If you’ve grown up in the Church, I’m sure you like me have seen many accounts of the story of Jonah. Veggie Tales has to be my favorite! Recently I was given a DVD of a Jonah play, though it was really good, it is still not Veggie Tales! These are by far not the only two depictions of this story, there are many more! The story of Jonah is one every preacher has a sermon series on at one point or another in their ministry; if not multiple times. It’s broken up so nicely and has so much great stuff that, in the words of Dr. Owens, “that’ll preach!” God’s dangerous calling, running away, forgiveness, grace, mercy, repentance, on God’s end as well as ours, are just a few topics I’ve heard over the years, and there are so much more. Such a rich book!

As I was rereading it the other day, it hit me how much creative liberty one must take to really make this into a play, skit, or movie and have it longer than 20 minutes and not completely boring. There is a lot that one may be able to imply from the culture and conclusions from the text, but from the actual text itself, there isn’t a lot there for production and entertainment sake. (I really do wish there was a worm that traveled and talked with Jonah and went flying in a bowling ball the way Veggie Tales has it, but sadly there is not.) But that’s the case with the vast majority of “Bible” based movies.

I find myself extremely guarded when new Christian movies come out. Looking at the Biblical text itself, there is generally not enough to make it into a movie to accurately portray the events and everything happening. There is always creative liberty taken which leaves the viewers guessing at what is Biblical and what is added. I have not seen the Noah movie but from what I gather the only commonality between the movie and the Biblical story is that there is a guy named Noah, the similarities stop there! And yet I cannot begin to count the number of times I’ve heard, “I saw this in (insert any Christian movie), is that true? Is that really in the Bible?”

I’ll be the first to admit, I’d much rather watch a movie than read a book. I am a slow reader and it has always been a struggle for me. But when it comes to the Biblical text, nothing, absolutely nothing can replace the text. And yes, if I had my way I’d study a lot more Hebrew and Greek and textual variants and the history of the text and really look as closely to the original as possible. I am not skill or wise enough to do so. Therefore, I trust God to use better people than me and trust they are doing their best interpreting and translating the text.

Now if that confused you a bit, that’s ok. I say all that to say this; as Christians, we must always have our guard up with everything we read and watch, especially with what claims to be Biblical or based on Scripture. Everything must be seen through a scriptural lens formed by scripture itself, not Hollywood’s or some author’s portrayal of it. We MUST be students of the Bible, reading it rereading it daily to simply know the difference and know what God’s Word really does say.

Sometimes we must be on guard against our own understanding or interpretation of the text. It is so incredibly easy for us to read what we want into the text we become convinced something is there when it is not. People have been doing this for centuries and will continue. Millions have been led astray from this kind of false teaching and interpretations. There is too great of consequences for us not to take God’s Word serious and devote time to understanding it. This is not merely the task of ministers and Bible College professors, but of every person who acknowledges God as creator and sustainer or life and Christ as their Lord and Savior. Let us not take this task lightly!!