The movie Raiders of the Lost Ark was about a modern quest for the ark of the covenant. The ark seen in the movie does fit the description found in the Bible (Ex. 25:10–22).
It was a gold-covered wooden chest, carried on two poles. Its solid-gold lid had images of two winged creatures (the “cherubim”) facing each other.
The ark signified God’s presence among the Israelites. They did not actually worship the ark (since the Ten Commandments forbid worshipping anything but God), but they did consider it sacred.
The ark was the centerpiece of the tabernacle, the large tent where Moses went to meet with God.
Miracles were associated with the ark: crossing the Jordan River on dry land (Josh. 3), the crumbling of the walls of Jericho (Josh. 6), and the harm the ark did when the pagan Philistines captured it and placed it in their god Dagon’s temple (1 Sam. 5).
After the ark brought a plague on the Philistines, they returned it to Israel.
When King David made Jerusalem his capital, he brought the ark there.
During the reign of his son Solomon, the ark’s resting place was the great temple that Solomon built (1 Kings 8:3–9). Inside the ark were the stone tables of the Ten Commandments.
What became of the ark? Raiders of the Lost Ark was correct in claiming that it mysteriously disappeared. Most likely it was captured when the Babylonians destroyed the temple in 586 B.C. The Apocrypha contains the legend that the prophet Jeremiah hid the ark away in a cave somewhere (2 Mal. 2:5).
