"The Bible" Commentary, Part I

Last evening, Sunday March 3rd, was the opening segment of the multi-part miniseries, "The Bible". I have had a few people ask my opinion regarding the first episode, so I felt that this would be a good forum to share a few of my thoughts. 

Understanding that this is a product of "Hollywood" and scripted Reality TV producer, Mark Burnett, I had no expectations of it being extremely accurate in its portrayals of characters or telling of events. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how closely it did follow the scriptures in each of these areas. Did it embellish the events and characters for artistic and visual effect? Possibly. Probably. But, I did not see anything which I felt took away from the God inspired narrative, or egregiously distorted the truth. In fact, I was quite impressed with how well it brought that extra dimension to what have been, for most of our lives, two dimensional characters. Their humanity was, I think, brought to a new, thought provoking level.  But, what I was most impressed with was the omnipresence of Jesus in the stories. Paul, in Colossians chapter 1, tells us that Jesus was present with God before the beginning of everything, and that everything was created through Him. And we are very aware of Christ's presence with the people of the New Testament and beyond, but we rarely think about His presence being with Old Testament men and women as well. Abraham at Sodom, and at the sacrifice of Isaac are two instances which the movie addressed. I like the knowledge of that presence, especially since, as the program portrayed, Satan is always lurking in the shadows. 

Overall, would I give it a five-star review? No. It was corny in some spots, and weak in others. But it also had its moments of great entertainment (the double-fisted-sword-wielding warrior angel for instance) and a few heart tugging scenes (Sarah running to save Isaac before he is killed by Abraham), as well. However,  in my humble opinion, the best thing was, and for four more weeks, is, that it will be bringing many a discussion about God, Jesus, and the Bible to many water coolers across America! That makes me say "Praise God!" for this miniseries.