In response to Janie’s questions….
Janie asked some good questions to my last post, so here is my repsonse.
I loved the class, and God constantly amazed me with the various themes that run throughout the OT. The one that hit hardest was the struggle between our struggle to yield to God-given identity and our desire to create to control our lives. I struggle with this personally. As much as I want to do God’s will, I oftimes find myself trying to do things to speed up the timetable. I try to control the outcome instead of letting God direct things. A huge takeaway from this class was what results from taking either path. As you look over the lives of the Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, you can see how their attempts to control yielded strife, anger, bitterness, etc., while the times they yielded to their identity in God produced good fruit, peace, restored relationships, etc. Much like what happens in everyday life.
As for the movies, I would love to see the stand off between God and Baal on Mt. Carmel. Imagine it – the 450 prophets of Baal trying to wake him up in order to set fire to the oxen. Elijah pouring water over the ox…at this point the camera focuses on the mixture of water and blood that has pooled…a cross flashes across the screen – forshadowing to an event that will happen many centuries later. It could be part of a series. What do you think?
So glad to hear your take on the class. Good stuff.
If I was producing a movie from the Old Testament, it would definitely involve the scene when Absalom got hung by his hair in a tree. All those script writers on strike right now couldn’t come close to coming up with that kind of stuff.
I’d go see that movie. Seeing God’s power visually is always awesome..