Today me and the wifey took advantage of a soon to be anomaly for us, by going to the movies to see Noah. First I must admit, I am usually not the type of person that doesnt go to see a movie simply because some other Christians says dont bother. I went to go see it because it seemed interesting from the first time I saw a pre-screening trailer of it almost a year ago. In my opinion, the main issue with the movie (along with weird characters, the watchers, and lack of depth) can be emanated from one irrefutable fact that plagues the entire story. Now we all know the story of Noah from Sunday school; Man is evil and wicked so God decides to destroy the earth and Noah, a righteous man, is tasked to build an Ark to save it. The key problem with the depiction of this story in the movie comes with the authors definition of mans wickedness. Arnovsky (the writer and director) expresses mans ultimate sin and evil as the destruction of the world. Sin is an ecological issue NOT a heart issue. Man kills animals and plants thus making them wicked. Now to the original writer of the text, to think that mans true sin would be how they treated the planet would never have been the writers original intention. So the author now stretches this story to places and heights that it was never designed to go in the first place because is simply wasnt reflected originally in the text. The story shows Noah being aided by fallen angels called the Watchman, who help Noah in building the ark. Again, Its plain to see that Arnofsky stretches the story by creating rock crusted creatures to be the help. On the ark, Noah becomes obsessed with preserving the animals and plants and actually believes that Gods never intended man to survive the flood-only the blameless plants and animals. Noah concludes that man is so wicked that they shouldnt pro-create. Man is now secondary in Gods eyes to the earth and animals. They must live. Again, this wouldve been a strange concept to the writer of Genesis. Man was never secondary to animals in this story, man was the silver lining of this story. We were the apex of Gods creation! Now we see the tension with Noah, making him the decider of mans fate, not God. This can be no clearer at the end, when Noah is feels as if he failed because he couldnt kill his family. He selfishly chooses himself, therefore the animals are doomed. In my opinion, this movie didnt stay true to the POINT of the story of Noah as its found in the bible. I dont think we should be surprised by the artistic liberties one may take with any story, especially the bible. (It is HOLLYWOOD) However, it is another thing to rip out the HEART and change its point completely. Environmentalism becomes the heart of this story, and Noah wasnt about this at all. Now dont get me wrong. I believe in taking care of our earth and environment. My wife deserves the credit for this, because she constantly reminds me to recycle and take it to its proper container. In this story though, environmentalism simply had no place, thus diluting the movie. We know the crux of the story of Noah portrayed in scripture as this? God despised the fact that the world had become corrupt, decided to destroy it, but promised to never curse the ground again because of the human race,even though everything they think or imagine is bent towards evil from childhood.(Genesis 8:21) God confirmed this promise with the rainbow, but we know ultimately that he sent his son Jesus to be the ultimate sacrificer, ransom, and redeemer for mankinds true issue. With that said, I challenge you as students to continually be challenged and encouraged by the word of God. Read these amazing biblical stories. Understand them for yourself. If you are confused, seek wisdom. Yes these are challenging times we live in, but these are also great times of OPPORTUNITY to point people to the TRUTH! Much love to all of you. Im looking forward to preaching on this story sometime in the near future. I feel a PREACH coming on! For whatever its worth. :) PG
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 01:02:40 +0000
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