6
Feb

The Book of Eli: Is the Bible THAT Precious?

   Posted by: Michael Feather   in Reel Discernment, Teaching Discernment

Yesterday I mentioned that God used this movie to convict me. No question about that. Since seeing the movie I have been thinking about how important God’s word is to me daily. Certainly it is not the gospel, but it helps me know the gospel. It is not meant to be an idol, but it is God’s very words that bring me to my greatest Treasure.

Eli tells Solara that before the war people had more than they needed, they threw away things that people would kill for now and that they lost their ability to know what was precious. Hard not to feel that right between the eyes in this country. And for Christians, wow!

“What one thing would you take to a deserted island?” As long as that is not a reality, we like to think about it. God changed that question for me. What do I currently act like is the most precious thing in my life? If God gave you a backpack with one thing in it that you treasured most in the last 6 months, what would be in your pack?

The Bible. Precious. That should be our reality.

Talking about wisdom and understanding, “…if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasure…” Proverbs 2 convicts us too. What about this one: “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalms 119:11

God is the ultimate goal; that is true. But how precious is that book that He gave us to point to Him?

It is easy in this fast paced world to lose our bearings and leave the path. I understand. I live there too. But let’s be thankful that God brings reality crashing back into our lives so we value what truly matters.

I think some meditation and memorization is in order for me. What about you?

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Reel Discernment, Teaching Discernment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 comments so far

Brady
 1 

Michael,
Could you clarify for me what you mean in your opening paragraph in referencing God’s word?”Certainly it is not the gospel, but it helps me know the gospel.”
Thank you,
Brady

February 12th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Michael Feather
 2 

Hey Brady!
Nice to hear from you.
Have you seen the movie? The focus of the movie is on the physical book in many ways. The book can be used in many ways as displayed in the movie. With that concept, I wanted to draw attention to the fact that the Bible itself can be an idol. It is our job as Christians to treasure the book, but to treasure God’s very words more which are the gospel. Fine line, I know, but an important one.
In addition to this, I think it is possible to value the words of Scripture and not treasure the gospel or the God who gave it. That is a sad place to be.
Between these two problems, I thought it wise to remind us that treasuring God and His gospel by studying His word and living it was to be our focus.
Hope that helps clarify.
Have a great day.

February 12th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Michael Adams
 3 

Mike,
We just saw the Book of Eli this afternoon and we loved it! There is a quote by Eli that really struck a note with with us. Near the end of the movie, he said to Solara,

“In all these years I’ve been carrying it and reading it every day and I got so caught up in keeping it safe that I forgot to live by what I learned from it.”

That is so easy to do! It’s so easy to get so focused on being technically correct with Scripture and investing so much time being technically accurate at every turn, that we lose sight of the Gospel and of being gracious to others on points that don’t matter at the end of the day.

I wrote a short blog on this at http://thegospelinreallife.com if you would like to take a look.

Thanks Mike!

February 14th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Michael Feather
 4 

Mike,
Great thoughts! I went over and read your post. Very well done.
I truly enjoyed this movie. It brought into focus some good points once you got past some of the violence, which was not the focus of the movie.
Thanks again.

February 14th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Sarah Robbins
 5 

I liked Mike’s (Adams) comment as well about forgetting to live by the Bible. That quote really stood out to me. Although, I have to be honest- I thought the movie was a little violent. . .

The stories are totally different, but it reminded me of this story I read recently about a young girl who was poor but desperate for a Bible.

http://ourcozyrobbinsnest.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-do-you-have-to-have.html

For me, it is good to be reminded of how much a privilege it is to have a Bible (let alone several) to read, and yet how often I neglect to do so, even with it sitting right beside me!

February 18th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Michael Feather
 6 

Violent–yes! This movie is not for everyone. But it is powerful and helpful if you don’t struggle with the violence.
I will check out the story you are talking about. Right now looking at my shelf full of Bibles, it is hard to relate. So sad that some of us have so many and value it so little, while others have to go without.

February 19th, 2010 at 3:47 pm

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