The Raider of Death: June 12th Devotional

      

The Raider of Death

June 12th Devotional

Romans 3:25

      On this day in 1981, the blockbuster hit Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and was based on a story written by George Lucas. The star of the movie was Indiana Jones who was portrayed by Harrison Ford. Ford had already become a household name by playing Han Solo in Lucas's Star Wars trilogy. Indiana Jones was a renown archeologist/adventurer who worked for Marshal College. Jones specialized in finding the rarest and most precious of artifacts in the most impossible of situations. While teaching, two army officials approach Indy asking him to find the Ark of the Covenant. At that time the Nazis were in hot pursuit of the ark and were being led by Jones's archenemy Rene Belloq. Apparently, Hitler was obsessed with the occult and he thought that having the ark would give him supernatural power. This was a battle of good versus evil and the clock was now ticking against him. The chase begins in the snowy country of Nepal to look for a piece of the staff of Ra. While there he runs into an old friend, Marion Ravenwood and in typical Jones fashion, a fight breaks out between himself and the Nazis, resulting in the burning of Marion's establishment. The two quickly race to Tanis Egypt where they were eventually successful in obtaining the Ark (despite a run-in with some snakes) until Belloq stole it from them. The battle continues as an epic car chase ending with Jones and Marion tied up while the Nazis attempted to extract the power of the ark. This failed miserly killing them all but Indy and Marion.

      The film raked in nearly 400 million dollars, and adjusting for inflation makes this one of the most profitable movies of all time. Four more movies would be released, a TV series, book series, and the Raiders movie is placed in the national film registry. The theme of the movie centers on the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was created by God's design. It was a chest inlaid in gold that held the ten commandments among other important items from the time of wandering. Atop the ark were two golden Cherub angels with their wings touching. The ark was carried by the Levites and was placed in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. Once a year, on the day of atonement, the high priest would enter to place the blood of an animal on the Ark, symbolizing that the people's sin was covered. But there is no longer an ark, Tabernacle, nor blood sacrifice. How can man's sin be atoned/forgiven? The Bible says in Romans 3:25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. The who is Jesus. He shed His blood as our propitiation. What does that big term mean? It means to appease someone. Jesus took the full hammer blow of God's wrath for us, to propitiate or appease the price of God. Incredibly the Greek word for propitiation is the same Greek word used for the Mercy Seat of the Old Testament! Christ is literally the Mercy Seat of God, the one in whom alone rests the power to forgive man's sin... And everyone is invited to this Mercy Seat. You don't need Indiana Jones to find Jesus.