What three items were originally inside the Ark of the Covenant?
Originally, the Ark of the Covenant contained three items: the tables of the Ten Commandments on stone, Aaron’s rod that budded, and a sample of the manna. Later in Israel’s history, the context states that only the tables of stone, including the Ten Commandments, remained inside.
Les explains that as the Ark of the Covenant began, it contained the three items: the tables of the Ten Commandments, the rod that budded of Aaron, and a sample of the manna. He then says that later in Israel’s history it is just as plain that the only thing in the Ark of the Covenant were the tables of stone, including the Ten Commandments. Above that little hollowed box was the mercy seat, pure beaten gold, strictly the area of the Holy God Himself, not Christ and His humanity, but God in His holiness.