Noah - stop rocking the boat!
The release of the film Noah in 2014 is the latest take on a familiar Bible story by Hollywood. Everyone knows the tale of the man who built an ark to survive a great flood, or do they?
We generally believe that Noah’s neighbours made fun of him for building the ark, but that’s not in the Bible. Some people who saw early screenings were shocked that Noah got drunk after the flood subsided, but that is in the Bible!
True in spirit
Hollywood walks a difficult line when dealing with Bible stories, for although they want movies to be popular with the public and earn money, they don’t want to alienate the tens of millions of Christians in America who could make or break the film. So Paramount Pictures issued a statement saying that although the film was not 100% biblically accurate, it was true to the spirit of the scriptural story.
Perhaps there's a lesson here: do we use the power of Christian influence enough, locally and nationally on matters that are important to people?
God's sorrow
Perhaps it’s understandable that we think Noah would have come in for ridicule for building a boat 133 metres long and 22 metres wide (longer than an American football field and twice as wide), never mind sharing that the world was going to be flooded. But do we realise it was God’s plan to wipe out people, animals and birds because he was sorry that He had made humans, because of how wicked they had become?
But Genesis Chapter 8 v 8 tells us that God was pleased with Noah. Perhaps part of that was because Noah was obedient to God and did as he was asked, no matter how weird the request.
Do we relate to Noah?
Commenting on the final version of the film, Jonathan Bock, the religious expert studios hire when they want to reach Christians, said, “What Darren Aronofsky (the writer-director) has done is make Noah righteous and flawed, which is going to resonate with the Christian community, because that’s all of us. I think they’re going to see themselves in Noah.”
Pleasing God
As we try to please God, perhaps one place we can start is by being obedient when He asks us to do something and in the way that we live our lives. After all, we will never be asked to do anything as crazy as build an ark…..will we?
