The ark of the covenant was, in the end, a box… that's it. It was a box. This object which was the beating heart of Hebrew worship was on its own, nothing more than a box. But it was so much more, not because of any inherent value in it, no… the ark, like us is special because of the fact that God chose to work in His chosen people. Because of what God put inside of it. For the ark was the place where the tokens of the covenant between God and Israel were kept. The ark was powerful because God keeps His promise. It was special because God is faithful, It was precious because God vowed to make and keep Israel for His own pleasure; and the ark was a reminder to them that the covenant which bound them and kept them close to God was kept alive by the hand of God himself.