(Note: The below post was taken and adapted from one of my former Your Daily Bible Verse podcast episodes. Used by permission.)
Some days feel super heavy, like we’re lugging around a backpack full of bricks. When I land in that place, I’m often tempted to disengage. To numb my emotions watching social media reels or clean comedy. But I’m learning to “unload” my burdens by turning to God, seeking His perspective, resting in His comfort, and anticipating His care. In essence, to trust Him to be the attentive Father described in Psalm 68:19, which states, Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.
Most Bible scholars believe ancient Israel’s second King, David, wrote this verse and the passage surrounding it when he and the Israelites were bringing the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. This sacred wooden chest, which had remained with the people from when they first became a nation, until the time of Saul, symbolized God’s presence and covenantal relationship with His people.
According to Hebrews 9:4, “This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.”
These items served as continual reminders of God’s faithful care.
A jar of manna, the honey-flavored wafters that God rained from the sky, daily providing for His people’s needs as they wondered through the desert. As God’s children gathered the delicious manna each morning, He was teaching them to rely on and trust in Him. Glancing about the barren landscape, without a village or lush oasis in sight, their eyes might’ve told them they were destined to starve. But they didn’t, and wouldn’t, because God was their Provider.
The ark also contained Aaron’s staff, which demonstrated that Aaron and his leadership were blessed by God. This also showed God was invested in their leader, which meant He was invested in them. Although they’d rebelled against Him again and again, He remained faithfully by their side, guiding them supernaturally through a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and through Moses, Aaron, and their sister Miriam as well.
They might not have always liked where God led them, but even in their grumbling, they could always rely on God’s guidance.
Finally, the ark contained the stone tablets God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, when He was first forming the people into a nation. On them, God told His children, recently rescued from a sinful, pagan, and idolatrous land, how to live and love Him and one another well.
Then there was the lid of the ark, called the mercy seat, which played an integral part in helping the people retain a relationship with their holy God. Each year on the day of atonement, the priest entered the most sacred part of the Temple, where the ark was kept, and sprinkled it with the blood of a sacrificed animal. Through this, the people received forgiveness for their sins and retained their covenantal relationship with God.
That was the only way to have their sins absolved.
Considering all this, you can understand why the nation was so distraught when their enemies stole the ark. And their joy once they got it back.
Their Savior, Protector, and Provider was among them once again.
Just as, through Jesus, God’s presence remains with us. Those tablets pointed to the Messiah who alone fulfilled the demands of the covenant. He’s also our bread of life who daily nourishes and strengthens us. And He’s our leader, our good shepherd, who goes before us, comforting us with His rod and His staff. Most importantly, He’s our only means of atonement. The ultimate sacrifice for our sins and the only way we experience forgiveness and a close relationship with God.
A relationship where He invites us to unload our burdens, whatever they are, onto His strong shoulders. Knowing our faithful, covenant keeping God can be trusted to manage well whatever we give Him. He’ll manage our burdens much better than we can, in fact.
If this post resonated with you, you might find my latest Bible Reading Plan on the YouVersion app helpful.
When we are hurting or going through a difficult season, we might feel alone and abandoned. It might feel as if God isn’t listening to our cries for help or that He doesn’t care about our pain. Yet, throughout Scripture God communicates that He is with us, sees us, loves us deeply, empathizes with our pain, and still has good plans for us. He invites us to draw close to Him in times of hardship, receive His comfort, and hold tight to His unchanging truth.
Find it HERE.
