I don’t care if you view the movie, Noah.
See it.
Don’t see it.
Whatever.
The thing is: we’re completely missing the point.
Human beings had a plan. Satan had a plan for it. But, surprisingly, so does God.
Mr. Aronofsky isn’t a villain. He isn’t the anti-Christ.
He’s just a guy trying to make a buck (or $1,000,000) by selling movies.
If there was a round-up of evil-doers by the cosmic police force,
Aronofsky would be taken to a room and squeezed for information
about his backers, the higher-ups.
They’d try to flip him because he’s small time, a pawn, a bit player on a larger stage.
Someone would shine a light in his face and say, “We’re not really after you, kid. We’re after the big guys, the ones who put you up to this. So talk.”
The power of evil at work in this world has an agenda.
He knows his time is limited.
He knows he loses in the end.
He knows he will be destroyed.
So he has one plan now – take as many of us down with him as he can.
Keep the blind – blind. The deaf – unhearing. Snatch the seeds. Sow the tares. Pull the sheepskin over our eyes and divide the house of God, steal our joy, drain our resources, and most of all
Make us look over here
so he can put more pieces into play – over there.
Of course, Satan seeks to discredit the story of Noah.
It’s pivotal.
It’s relevant.
Not because of its place in the creation/evolution debate, but because of the passages quoted at the end of this post.
The Biblical writers warn us that the end of days will be wildly like the days of Noah.
What better story, then, to know?
What better story, then, for the enemy to twist.
And yet, since God’s plan marches on and He straightens everything Satan twists,
so I believe that Aronofsky’s Noah is an altar call for the church,
a come to Jesus moment,
where the Holy Spirit asks us: do you believe the story of Noah yourselves?
Noah is a signpost, a warning, a rally to all of us, a reminder that there will be an end.
Have we grown so accustomed to waiting for Jesus to return
that we’ve stopped acting as though He will?
While the church is patting itself on the back, so smug that we know the TRUE facts of the Noah story,
I believe Jesus wants to shake our self-righteous little selves and say – if you KNOW the truth, what are you DOING about it?
Are we teaching it? Talking about it? Living as though there will be a judgment? Warning those who aren’t yet on the boat? Pressing in deep to God so we’re ready to withstand the turmoil about to come?
While we were spending energy debating the premier of Noah, there are unconfirmed reports out of Syria of an attack on a Christian village, beheadings, torture.
Satan says “Look here.” so he can be at work over there.
God says, “Eyes on me. Always. Eyes on me.”
So, the movie can be a tactic of Satan that works to keep us blowing hot air onto the Internet all weekend
Or it can be altar call from our commander-in-chief that drives us to act by stirring discussion with those around us.
“Yes, sure, we know the true story of Noah but more importantly, we know that Noah’s God is going to return one day. In Noah’s day, there were scoffers who refused to believe a flood would come. Only Noah proclaimed and was saved by the truth.
We are an army of Noah’s – if we, too, proclaim and get aboard the truth.
The end will come, this time with fire and the only safe passage through is Jesus.”
Yes, we know the truth. The question facing us with the Noah movie is: what are we doing with it?
Matthew 24:36-44 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (ESV)
2 Peter 2: 1-9 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell[a] and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,[d] and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge[e] in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.” (ESV)
2 Peter 3: 1-10 “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” (ESV)
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Lori, this is so well-written and spot-on to how John-Henry and I have been feeling. We saw it yesterday. We’ve been bombarded with Facebook posts of Christians bashing and boycotting the movie. Thank you for speaking out about getting people’s focus in the right place! This movie is a call to Christians to positive action for God’s Kingdom not petty complaints and negative reviews. If we have our focus on arguing and provoking others, Satan just gets what he wants. Let’s get our focus on Jesus Christ and prepare ourselves and those around us for his return!
-Alisa Mlyniec
Thank you, Alisa. Glad to hear young people who are thinking this way and putting feet to their faith.
This reinventing of Truth is all around us. According to the History Channel, the Flood was only a very localized event, and when the Bible spoke of the waters covering the earth, it was spoken in the context of the ‘earth’ as a person’s specific area ie: city or valley. Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea was easily de-Godified with lab experiments, land/sea shifting, etc.
We KNOW what the Truth is. Arguing the point is, well, pointless. Those who are ignorant, let them be ignorant still. Our job is to put Truth out there, wherever and whenever we can–what a body does with it is up to them, but we have delivered our souls.
We should, though, be employing all of our creative gifts to put the truth out there, Carla, so that as many who will receive it, do.
Lori, please keep writing you’re doing important work, and I know this because you are inspiring me in my faith.
Oh, that we who follow Christ, would learn to discern the wiles of the wicked one. How timely a word, Lori, for this generation – meaning us baby boomers and millennials alike who walk in the land of darkness. Not only timely but powerful in import, revealing how prone we are to “strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.”
For the past several weeks the Lord has spoken this over and over to me. “As in the days of Noah…” Those with spiritual eyes – not merely religious eyes) see how the end is coming down, maybe faster than we realize. And yet some keep majoring in the minors. Wow, what a word!
~ Love and blessings, dear Lori.
Amen! Thanks for giving the high view. I love that God invites us to look UP and has already seated us UP. So we can look down on this earth from His view.
Praying for our hearts to be fully devoted.
{LOVE Michael Card songs!}