Defiance

I went to see the movie Defiance the other day, and recommend it to you. Its the true story of Russian Jews led by 4 brothers who all (1200 of them!) survived the Holocaust by hiding in the forest. The people endured multiple winters, sickness, and starvation. In one scene a Jewish rabbii led a prayer asking God to depart from them because they no longer wanted to be His special people - they no longer wanted to be a people set apart for Him because all it had brought them was suffering.

At one point the Germans were attacking them, and they fled the camp that they had built, and had to cross a boggy region reminiscent of the red sea. Before crossing the bog, one of the brothers declared to the people that God would not save them, He would not provide a miracle as He did for Moses, rather they must save themselves.

Honestly, I was looking for something a little more inspirational! Faithful is not how I would describe these men and women.

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Today I had the privilege of reading the first lesson and psalm at our Sunday worship service. The first lesson from Deuteronomy 18:15-20 described a people strikingly similar to those in the film. In today's passage, Moses told the Jews that God would send them another prophet like himself, reminding them of what they had asked of God at Mount Horeb - "Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die." They too, out of fear, wanted God to depart from them.

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After the Russian Jews crossed the bog, the Jewish rabbi, lying on the ground to die, tells the eldest brother that he had almost lost his faith, b/c he thought that God had abandoned them, but then realized that he (the brother) was their miracle - their Moses - sent to them by God! Though the people were unfaithful, this one man (often doubting himself) persisted. Hebrews 11 recounts the heroes of the faith - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. - but they are not representative of the Jewish people - they are the exceptions - the ones through whom God saved His people. God's people have never been faithful - the film's inspiration comes instead from the Lord's faithfulness to so defiant and obstinate of a people.