Atonement Cover" or the "Mercy Seat"

God covered the total and thorough rejection of Him with His mercy. And not just that-  but on that place of mercy, blood was offered every  year, to cover the sins of the people. Blood of sacrifice that had been given to God. Meaning the blood that belonged to God, and because of His mercy, it covered the people's total rejection of God. 

How cool is that?!?!?! 

No wonder God calls it the Testimony. Its still the testimony of today. My testimony: that I had completely thoroughly rejected God, and in His great mercy, He covered my rejection, my sin, with His blood.