Terrifying Beauty

Remember the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood were captured and bound back-to-back on a pillar-post above the Nazis? As The Ark of the Covenant – The God Box – was cracked open, Indiana Jones says to Marion, “Close your eyes. Don’t look.” The truth is, nobody can look at God and live.

Moses teaches us that. Old Moses himself was only allowed a glimpse of God’s backside, and that was with God’s hand shielding Moses’ eyes. Moses had climbed the mountain, had seen God’s backside, and brought down the Commandments. He stored the Commandments in the Ark, but you knew that. Anyway, that’s why Indiana and Marion shut their eyes, because out of the Ark come God-angels – those fiery messengers – who entangled those Nazis with a terrifying and deadly beauty. The God Box had power to swallow armies whole. What was inside the God Box? God.

4000 years ago, long before films, Joshua bar Nun controlled the Ark. He had The Ark and 40,000 warriors at the edge of the Jordan River. Commander Joshua was invading The Promised Land. The Ark would destroy the enemies of Israel, but first God tells Josh, “We need to seal the deal. Before you invade, every warrior must have his body ritually cut.”

This rite of passage, this shared wound, marked the men as a nation set apart, bound them together as an army, and, once more, sealed them as God’s people.

Let’s Pray: Dear God, in our global city – what does it mean to be a nation set apart? Who among us isn’t Your creation? Who does not belong to You? Who isn’t Your child? Bind us all as Your people. Amen.

Here’s a Thought: Humanity is one. God is one.

Source: The Book of Joshua