Exodus (refection on the movie and book)

Recently I had the opportunity to watch the movie called "Exodus: God's & Kings". I was really surprise to how another movie just like "Noah" ended out doing a wrong "adaptation" from the original text, if you can call this an adaptation. Not only the script is wrong but the costume and props   (which looks like from the middle ages rather than ancient Egypt), and special effects are not well done. I read several reviews and I found out the give it a very low score, including in IMDB and others. Not only the movie deviates from the original source material but also from the main message and intent from the original text, missing out the actual point of the original text. I just going to mention a couple of big mistakes out of the many.

First stable, the character of Moses is shown as a warrior and a revolutionary, a man who was opinionated, and just by that I can tell the scrip writer not even look at the original source material. The book of Exodus shows Moses as a quiet guy who not event wanted to try to free his people, shy and even scared. The point of the book is that Moses changed from a shy run away guy to a bold leader, that itself is a good plot for a movie.

Second, the movie show God a a little kid and perhaps as an hallucination of Moses, showing the plagues and miracles as a series of natural events that happened as coincidences. Again this ruin the movie since the whole point of the boom of Exodus is the miracle of the supernatural power of God over nature, and over natural events, quite the opposite of the movie message. The supernatural power of God and His message has a lot of fun and interesting elements for a good plot. So here the director and scriptwriter really missed out a good opportunity for get more audience, and for instance more from the box office.

In the past previous versions had been amazing, one of my favorites so far is "The Prince of Egypt" that did a very good job, with a great box office response. Or even the 1950's "The ten Commandments" did a very good job becoming a classic, winning an oscar for Special effects & was nominated as best movie.

Anyway this story has a good lesson to be learn from. There is a whole nation under slavery oppressed by the first nation of the world back then. The people of Israel were oppressed for 4 centuries and by the time of their deliverance they were so used to it, it was normal for them, the lifestyle as slaves, so by the time God delivered them from Egypt, it was hard for them to adapt to freedom, it gets to the point that the people cry to back to Egypt because at least they have food provided : "and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Ex. 16:3.Yes it is true they were in a dessert but they didn't believe that God would take care of them and their needs and He deliver them from slavery. It is also true that they didn't know anything but the life in Egypt, they certainly didn't know how to survive in a free environment. 

This is what happen spiritually as well, when we find ourselves oppress by a sin habit or an oppression of fear or any kind of struggle for long time, it became part of our life, it is normal for us and when God set us free we find ourselves wanted to go back one way or another, but by faith we need to accept the new reality so "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:36. We have to take our freedom and move forward not looking back, even when the new life is scary or unknown the best is yet to come because now God is leading you not your old habit, fear shame or oppression.

Knight Quest

Lately it has been an emerging Biblical based movies with excellent content, I personally hope the quality & content gets better. David & Goliath is one of them, the story of a humble shepherd who face everyones fear putting his trust in God. David is the hero on the eyes of the people, and yes he is the man since people cries the famous: "Saul kill thousands & David ten thousands. Altho God was who made this possible through David. What is interested to me is lately in movies, media and in culture in general we don't see this kind of stories anymore. Now days seems like girls are the main characters doing all the action and save the day and man are set in a second term. Talking with some friends about the same theme we agreed that it seems like culture is, slowly, it become very misandry.

But before I some people jump from their sits arguing about it let me say that in other parts of the world like middle east, and other parts of Asia is all the opposite, women are being discriminated and mistreated, in a horrible extreme, then we have the sex slavery, people trafficking, etc. But unfortunately occidental culture has overreacted to this and now it seems like culture is taking it against man. For example if you have seem lately the social experiments when a couple is fighting, the guy is just raising his voice to the girl, then people immediately jumps in to stop him and even insult him for mistreat the girl. In another scene, with the same guys,  the girl is screaming and even hitting the guy, people instead of saying something they just laugh about it or not even care.

Now you are wondering what is that to do with David & Goliath's Story, well I think we have lost the concept of real manliness, and now days it feels like being a man is almost a crime (culturally speaking, well and almost legally), for instance in a women files for divorce, usually (regardless of whose fault is it) she gets all full custody and rights. As a culture we had lost the biblical concept of what a real men is, not a evil, or  creepy, or violent, or a weak, or a stupid, or apathetic or uneducated person as it is show in several Tv Shows and movies.

Instead men in Biblical times where the once who saved the day, who protected the widow, the orphans, women and children, the ones who were in charge to provide shelter, provision, protection and even spiritual leadership, to be a reflection of God the father, to their homes and nation, a superheroes, if you might, just like David.

This remind me a comic a read years ago the hero, used to jump from buildings, guard the city at night and fight crime, until one day he was injured and broke his spine by a villain. and then he was cast down from a high building getting paralyzed. Later on he is restored and  healed. But it was one thing, when he tried to go on a top a a building, he was afraid to jump and he used to do it, he couldn't do what he was able to do before. He was now paralyzed but this time in his mind and heart even thou he was fully healed. Sometimes the overreaction to men has paralyzed many guys to be manly or to take their role (not to mention the role of feminism on this). Well the issue is so obvious that now days people is doing commercials about it. As guys we need to man up face the challenges and fight for our homes and families.  Here is a good example"And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes." Nehemiah 4:14.

Dystopia

It seems like this days there is a fascination for dystopian novels and movies. Dystopia is "an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one." Movies like, Hunger Games series or Divergent, in which a hero from humble origins is placed in a situation to fight the totalitarian oppression or regime, in which people has apparent freedom, but in the reality, they are slaves and oppressed by the system. 

Worlds in which people is suffering in silence, unable to fight back and just complacent with their sad way of leaving, thinking "that is the way life is anyway". There, people not even think about rebel to the system, because, it is scary, impossible or even unthinkable. That is the way it is until someone decides that "enough is enough" challenging the regime with great struggle and even little help from others, at the cost of their own life to earn something unknown for everyone else, "freedom". For me this illustrates the need of our generation to say "enough is enough". Whether is sin, addiction, fear, past wounds, emotional hurts, rejection, bitterness, guilt, shame, insecurity, etc. 

A well known minister once said to me, "to keep your freedom you have to fight back". And what better way to fight like the way the Bible describe it, "casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ"  2 Corinthians 10:5.

Like in one of this movies, Mockingjay, where people is even willing to die as price for their freedom, we should have the same energy and conviction to fight against our personal oppression, struggles, fears and sin. But as in this movies we need to be trained and armed with weapons to fight this enemies, not with a physical bow and arrow but with more effective spiritual weapons and fight the things we are struggling with. 

We need to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore we take up the whole armor of God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." 

We have to say "enough is enough" and rebel  agains the totalitarian things that have us captives. Not with our own strength but Jesus' strength who paid the price of our freedom of the slavery and oppression. When we struggle with something and God show us the whole picture and the consequences of continuing with the same life style, we realize "YOU KNOW WHO IS AND WHAT THEY DO. THIS IS WHAT THEY DO! AND WE MUST FIGHT BACK!"

Interstellar

This winter has been around a movie focusing in the future called Interstellar. Another Sci Fi movie where the whole earth is about to be destroy and the only hope is to find a suitable planet to colonize. I don’t want to spoil the movie, if you haven’t watch it yet. The interesting part for me is what is called "time dilatation", time passes slowly in higher gravity fields or the closest you go the the speed of light the time slows down. By the end of the movie the main character return successfully finding out that decades had pass to the people he left behind, but he is still the same age as he left. Now this remind me something very interesting in the Bible: “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.” Psalm 90:4, and “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” 2 Peter 3:8.

It looks like this movie is trying give us a glimpse of what eternity looks like. For example a concept managed in the movie is the acknowledgment of a fourth dimension, and we can't understand a fourth dimension because we are trapped in this three dimensional world, I believe that is why we can't see or understand what is going on spiritually and the supernatural, "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven" John 3:12-13.  In a fourth dimension you could walk in time to the past, present or future just as you can go in three dimensions left right up and down. Now when the bible describes the point of view of God there is an interesting concept: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,”[says the Lord,“who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

In the bible we can see how God talks about future events in past tense or present tense, like it was happening right at the moment. A good example of this are the prophesies of Isaiah, like the one of Cyrus decades before he was born. He talks about him as he was already king and all he will do all in present tense. Or when the Bible talks about the sacrifice of jesus sometimes in present tense centuries before it happened or even in past tense like he was sacrifice in the beginning of times. If you watch the movie as the main character is visiting the fourth dimension he can see the past present and future happening at the same time, just like it was happening at that moment all at once.


My conclusion is God can move in that dimension, past, present and future, and walk through it back and forward. Now in the present, real scientist are theorizing the concept of a fourth dimension, how it will looks like. One of them says  ’may be it is like teaching an animal a few tricks, and we said how cute it is. But the animal  can not understand math formulations or build a computer or process advance knowledge. May be find a superior being who walks in another dimension will see us like that, how cute they are building a little telescope in the space, and some few math formulations’. For me the answer is clear, God, and he walks in a dimension that is superior above our limited 3 dimensional prison where time is finite, that dimension I believe is what we call eternity.  Revelation 22: 13, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,”.

Left Behind

Las week Pastor Marianne Allen talked about the signs for the last times, and that week exactly I went to watch a movie related to that called "Left Behind" a newest version based on the novel series by Tim LaHaye. In this version is starred by Nicholas Cage, the main focus is the rapture of the Church and the main message is to be ready. The movie covers almost a half of the novel, pack with extra action and suspense. In this movie the ones that have a relationship with God had been taken and the ones that not are left behind. So even people that suppose to be spiritual can be left behind. So what was the difference?

I was reflecting on this and then I saw on TV another movie this is a very old one back to the sixties called "The cross and the switchblade" where the main character, David Wilkerson,  is lead by the Holy Spirit to go to New York and reach the gangs in the streets.  The main point is that David was listening to God having a continuos relationship with God who leads him every step of the way to reach the subculture of the gangs of New York. At the end he finally did and change the life of gangs and their leaders.

What was the key? A close, constant relationship with God, that is what made the difference in both movies. Personally God is showing me what actually means to be lead by God and have a relationship with Him. This is the key for the last times, focusing in being in love with God more than with another person or with other things, it means to dive into his hands and leave everything in His hands allowing Him to be the guide in every step of life. I personally believe that if we do that we will not be left behind.

The Forgotten

I just watched a very interesting movie with a twist at the end, it is about a mother who is seeking her son. By the way if you watch the trailer this is not an scary movie, its a mystery movie. I don’t want to spoil the end of the movie but the idea of this film is the fight of a mother for seeking the truth about his son who everyone else has forgotten his existence because who has been erased from history and from the memory.

She has to fight against very powerful people to get to the bottom of the truth. The interesting point of the movie (or at least for me) is that a mother will fight till the end for her kids, no matter what, even against the most powerful enemy. After watching this I remembered a scripture:

Isaiah 49:14-16

 ”But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me,
      And my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child,
      And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
      Surely they may forget,
      Yet I will not forget you.
 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
      Your walls are continually before Me.”

Today actually I had a difficult day, something very important an expensive was missing, and I got very anxious about it. And honestly I said: “why God?”. Then that scripture I just quoted came out to my memory. Sometimes we forget that God is with us, we just got with the routine and we try to get the things done the way we know, and as human we have limitations, and when a circumstances reminds us about it we turn to Him, and we ask why and perhaps we said that God has forsaking us, but He never forgets, He really cares.

If a mother fight for his child, even is powerful people take him out of her, how much more God will do that, sometimes we are the ones who had forgotten, and it is the enemy who wants you to forget, the goodness of God, the miracle of each day, the beauty of each night, the daily provision, his daily care.

Contact

I had been learning and watching some materials about Creation Science and Science in general. Documentaries about space, astronomy and discoveries reminded me about an old movie called “Contact”. During the whole movie, Dr. Eleanor Arroway shows her pride about her knowledge of science and her atheism, until the day she made that voyage across the stars. Her pride and limited vision of the universe is challenged through just a glimpse of the space. That scene in particular made me cry when I watched it for the first time. 

  When I saw the last part of it,  it literately made me cry. It reminded me of this writing from Paul “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world (κοσμου = Universe) was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” The beauty of the creation and the careful crafting of each particle and atom, just highlights the presence of someone that created all so we can live and exist, and there are not words to describe it. Another part of the movie that made me cry as well was when Dr. Arroway was a child. She wanted to reach out as far as she could with her Short Wave radio, but it was also a way of coping with the loss of her mom and later of her dad. She was lonely even though she was surrounded by people, and her Short Wave was the only thing that made her feel connected. The day her dad dies the first thing she does is to go to her radio trying to reach her dad, wishing he could hear her. Every time I heard scientists talk about the question of being alone in the universe makes me wonder, “How lonely they should feel, just like that little girl, wondering if through science and technology can someday find out if there is life elsewhere, hoping that we are not alone in the universe. As humans we have the need to find something unknown, something bigger than ourselves. Where does that desire come from? That emptiness? the felling of being “So lost, so cut off, so alone.”

 I believe I have an answer: “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created by Him and for Him.” 

That need of a bigger being, more powerful and knowledgeable than ourselves, that satisfies that emptiness and loneliness, the one reason of the amazing design that has no words to describe. 

I imagine that if a atheist scientist, perhaps an astrophysicist, has an encounter with God himself and the extend of his creation, and back to earth without any proof or artifacts to verify his experience, he will probably have the same attitude of Dr. Arroway facing the scientific community saying: “I had an experience, I can’t prove it, I can’t even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am, tells me that it was real. I was giving something wonderful, something that changes me forever. A vision of the universe that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how … rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, that we are not — that none of us — are alone! … I wish I could share that. I wish, that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and hope! But … that continues to be my wish.“ 

Something similar happen when you have that special encounter with God, and you know that you know it is real, and that is not just a felling but something bigger than yourself, so awesome and big but you can’t prove it, or describe it, and it is so big that it is hard to express then I guess that it is exactly the way David said in the psalms ”When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” And guess what, He really cares.