Month: February 2021

Sections 37-42 in The Life of St. Antony and 1 Kings and 2 Samuel in the Bible represent the power of God because of his response to both prayer and sin. 

In The Life of St. Anthony, passages 37-42 discuss the faith that men must have in God and shall not be esteemed for casting out demons for themselves, rather they shall acknowledge that it is a favor from God who granted it. In many of Anthony’s stories about his encounters with demons, he says that they often came to him in disguises however, “you might learn not to faint in discipline, nor to fear the devil nor the delusions of the demons.” Following the example of Anthony, prayer and holding steadfast to the love of God seemed the most successful way of ridding the demons. Basically, putting you faith in God to rid yourself of the evil that is persisting. Similar to in 1 Kings chapter 17, Elijah goes and stays with a widow where he discovers that she is preparing a final meal for her and her son before they die of starvation. Upon God’s request, Elijah pleads with the widow to allow him to have the last meal and that then their food will never run out. She allows this and their food does not run out. The widow learns that Elijah was right, however, her son still dies. Elijah pleads and prays for God to restore the window’s son’s soul and so he does, restoring the widow’s faith in Elijah and that he is a man of God and speaks the truth. This passage in 1 Kings reminds me of the passage in The Life of Antony because it represents the power of prayer and the extent of God’s answers. The widow witnesses God’s power and is then a believer of Elijah’s truth. Both Anthony and the widow put their faith in God and their prayers, and they were answered. 

Another passage from the Bible that reminds me of the sections from The Life of Antony, is in 2 Samuel chapters 11-12 where David sins against God by having an affair, getting the woman pregnant, and then intentionally having the woman’s husband murdered in battle. As punishment for David’s sins, God makes David’s house forever at war and gives his son a disease in which he dies from. This section again reminds me of the extent of God’s power and the punishment that can ensue if you sin against him.

One thing that stood out to me overall between the film and Exodus is the conciseness of the first part of Moses’s story in Exodus versus how much detail is included in the film. The first two hours of the film are covered in just one chapter of Exodus. In chapter two of Exodus, Moses’s Hebrew mother had hid him for three months out of fear that he would be killed by the Egyptians for being a male newborn. Finally, when she felt that she could no longer hide him, she floated him down the river (Exodus 2:3). This scene is very similar to the movie in which Moses’s mother puts him in a basket as the sister watches where Moses goes from afar. Different from the movie, however, is how Moses’s sister speaks with the Pharaoh’s daughter and says that she can find a Hebrew woman to breastfeed the child and gets Moses’s birth mother to do the job (Exodus 2:9). In the film, Moses’s sister does not approach the Pharaoh’s daughter and instead watches from a distance as her brother is named Prince and is immediately adored by the daughter of Pharaoh and scorned by her maid. After Moses grew, he then became the Pharaoh’s daughter’s son instead of the instant that she found him like the movie portrayed. The chosen name for the baby, Moses, is explained in the same way in both variations of the story of Moses: “Because I drew him out of the water” (Exodus 2:10) and “Because I drew you from the water, you shall be called Moses!” (The Ten Commandments 17:20). While Moses’s time as a mere child is briefly described in Exodus and the film, the film greatly details part of Moses’s adult life in two hours while Exodus details the same time frame in just ten verses (Exodus 2: 11-20). A question that I have about the difference in detail between the two variations of Moses’s story is whether the writers of the film created these missing pieces, followed other accounts of Moses’s story, or if the Bible later fills in these missing details that the film seems to account for. 

After reading the first book of Paradise Lost by John Milton, I thought of two major comparisons to the book of Genesis in the Bible. In both comparisons of creation and disobedience, God’s almighty power is evident because of God’s ability to create Heaven and Earth; defeat the greatest angel, Lucifer, and cast him to Hell; and the banishment of Adam and Eve from Paradise and all the other punishments that would exist for all creations to follow.

The first chapter on Genesis details the creation of the Heaven and earth by God in which at first, it was “without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). However, by the seventh day there were living creatures, including humans and animals, there was light and dark, night and day, water and land, sun and moon, grass and seed, and fruit yielding trees. But, the dark emptiness before God declared that there would be light and all that would come reminds me of the Hell that God cast Satan and the other fallen angels to after they declared war on God and were defeated (Paradise Lost Book 1 Verse 40-70). Satan and his devil army then constructed a city for themselves and declared their opposition to God. The city center and capital was called Pandemonium (Paradise Lost Book 1 Verse 755). While God’s creation went from dark and empty to heavenly and light, Satan’s Hell remained dark, ominous and evil by nature. As declared in the first book of Paradise Lost, this story is about man’s disobedience to God and all that is a result of that disobedience. Lucifer’s (Satan) disobedience to God resulted in banishment to an underworld called Hell. This punishment reminds me of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God when God told them not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. When they did not obey God’s command and instead ate from the tree, they realized that they were naked and felt ashamed (Genesis 3). As a result of their disobedience, Adam and Eve were banished from Paradise and cursed them with death and pain. These two examples of man’s (and woman’s) disobedience to God illustrates the almightiness of God and the two greatest of punishments: the creation of Hell and the fall of Adam and Eve.

The story of Joseph in Genesis is a story filled with jealousy, deceit, rivalry, and forgiveness. After years of struggle, hardship, and different ranks, Joseph is able to forgive his brothers because of his realization of God’s presence and plan throughout. 

Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, was his father’s favorite son and his brothers were very jealous of Joseph’s status with their father. Spanned by intense jealousy, Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave (Genesis 37: 28) where he was eventually brought to Egypt where his charm and devine success enabled him to eventually be appointed as Pharoah’s viceroy, or his “second-hand-man” (Genesis 41). This position was awarded to Joseph because he was able to predict and decipher Pharaoh’s dreams of an impending seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine (Genesis 41). As viceroy, Joseph was charged with preparing the nation for the famine. 

Feeling the effects of the famine, Joseph’s brothers traveled to Egypt where to get food where they, unknowingly, encountered Joseph (Genesis 42). Once realizing that his brothers had seemingly regretted their actions towards Joseph, the family reunited (Genesis 45). Despite having caused much hardship and displacement for Joseph, he chose to forgive his brothers. He was able to choose forgiveness because he realized that all the trials and tribulations that he had gone through were all part of God’s plan to ensure the survival of Egypt, its people, and the surrounding countries. We see many times throughout Joseph’s story that God is with him, for example with Joseph’s resistance being more powerful than his temptation when the wife of Potiphar attempted to seduce him (Genesis 39) and with the prisoner’s favor of Joseph by placing him in charge of all the other prisoners (Genesis 39: 21-22). Not only does the story of Joseph teach us the importance and power of forgiveness, but also perseverance as we see Joseph continue through his life never doubting the presence and plan of the Lord. In this, we also see Joseph remain humble as he never takes the credit for himself, but rather owes it all God. His humbleness also extended into his leadership. Joseph could have very well denied his brothers food out of vengefulness, but instead demonstrated forgiveness.

Many leaders today would likely not choose the same route as Joseph, but rather choose vengeance over forgiveness. Joseph’s story teaches many valuable lessons, for Christains the most important may be the reminder that God is always present during good and bad times.