There are two different types of people in the world. They are those that love books, and those that love movies. I am definitely the later. I used to read books when I was younger, but those days have passed.
Movies are like modern day prophets. If you want to see our possible future, all you have to do is watch a movie.
I run a podcast called “God in the Movies”. I love to watch a movie and try to find a “Thing of God” in it. One that is very interesting, is actually a TV series, called the “Rings of Power”.
Disclaimer – If you are not yet watched the series final of The Rings of Power, please note this article contains spoilers.
The Rings of Power is a prequel to the “Lord of the Rings”. On a side note, the TV series was not created by the same folks that did the Lord of the Rings movie, so they don’t have rights to the story. This is why they could not use any of the same characters, and much of the story is changed as well. But I digress.
The series goes back in time to explain the origins of the rings that were given to the various races in middle earth, and how Sauron manipulated and gained control of them.
We seem to think that evil is stupid. It does seems pretty stupid to fight so hard against something that you know is going to fail. But this is the downfall of evil. It always overplays its hand out of overconfidence and arrogance.
In the series, there are several things that stand out to me as “Things of God”. One of them is the meteorman. The meteor man is the guy that fell from the stars. Throughout the first season, people have been trying to figure out who this meteor man really is.
Most of us figured out from early on that the meteor man was either Saramon or Gandolph. The smart money was on Gandolph.
Three witches, that have been appearing on and off thorough the 1st season, confront the meteor man and tell him that they are there to serve him. They go on to explain that he was cast down from the stars.
Unfortunately, they don’t tell us why. This makes me think of Satan that was cast out of heaven because he tried to overthrow God. I’m very curious to learn the backstory here.
In the season finale, the three witches convince meteor man that he is in fact, Lord Sauron. Sauron can’tyet control his power, so the witches bind him.
When the harfoot Nori comes along to rescue the meteor man, he tells Nori to get away because the witches told him what he is. Nouri very wisely tells the meteor man that only he himself can decide who he is by what he does. In other words, he can choose whether he’s going to be good or evil.
This is a teaching straight out of the Bible. It’s something all of us must do. Satan cannot tell you who you are. You must choose if you wish to be evil or good. It’s called free will.
“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve….”
Joshua 24:14-15
It’s after this encounter, rescue, and because of other things the meteor man says and does that we knowthat in fact he is Gandolph. Why the three witches mistake the meteor man for Sauron, we are not told.This is another thing that I hope is explained in season 2.
The other Thing of God in the series is “Deception”. The people in the movie thought they were doing the right thing. They thought that they were on the side of good, but Sauron was able to use them to get hiswill done.
From the very beginning of the series, we were all trying to figure out which character Sauron is. Some thought that the meteor man was Sauron. We then began to see many hints throughout the series that it could be Lord Halbrand. All the time we were thinking, No this cannot be!
Halbrand has to be good because he is aligned with the elf Galadriel. Surely a very old and wise elf would know if she were being deceived, right? In the season finale we learned that indeed she was deceived. Lord Halbrand is Sauron and wants Galadriel to be his queen.
This is something that happens today all too often. Satan has a very well-orchestrated scheme on how to tempt us and how to win. We think that we can outsmart evil, and that we’re doing good. All the while we can sometimes unwittingly serve the schemes of evil.
Evil can be very difficult to spot. There are many people in power today that we think are good. Politicians, Evangelists, Pastors, Cops, Republicans, Democrats, whites, people of color and everyone in between. Evil does not discriminate.
It can become very difficult to tell evil from good. Especially when people can change sides on a dime. Even the Bible tells us of this difficulty.
“And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
2 Corinthians 11:14
Not everything you see in the movies is good, correct, or Godly, but if you look close enough, often you can find a Thing of God!
Phillip
