Monday, March 31, 2014

Noah - Really

This past weekend, Deb and I went to see Noah.  Admid the controversy of this movie release I desired to see for myself so as to offer a ‘First Person’ response when asked.  So here are my ‘post-viewing’ thoughts.  By the way, there is nothing divine or ‘inspired’ about my thoughts, for they are simply that, my personal thoughts about this movie.
First as a movie, I would give it a C-.  While it wasn’t boring, the development of the plot seemed to be very slow and arduous.  The character generated animals were pretty good.  When the flood came, there was a sense of the power of nature over the power of man.  Probably the only real moment of beauty was when the trees and forest appeared.  While certainly not a part of the Biblical account (I’ll get to that), it was admittedly an “attention getting moment” for a movie that lack the ‘attention-getting’ characteristics.  One person suggested this was a "Save the Whales", "Save the Earth", and "hug an animal" type of movie.  While I'm not sure I would go that far, I will say that the producers might well have had that in mind.  
Next as a Biblical story.  Sadly, this was a great opportunity to present a great Bible Story which teaches divine truths that are seldom espoused today.  One statement which I have read is this: “Noah is an unbiblical account of a Bible story.”  In this statement lies all the truth one needs to know.  The first ‘screen’ of the movie begins with “In the beginning there was nothing” which is contrary to Genesis and John.  Genesis starts out with “In the beginning, God”, while John begins, “In the beginning was the Word.”  For any story or movie to be good, it must have a good premise or foundation – it is obvious that this movie, from its first word, has missed the point. 
The story of Noah, in scripture, is truly a short story yet, what is written in the Bible was not portrayed in the movie (maybe not read or maybe not considered).  The Bible says that “Noah found favor in the eyes of God because He was a righteous man.”  This is the Noah of the Bible.  The character of Noah in the movie possessed none of these traits.  There is no record of Noah preventing people from boarding the Ark, there is no record of a ‘stow-away’ on the Ark, there is no record of Noah getting his instructions in a dream, and there is no record of Noah grandfather (Methuselah) being a ‘witch doctor.’  Scripture is very clear about who was on the Ark, it was the animals, Noah & His wife, along with their three sons and their wives. 
In my final analysis, probably the only part of the movie which resembled the Biblical story was that Noah built an ark, the animals supernaturally boarded it, the flood came, everyone who was not in the ark was killed, and after the flood a new day began.
All through God’s word we read about His divine way of bringing good things out of bad situations.  Such can be the case with this movie.  As believers, this can be our time to engage non-believers who have seen this poor rendition of a Biblical story and help them know the true story.  Remember, God could have easily annihilated all of mankind, instead He found mankind worth redeeming, first, through an ark and next, through a cross.  After the Ark experience, all of mankind had a rebirth of life.  After coming to the cross of Jesus, a kind of ark where the wickedness of the past is obliterated, one has a rebirth of life.  Now THAT’S a GREAT STORY!! 

 

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