I didn't have a chance until yesterday afternoon to watch part one of "The Bible," the new mini-series on the History Channel. I thought the program started off with a bang but lost momentum by the end of the two hours. Looking back over my notes...
I was encouraged to watch Noah pass down the creation account to his children even as God was destroying much of his creation - because of their sinfulness.
The violence was very realistic. Parents should be careful about letting their younger children watch this program.
Gary Oliver portrayed Abraham and I appreciated his performance very much. His depiction of Abraham as a man of faith who trusted in God's Word of promise was spot on.
The pain Abraham and Sarah felt when she decided that her husband should have a child with Hagar really demonstrated just how much harm we can bring to ourselves and the ones we love when we fail to trust God and put our own plans into action.
Where was the Passover Meal? How the producers determined to omit something so vitally important to the story of God's people and their flight from Egypt was a real headscratcher.
The whole escape sequence was a disappointment. Read chapter 14 of Exodus and imagine how that could have been filmed - it would have been much more exciting than what was offered in the program.
The giving of the 10 Commandments was dramatic - but no golden calf?
There has been much criticism that The Bible is just a series of stories instead of one complete narrative. I don't have a problem with the approach the producers took. We tell stories about Abraham, Moses and Joshua to our children. As we continually teach the Scriptures we expect to fill in the gaps so that our kids (and all our hearers) get the complete picture.
In the case of The Bible, it was some of the key elements being left out of the stories that was distressing to me. Still, it was a worthy effort. Let's face it - the world is not exactly welcoming stories of Christian faith these days. To be able to tune in and watch a show that is trying to point to Almighty God as the creator of all living things and who wants to be in relationship with His creation is pretty amazing. Kudos to the producers for a good first effort.
