Secrets from the Tomb of King Tut

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of going on a field trip with Ab. I don't get to go on these field trips very often since it usually requires me to take a day off from work, but this one worked out such that I could be available to go.

We went to the Tutankhamun exhibit in Atlanta.

Now I must first admit my lack of depth when it comes to the subject of Egyptian Antiquities.

I saw Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and I knew some lyrics to Walk Like an Egyptian and Steve Martin's King Tut (either selection of which I am prone to break out into at the very mention of the Tutankhamun Exhibit!).

Ab, however, has been studying along these lines with a group of students at her school. They've built pyramids, studied the Pharaohs; they learned about Nemes, Scarab beetles and canopic jars (these- by the way -are very interesting).

Two things about the Egyptian culture jumped out at me:

1. Egyptians were very concerned about eternity.
2. Egyptians were hungry for God.

Eternity

The entire process of intricately detailed steps and rituals that surrounded the burial of one of their Pharaohs - was all about getting them into the "after-life". I suppose if you were a common Joe-Six-Pack in ancient Egypt, you just had to navigate the eternal realm on your own - perhaps they were not even granted eternal status. But numerous people and resources were employed just to see that these members of the Nobility were granted entrance into paradise and were allowed to exist properly throughout their stay there.

Some interesting points of their mythology included the feather-weight test which was a supposed "judgment" each ruler had to endure before Horus (the god of the underworld). In this test, the heart - which was the only internal organ that was not removed from the body at death - was weighed against a feather on a scale. If one had been righteous, their heart would be "light as a feather" and they would be allowed to enter eternity.

They were also buried with these small shabti, which are little images of mummy cases (imagine souvenir salt and pepper shakers), on these were written magic words which the deceased would utter at the gates of death. If spoken properly, they would be granted entrance and wouldn't have to work - apparently the shabti would do the work for them.

The ancient Egyptian culture longed for eternal life and they developed a very convoluted route to supposedly take them there.

That's not much different from what we do today. Ask one hundred people about eternity and you will probably get one hundred variations on how to get to the right place. Many will describe something about "being good" or trusting in the fact that -if there is a loving God - He wouldn't send them to eternal punishment. Some will tell you about a "Jesus +" route: "Jesus died for my sins and if I ..."

The fact is there were numerous details that went into the provision for our eternal life. But there are no "magic words" that we need to utter. And though our works will be judged as to what sort they are - when it comes to the "feather weight test", our loving God will weigh our hearts against His righteous standard - the standard of perfection. Those who are trusting Christ alone for salvation will have Christ's righteousness on their side of the scale.

God has handled all the details. We must simply trust Christ and His perfect sacrifice.

"In Christ alone..."

I will address my other observation about the ancient Egyptians - their hunger for God - in the next post.