Exodus Gods and Kings

I felt the Lord's nudge to watch the new Exodus movie last night so go and watch it I did.

Most negative reviews from Christians are folks upset because of the stray from the biblical text at various places. In the case of the movie Noah, these departures painted Noah as a madman and a troubled soul and God as a vengence centered egomaniac. However, the departures from scripture in the Exodus movie don't do that same sort of damage.  In fact, there was only one time in the Noah film I sensed the Spirit of God on it and that was when Methuselah reached out and healed Shem's wife.  By contrast, in Exodus, there were several scenes where I perceived the touch of Heaven to be present. 

I felt an actual anointing in the theater begin to stir and manafest at one particular spot where Moses walks through and instructing them to kill a lamb and put it's blood on the door. "Pity the lambs if I am wrong but if I am right, we shall bless the lamb forever".  That was worth the price of admission alone for me personally.

The biggest criticism seems to be that many feel proper credit isn't given to God for parting the Red Sea. I had read that going in and was a pleasantly surprised at how they handled that scene.  I do not believe that there has ever been a more accurate portrayal of what crossing the Red Sea must have looked like. We tend to forget as we read that there were millions of Hebrews all on the move, mainly by foot, all at the same time. This wasn't God rolling back the waves for a few minutes, this would have had to have been a large scale, ongoing supernatural thing easily stretching out for at least several hours. We also tend to create a mental image of one small path and people basically moving thru two or three at a time. The way this movie shows it would be much more accurate to what it was likely to have looked like. the scenes shot as the waters come back in are some of the best special effects I've seen on the big screen. Yes, the start of the miracle strays a bit from the biblical account, but I don't feel it damages or discredits the miracle at all. The overall point is carried through very powerfully. 

If you are a bible purist, or a teacher, or someone who is expecting this to walk in full agreement with the actual biblical account, you will be a bit disappointed as they do take some liberties in the film.  A challenging piece for me at first is that they use a small boy to represent God so when Moses and God talk, it's him talking to a small boy.  He talks to the boy standing with the burning bush in the backdrop for example, instead of talking to the fire in the bush. Moses is shown writing out the ten commandments with his own hand at God's instruction instead of the finger of God writing them and stuff like that could tempt you to be dismissive and carry an offense.  

My advice would be to not go see it as something made to parallel your bible study efforts because believe me, that is not why the film was made. It will however tell the ageless story of Moses while staying close enough to the story to get the overall points across, especially to those who do not know it or are unfamiliar with it and for those mature enough to see the larger picture of God using people to regain the mountain of media, this is a wonderful step in the right direction and indeed something the Holy spirit can use to be sure.

Go and watch it on the largest screen possible and in 3D if possible.

M-  

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