So I watched the new Hobbit movie; The Desolation of Smaug, good movie by the way. (spoiler alert) And there was a part where the dwarfs had reached the desired destination of a hidden door. Well apparently the door did not reveal itself. The lead dwarf, the future King Thorin Oakenshield looks at his map and his men and makes a comment that provoked a thought. He looks at his men with confusion and dismay and says "The last light of day will shine on the door to the kingdom....that's what the map says". That last phrase "...that's what the map says" provoked a thought. Theses 13 dwarfs trekked several months to a destination on a piece of parchment that was written before many of their lives even began. They staked their very success on these words in hopes they could regain their homeland. That's a lot to have dependent upon a few words written by your ancestors. The clarity of the words, even the understanding of the meaning of the phrases can pose a great challenge. The thing is this. After all that they went through in hopes of regaining their homeland......they gave up. Why? because their faith relied upon words that they did not understand clearly enough. After all the fighting and pain and blood and tears; when they finally reached their destination....they gave up.
Now even though this is a fictional world in a movie, I still believe we can learn a lot from this section of story in our Christian walk. The dwarfs had several key components to embark on such a quest. They had the ever important document that contained a promise. They had a reason as to why even pursue such a task. They had zeal and fervor; which they would need when times got rough and at an all time low. They even had reality faith; they knew this was a one way ticket in their lives. And yet with all that in their arsenal they still gave up when faced with this final test. Why? Like these dwarfs we have the Holy scriptures to guide us. We have zeal and fervor to walk this walk. We too have a reason and a hope to embark on such a quest. We also have faith in God and a belief that we will reach the reward in Christ Jesus in the end. So why do so many of us fail when we reach a roadblock in our walk? Some use the argument of you never having any faith to begin with. I choose to disagree with that. Reason being, like the dwarfs their faith and hope and desire drove them. The success did not drive them, because like I said before. they knew that this was a one way ticket and that they may not succeed. Especially with only 13 men on such a massive quest. We have all these churches and preachers and pastors and teachers and yet we still fail. We have the bible which is also our roadmap to eternal life; and yet we fail.
The disciples were given everything and had nearly everything to succeed in their duties as disciples and future leaders for the gospel. They had the holy scriptures. They definitely had zeal and fervor. They had all the tools and still when Christ was crucified they bailed. Jumped ship and dissipated in the wind. Why? because I believe we are forget on key ingredient to the proper seasoning of this meal. The most important person and that is the Holy Spirit. He does so much behind the scenes work that gives on stage results it is mesmerizing. without the HS we too will fail and give up. We can have the other ingredients and still miss the "salt" that gives the soup that mmmm mmmm taste. But here's the thing. The HS can't be an afterthought. Jesus did not give the disciples, and us for that matter, the HS as an afterthought. Just because in the bible it looked that way does not mean it was so. Check it out!!
Jesus had been preaching and teaching to these disciples the entire time that he was not going to be with them long. He had a method and a reason as to every detail and lesson that came to light. If the Lord Jesus knew his death was prescribed necessarily. Then he also knew that once it is said and done after his resurrection and ascension back into heaven; that we would need a helper to guide us and strengthen us. He knew that all the scripture and faith and fervor and desire in the world was not going to be enough to get us over that finish line. We too would give up when we get to our destination thinking we have arrived only to find out that there is one last obstacle before us. The HS must had come to our aid.
In the movie one hobbit didn't give up. One hobbit did not consider the quest as reward enough. When everyone else tucked tail, he stood. He kept searching and thinking and revisiting the text. Then all of a sudden the last light of the day was shone to reveal the key...it was the moonlight. There is a lot in the scriptures we just do not understand and may never do until the HS reveals it to us when the time is right. These dwarfs read that map at least a good 100 times. memorized it, heck they probably even dreamed about it. Like the King, we sure of what we know and studied and read in the bible. But what happens when what we think or believe runs smack dab into that wall. All that the Lord has given us is to point us in the path to go. It doesn't mean that we will know everything because it has guided us thus far. Let us follow God's word with such faith, hope, zeal and fervor. But let us not forget that we need the Holy Spirit of God as well to guide our faith, hope, zeal and fervor correctly. Without the HS we are truly lost. - Be blessed and a blessing.
No comments:
Post a Comment