"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God...
"For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you."
Genesis 6: 8-9, 17-18
"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ...."
I Peter 3: 18-20
OK, I saw the "Biblical Epic", "NOAH" last night. And as you saw, I hated it.
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
I found it ironic and telling that anyone would have to give a spoiler alert for a Bible story found in Scripture. We know how it ends, right? In this case it is telling.
Making the "evil" about industrialization vs. idyllic ecology was fine. That's poetic, literary license. The Bible mini-series took literary license.
But that brings us to the "sons of God" and Nephilim. There is some uncertainty whether the Nephilim were "the sons of God" or their offspring. But what made God upset was the sons of God marrying and consumating with human women. The offspring were giant supermen. No one really knows what any of this means in Genesis 6, so there is quite a bit of freedom there. But making the "fallen" (My wife went straight to "Transformers") into angels fallen from heaven to earth encrusted with earth to become ungainly rock giants seemed just silly. They became the robot minions.
Yes, as they "gave their lives" to protect Noah and his family they were forgiven by God and their earthly shells fell away to reveal the spirit within, and they were forgiven and welcomed back to heaven. Awww. Nice.
Except for two things. First, that's Gnosticism. Second, what about humans?
And that brings us to the point at which Anita and I almost walked out - twice. But we gritted our teeth and stuck with it to the end so we would know how it ended in case we ended up talking about it (which I am now).
First of all, throughout the movie Noah never actually gets any direct instruction from God. He has a dream about the flood, and his grandfather, Methuselah, (who is presented as a mystic Shaman not unlike a witchdoctor) "assists" Noah with a drug induced vision so he can understand he is to build an ark (with the help of his pet Nephilim rock creatures). He and his wife and his three sons, along with an adopted daughter (played by Emma Watson of Harry Potter) who becomes his oldest son's wife, are to enter the ark. Originally, Noah believes that his younger sons ought to have wives. But when he enters the city to find wives for them he is so appauled at the sinfulness of the people that he not only abandons the search, but HE decides that God's plan is that all of Noah's family die as well by making sure that no one can procreate and they all die and humans become extinct. (Shem's wife is barren and Noah's wife is too old - though Jennifer Connelly never ends up looking old no matter how many hundreds of years go by.) So HE decides they will protect the animals, release them after the flood, and then cease to be.
But Grandpa Methuselah foils Noah's plan by healing Shem's wife of her barrenness and she conceives just before entering the ark.
Now they are on the ark, the rain is coming, the flood is upon them, and the people are screaming outside (which was a very powerful scene because one would think it would have been like that). Noah is not tempted to save any more because he "knows" that his family is all going to die childless as well anyway, so what's the point. The world will be free of the human infection.
But then he finds out that the baby is on the way....(They actually are on the ark for 10 months according to The Bible. Remember The Bible?)
The only direct word that Noah ever gets from God is that he is to kill the baby (both, as it ends up being twins) as soon as they are born. And he fights through his family to get to the babies so that he can kill them. But then he can't do it. He confesses to God that he is not able to obey God's command to kill the babies. And they live.
OK. If you believe that the story of Noah is historical and it happened just as The Bible says it did, bear with me. It is possible it is a story, that it never actually happened. Here's why. Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 tell two different stories of creation. The intellectual gymnastics that needs to be done to read the two stories together consistently is really embarrassing. Genesis 3 is a continuation of the same story as Genesis 2. How far does that single story go? How many chapters of Genesis are included as chapters of this story? So let's, for the sake of argument at least, concede that Genesis 6 and following (Noah account) is also a story. Some might think that since it is a story, why is it a big deal if the story is changed to a different but similar story?
But, and here's the really important thing: Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are both true because they were included in the inspired "God-breathed" Word of God in order to tell us true things about God and true things about humans. The same can - and must - be said for Genesis 3.
So if Genesis 6 and following are a story, and not an historical account, then, they are in the inspired, God-breathed Word of God to tell us true things about God and true things about humans.
What does the movie Noah teach us about God? And what about humans?
God wrongly tells Noah that they are all to die, including the two babies just born. YES, I see the obvious connection to Genesis 22 and the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. But that's part of the point. When it comes down to it, he cannot take the lives of these two "innocent" children, and Noah disobey's God. (How many babies just died outside the ark?) Later, as Noah is mourning his disobedience to God's command to kill the babies, Shem's wife (Emma Watson) "explains" to Noah that God gave Noah a choice, and by seeing that the babies were "good" and by choosing to disobey God, Noah shows that he is also "good". So disobeying God's order is a good thing. In fact, at the end, God blesses Noah's disobedience by sending a very impressive rainbow. Apparently God changed God's mind, convinced by Noah's family that God's will was wrong.
I had flashbacks again to Gnosticism (not surprisingly). In Gnosticism, the hero of the Garden of Eden is the snake, who "frees" humanity from obedience to God by exercising the choice for knowledge (of good and evil). And here's the difference. In Genesis 22 Abraham demonstrates his total faith and trust in God by showing he IS willing to go through with it and it is GOD that stops him, not his own disobedience. (God later in The Law forbids child sacrifice so that no one would be confused about God's actual will notwithstanding this test.) But in the movie Noah overrules God by his disobedience. God's command remains "evil" while Noah becomes "good" by disobeying God.
Now there is some method to the writer's madness in having it be God's plan that all the humans die after the animals are released and that humanity become extinct. Isn't it true that since sin remains in Noah and his family that humanity will continue in sin after the flood? Sure. And a God who is Omniscient would know that. So wouldn't it be God's plan to make an end to humanity completely to remove sin from the newly formed earth?
But that was not God's point at all, clearly. Yes, sin continued after God spared Noah. (The Biblical account, including Peter's interpretation of it, is clear that sparing the family was the plan from the beginning.) After the flood and a fresh start - sin remained. After the formation of a Chosen People - sin remained. After the Exodus of God's people to a Promised Land - sin remained.
God has been sending us a message across time that we must not miss.
We need a Savior. Our goodness, our innocence will never bring us through. We need a Savior. And God provided one. God's plan is redemption of those created in the image of God. It has been since the Garden.
So instead of a movie about a God who can't quite get it figured out, but it's OK because good humans are around to get it right for God when God can't get it right....
We have in the Bible a God who is in control and is moving a truly fallen humanity that really can't get "good" right toward a real redemption that is complete and eternal. True things about God and about us.
If this is the best that Hollywood can do with a "Biblical Epic", maybe it is best that they just stay out of it.
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